La Valette Boutique
Sanilhac-Sagriès, 30700 Gard, France
Uzès repays focus. This is the version we would plan for ourselves: specific times, specific places, and opinions about what matters and what can be skipped. Base: La Valette Boutique, 5 minutes south.
Two days around Uzès comfortably cover the Saturday market on the Place aux Herbes, a visit to the Pont du Gard fifteen minutes away, a swim in the Gardon river, and a meal in the old town. A second day allows a nearby village such as Saint-Quentin-la-Poterie, or the Gorges du Gardon. Uzès sits in the Gard, in Occitanie, five minutes from La Valette Boutique.
Saturday · 8h30
Arrive before 9h30. The Saturday market on the Place aux Herbes has been running since 1241. It fills the main square and several of the streets behind it. The producers arrive early; the best things — the Cévennes cheese, the seasonal fruit, the Gard olive oil — go before 10h30. Buy first, then take a table under the arcades with a coffee and whatever you have just bought. This is the correct order of operations.
Saturday · 10h–13h
Uzès is compact. The old town — built from pale golden limestone that looks best in morning light — takes three to four hours to walk properly. The ducal complex, the Tour Fenestrelle (the only cylindrical Romanesque tower in France), the medieval garden behind the cathedral, the Eure valley below the town where the Roman aqueduct source was. The tourist office on the square has a free walking map. Most of what matters is within 10 minutes on foot.
Saturday evening
La Table d'Uzès, inside the hotel of the same name, is the most serious kitchen in the town. Book well in advance in summer. For something less formal: La Parenthèse on the Place aux Herbes serves good local cooking with a terrace that fills up on warm evenings. The bars around the square stay open late. Uzès is a town that eats well and without pretension.
Sunday · 8h
Leave the house at 8h. The Pont du Gard is 15 minutes away. The car park opens early. Before 9h30, the site is quiet — the coaches from Nîmes and Avignon do not arrive until mid-morning. The morning light on the limestone is different from the afternoon glare. Walk the lower tier, find the path that follows the Gardon upstream, look at the engineering from below. This is the version of the visit that people who have been twice prefer.
Sunday afternoon
Two options depending on the season and what you want. Option one: Collias, 10 minutes from La Valette, is the best swimming spot on the Gardon — clear river, rocky banks, fewer visitors than the Pont du Gard beach. Bring shoes for the rocks. Option two: Saint-Quentin-la-Poterie, 15 minutes north of Uzès, is a village whose ceramics tradition dates to the medieval period. The ateliers are still working — not souvenir shops but genuine workshops. Charlotte Casanas, whose tableware is in La Valette, works here.
Where to stay
La Valette Boutique is in Sanilhac-Sagriès, a village 5 minutes south of Uzès. Two apartments: La Grande Valette (2 bedrooms, 4 guests) and La Petite Valette (1 bedroom, 2 guests). Direct booking only: bonjour@lavaletteboutique.com.
The Cévennes cheese (from the smaller producers on the south side of the square), olive oil from the valley below Uzès, fresh pasta from the corner of the square. Buy early — the best things disappear before 10h30.
A thorough walk of the old town takes three to four hours. A Saturday morning combining the market and the town is a full and satisfying day.
Saturday: arrive before the market closes at 13h, spend the afternoon in the old town, dine in Uzès. Sunday: drive to the Pont du Gard before 9h30, spend the morning at the aqueduct, swim in the Gardon at Collias in the afternoon. Stay at La Valette Boutique, 5 minutes from Uzès.
Yes, particularly in summer. La Table d'Uzès books up weeks in advance in July and August. Most mid-range restaurants accept bookings by phone on the day; walking in without a reservation in high season is possible but unreliable.
5 minutes from the market. 15 from the Pont du Gard. Direct booking.
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