The Pont du Diable
An eleventh-century Romanesque bridge on the Hérault, UNESCO-listed, and its swimming basin.
The Pont du Diable crosses the Hérault at the exact point where the river leaves the gorges, between Aniane and Saint-Jean-de-Fos. It is among the oldest surviving medieval bridges in France, built in the eleventh century by the monks of the abbeys of Gellone and Aniane so that pilgrims could cross the river on the road to Santiago.
Its name comes from the legend usually attached to bridges of this kind: the devil, having agreed to build it in exchange for the first soul to cross, is cheated by the sending of a dog or a cat. The same story attaches to a dozen or so bridges across Europe, which takes nothing away from this one.
The bridge is inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage list as part of the Routes of Santiago de Compostela in France, and is best visited together with Saint-Guilhem-le-Désert a few kilometres upstream: it is the same outing and the same road.
Below the bridge the Hérault widens into a broad green basin fringed with pebble beaches. It is one of the best-known swimming spots in the department, with everything that implies: glorious early in the morning or in June, extremely busy on a Sunday in August. A managed car park and a Grand Site visitor centre organise access in high season, and you reach the river on foot from there.
For a group this is a stop rather than a day: an hour on site, a swim, then on towards Saint-Guilhem. If you want a quiet swim rather than a spectacular one, stay on the Hérault beaches upstream, immediately next to the property.
