The Castries Aquaduct

The view from above Castries towards Pic St Loup


The aqueduct winds through the countryside for some considerable distance

My tour guide and translator

The Castries Aqueduct on the edge of town

In nearby Castries, we have often driven under the arches that span the road going through town which carried the old aqueduct, but we have never thought too much about where it goes to and where it comes from. With a chilly north wind blowing earlier today, we decided to make the most of a lull this afternoon and enjoy a walk in the sunshine, and something on our list of things to explore has been an exposed area of what we thought was part of the aqueduct that ended in the arches in Castries.

The first thing we did was to go and read the information board situated under one of the arches on the edge of town and discovered that the aqueduct once carried water from far away St Mathieu de Treviers. According to the board, some fellow who owned the land where the original spring of water came from, sold the rights to the water in exchange for a pair of gloves!

There were once over 100 arches, some of which were 20 metres high which carried the water to the huge Chateau in Castries which is currently undergoing refurbishment In other areas - like the one we found, the water flowed through the stone furrow at ground level, an amazing piece of engineering considering that it was built in the 1700's. For the entire length of it's journey, the water only had a slope of 3 metres overall, and the fact that it ran through such pretty countryside was a real bonus for us.