La Valette Boutique
Sanilhac-Sagriès, 30700 Gard, France
The largest Roman archaeological site open to the public in France, a single-arch bridge that survived a flood that destroyed almost everything else, and a medieval hilltop town stacked directly above it. About an hour and a quarter from Uzès.
Vaison-la-Romaine is a Roman and medieval town in the Vaucluse, about an hour and a quarter from La Valette Boutique. Two excavated Roman quarters, Puymin and La Villasse, cover fifteen hectares in the lower town, more open ground than any other Roman site in France, while a Roman bridge nearly two thousand years old carries traffic up to a medieval hilltop town of ramparts, a belfry and a count's castle. It is not UNESCO-listed, unlike some of its Roman neighbours, but the scale and the layering of two very different eras in one small town are hard to match nearby.
| Location | Vaucluse, Provence |
|---|---|
| Region | Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur |
| UNESCO status | Not UNESCO-listed |
| Distance from Uzès | 85 km · about 1h15 by car |
| Nearest airport | Avignon (AVN), about 55 min |
| Typical visit | Half a day to a full day |
| Known for | The largest Roman archaeological site open to the public in France |
| Market day | Tuesday morning, one of the largest in the Vaucluse |
| Gateway to | Mont Ventoux, about 20 minutes further |
About an hour and a quarter away
We expected a Roman site behind a fence. What we found instead was fifteen hectares of excavated town spread across two neighbourhoods, Puymin and La Villasse, with the modern town built around and between them rather than sealed off from them. It is the largest archaeological site of its kind open to the public in France, and it does not feel like a museum piece; it feels like a town that happens to have kept its foundations visible.
The Roman bridge is the detail that stayed with us longest. In September 1992 a flash flood on the Ouvèze killed forty-two people and destroyed buildings and bridges across the town; the Roman bridge, built in the first century AD, lost its parapets but held. It still carries traffic today, the way it has for close to two thousand years.
For current opening hours, ticket prices and festival dates, the official site, provenceromaine.com, is the one to check before you go.
What it is
The Puymin and La Villasse sites hold the remains of grand Roman houses, public baths, a colonnaded street and the Maison des Messii, alongside a theatre built in the first century AD under Claudius that seated around six thousand people. Excavation only began in 1907, led by a local priest, Abbé Sautel; the town's name officially gained "-la-Romaine" in the 1920s once the scale of what he had found became clear.
Cross the Roman bridge and the town changes eras entirely. The Haute-Ville, the medieval upper town, climbs the hill behind its own ramparts to a belfry with sweeping views and the ruins of the counts of Toulouse's castle at the summit, a fortified refuge built after the lower Roman town was abandoned in the early Middle Ages.
Standing on a bridge the Romans built, watching traffic cross it as it has for two thousand years, while a flood that erased almost everything modern around it left this one structure standing, is not something a photograph quite gets across.La Valette Boutique, about 1h15 away
Beyond the basics
When to go
The archaeological sites are outdoors and largely unshaded, so timing matters more here than in a compact old town.
Comfortable temperatures for walking the open excavation sites and climbing to the Haute-Ville, without the summer heat radiating off stone and gravel paths.
July and August can be genuinely hot across the unshaded Puymin and La Villasse sites. Visit early or late, and keep the Tuesday market and a long lunch for the middle of the day.
The main car park at Place Burrus becomes the Tuesday market, one of the largest in the Vaucluse. Wonderful if that is what you came for; plan an alternative car park otherwise.
Practical information
Full day combinations
Two very different kinds of Roman remains, half an hour apart: the excavated town and medieval upper town of Vaison-la-Romaine, then the intact theatre wall of Orange.
For cyclists or anyone who wants the view, the Malaucène ascent of Mont Ventoux starts within easy reach of Vaison-la-Romaine, making the two a natural full day.
The jagged limestone ridges of the Dentelles de Montmirail and the villages around them, including well-known wine estates, sit just south of Vaison-la-Romaine.
Time the trip around Tuesday morning, when the market fills the streets near Place Burrus, then spend the afternoon in the archaeological sites once the stalls have packed up.
Yes, though it is a longer trip than most of the region's Roman sites: about an hour and a quarter by car. In return you get the largest Roman archaeological site open to the public in France and a medieval hilltop town in the same visit.
About 85 km, roughly an hour and a quarter by car.
No. Unlike Arles, Orange and the Maison Carrée in Nîmes, Vaison-la-Romaine's Roman remains are not on the UNESCO list, despite their scale.
Yes. The flash flood of September 1992 killed forty-two people and destroyed much newer structures across the town, but the first-century Roman bridge lost only its parapets and remains in use today.
Tuesday morning. With over four hundred stallholders in summer, it is one of the largest weekly markets in the Vaucluse.
Yes. Mont Ventoux's Malaucène ascent starts close to Vaison-la-Romaine, and Orange is about half an hour away, so either pairs well with a morning among the ruins.
La Valette Boutique is in the Gard, about an hour and a quarter from Vaison-la-Romaine and five minutes from Uzès. Two boutique apartments in an 18th-century stone house.
Enquire about your dates