Millau Bridge, France

Millau Viaduct: The World’s Tallest Road Bridge

The Millau Viaduct opened in December 2004, designed by Norman Foster and structural engineer Michel Virlogeux. It carries the A75 motorway across the Tarn Valley in the Massif Central, connecting Paris to the Mediterranean coast via a route that previously required descending 270 metres into the valley and climbing back out, causing chronic congestion at the town of Millau below. The bridge eliminated that bottleneck.

The statistics are worth knowing because they explain why the structure looks so dramatic from a distance. The viaduct is 2,460 metres long. Its highest pylon top is 343 metres above the valley floor — 23 metres taller than the Eiffel Tower. The road deck itself sits at 270 metres at its highest point. In autumn and spring, cloud and mist regularly sit at lower altitudes in the valley while the bridge deck is above them in sunlight, producing the impression of a road suspended over fog.

Seeing the Bridge

Driving across it costs a toll (around €10 for a car), which most visitors consider worth doing. The experience from the driver’s seat is less dramatic than the view from below — the guard rails limit the view — but the approach through the pylons gives a sense of the engineering at close range.

The better views are from the valley floor and from the surrounding landscape. The A75 southbound approach has several official viewpoints with car parks, particularly around La Cavalerie on the Causse du Larzac plateau north of the bridge. The visitor centre at the Aire de Service du Viaduc, about 4km north of the bridge on the motorway, has exhibits on the construction and good views from the terrace.

Walking or cycling paths in the valley below provide ground-level perspectives. The bridge is best photographed in morning light from the west bank of the Tarn, where the valley floor is flat enough to give a full view of all seven pylons.

Millau Town

The town of Millau itself, 270 metres below the bridge in the Tarn Valley, is a market town of about 22,000 people that has been in the leather and glove-making business since the 12th century. The old town is compact and has a good covered market. Roquefort cheese is produced in limestone caves about 20km southwest; the cheese caves at Roquefort-sur-Soulzon are open to visitors.

The Causse du Larzac plateau above Millau is granite-and-limestone upland used for sheep grazing — the same sheep that produce the milk for Roquefort. The landscape is open, windy, and good for cycling.

Getting There

Millau is on the A75 between Clermont-Ferrand (about 2 hours north) and Montpellier (about 1 hour south). The nearest rail station is Millau, connected to Paris by TGV via Montpellier in about 5-6 hours. By car from Paris the A75 takes about 6 hours and the toll for the viaduct itself is a minor part of the journey cost.