Millau Bridge, France

The Millau Viaduct: The Bridge That Goes Above the Clouds

On autumn mornings in the Tarn Valley, a weather phenomenon occurs that justifies the Millau Viaduct’s most striking claim. Low cloud and mist settle in the valley floor, and the bridge deck floats above them in sunlight. The highest pylon top reaches 343 metres – 23 metres taller than the Eiffel Tower – and the road deck sits at 270 metres at its maximum. This is not metaphor. The bridge genuinely passes above cloud level on a regular basis, and the photographs of it emerging from morning mist above the valley look doctored but aren’t.

The viaduct opened in December 2004, designed by Norman Foster with structural engineering by Michel Virlogeux. It carries the A75 motorway across the Tarn Valley in the Massif Central, eliminating a 270-metre descent and climb that caused chronic congestion at the town of Millau below every summer. The engineering solution to a traffic problem produced what is arguable the most beautiful motorway infrastructure in Europe.

The structure is 2,460 metres long, supported by seven pylons. The engineering detail that most visitors don’t know until they look it up: the bridge deck was assembled on the valley floor and then rolled out horizontally over temporary supports, sliding it into position section by section rather than building it from above. The whole deck movement across the span took months.

Seeing the Bridge

Driving across it costs a toll of around EUR 10 for a car, which most visitors consider worth doing. The approach through the pylons gives a sense of the engineering at close range, though the guard rails limit the view from the road itself.

The better views are from below. The A75 southbound approach has several official viewpoints with car parks on the Causse du Larzac plateau north of the bridge. The visitor centre at the Aire de Service du Viaduc, about 4 kilometres north on the motorway, has exhibits on the construction and good views from the terrace. The most photogenic angle is from the west bank of the Tarn on the valley floor, morning light, all seven pylons visible.

Walking and cycling paths in the valley give ground-level perspectives that the motorway cannot.

Millau and Roquefort

The town of Millau, 270 metres below the bridge in the Tarn Valley, has been in the leather and glove-making business since the 12th century. The old town is compact and the covered market is worth a walk. The real food reason to be in this part of the world is Roquefort cheese, produced in limestone caves about 20 kilometres southwest at Roquefort-sur-Soulzon. The cheese caves are open to visitors and the tour is brief and informative. The sheep grazing on the Causse du Larzac plateau above Millau produce the milk used for the cheese; the landscape and the food have a logical connection that most food tourism cannot claim.

Getting There

Millau is on the A75 between Clermont-Ferrand (about 2 hours north) and Montpellier (about 1 hour south). The nearest rail station connects to Paris by TGV via Montpellier in about 5 to 6 hours. By car from Paris the A75 takes about 6 hours. The toll for the viaduct itself is a small fraction of the overall journey cost and is worth paying in both directions for the experience.