Millau Viaduct: The Tallest Bridge in the World, in the Right Valley

The approach from the north on the A75 is the correct way to see the Millau Viaduct for the first time. You crest a rise and the full structure appears ahead of you, spanning the Tarn valley at a height that seems wrong in the way that anything too large for its context seems wrong. The tallest mast rises 343 metres above the valley floor, 19 metres higher than the Eiffel Tower. Norman Foster designed it; the French engineer Michel Virlogeux developed the structural concept. It opened in December 2004 and still holds the record for the world’s tallest bridge.

The viaduct carries the A75 autoroute and bypassed a notoriously bad bottleneck that had plagued the Paris-Montpellier route for decades. Before December 2004, summer queues through the town of Millau below could run to hours. Now the traffic passes 270 metres above the valley floor and the town has its main street back. The toll is around €12 in summer season. It is worth paying even if you are not travelling between Paris and Montpellier.

Seeing It Properly

The best ground-level views are from the belvedere viewpoint on the D992, north of the bridge. The car park is well-signed, the viewing platform puts you at roughly deck elevation, and you see the full span of 2,460 metres with the masts and cables clearly visible. Early morning gives soft light on the structure; late afternoon shadows the valley below while the upper structure catches western sun.

Guided walking tours onto the bridge footpath are organised by the Millau tourist office during summer (July-August, specific dates vary). Fee around €10 per person, departure from the toll plaza. This is the only way to stand on the bridge itself and look down at the Tarn.

Inside the toll plaza, a small exhibition covers the engineering history.

Millau Town and Surroundings

Millau (population around 22,000) is built at the confluence of the Tarn and Dourbie rivers. The old town has a covered market and a glove-making tradition going back centuries; Millau gloves are made from the leather of the same lambs whose milk makes Roquefort cheese 20km south. Several specialist shops on Avenue de la République still sell them, from around €80 per pair.

The Musée de Millau et des Grands Causses (€7) holds a major collection of Gallo-Roman ceramics from La Graufesenque, a 1st-century pottery production site just outside the city that in its heyday was exporting mass-produced tableware across the entire Roman Empire. The scale of the output from this one site is genuinely remarkable.

Roquefort-sur-Soulzon

20km south, the Roquefort caves. The Société company offers free cave tours (no booking required, year-round). The caves maintain a constant 8-9 degrees and 95% humidity through natural ventilation from fissures in the rock called fleurines. The blue mould, Penicillium roqueforti, occurs naturally in these caves and was used here long before anyone understood mycology. Buy a whole wheel in the adjacent shop: around €30-35 for a 2.5kg wheel that will last weeks.

Where to Stay

La Muse hotel near the hamlet of La Cresse has a terrace with direct views of the bridge’s southern section, from around €110 per night. The hotel restaurant serves regional food (confit de canard, aligot) at reasonable prices.

In Millau itself, La Braconne on rue du Mandarous does a plat du jour for €13-15 that is where locals eat lunch rather than visitors.