Vallon Pont d'Arc Property guide

You can come to Vallon Pont d’Arc, by the A7 motorway (Paris-Marseille, exiting in Bollene). By train, the TGV leads you from Paris to Nimes, where you will be able to catch a local train to Ales, Bagnols sur Ceze or Pont St Esprit. The nearest international airports are Montpellier-Mediterranee and Nimes-Ales-Camargue-Cevennes.

Vallon Pont d’Arc is a very lively city, organising many events all year long. There is for instance the Fete de l’Olivier, taking place every year in May, but also Fete de la Lavande, Fete de la Caillette, chestnut evenings called Castagnade, exhibitions about Prehistory (called les Journees de la Prehistoire), November open day at the Cave Chauvet, and lots of other exhibitions in the Castle-Town hall. Market day in Vallon is Thursday but there is also a night market every Tuesday. Every first Sunday of the month, Vallon houses a good quality flea market.

The city also organises sports events, the most important one being the “Raid Nature du Pont d’Arc”. It is a famous race, which combines canoeing, running and biking on two courses (71 km and 42 km) and gathers more than 1000 competitors every year in April. There is also of course the great Descente des Gorges, which is canoeing down the River Ardeche from Vallon to St Martin d’Ardeche. Here again there are different lengths of courses (from 6 km to 30 km) enabling every one to try this activity for 2 hours or two days!
The Cave Chauvet (10 km away) is very interesting to visit, giving evidence that the area has been densely populated since the year 30,000 B.C! The close village of La Bastide de Virac has a castle where you can visit the silk museum. The village of Orgnac-l’Aven has the world’s biggest caves being now the Cave and Regional Museum of Prehistory, where you can simply visit the grand site or take part in a speleological visit! The immense site of the Pont du Gard is not far from here, so are other Roman treasures scattered in the region.

Food and drinks
Local produce include goat cheeses, honey with delicate or intense flavors, Nougat, but also poultry and escargots! You can buy all those from the producers themselves on market days. The famous drink is local wine like Cotes du Rhone, Lirac or Tavel, Sirah, Chardonnay, Cabernet, Merlot, etc.