Top 10 small heritage sites

"Miller, are you asleep?"

Two mills, one from the 17th century, the other from the 18th century, stand proudly on the Place des Aires. The expertise of the Compagnons du Tour de France has enabled the restoration of one of these mills, making it operational and capable of producing flour.

The basketry festival held every summer and a visit to the museum revive memories of this craft that once brought glory to Vallabrègues. It's a pleasant stroll through this charming village, so dear to the poet Frédéric Mistral.

Several bridges have been built to cross the Petit Rhône: a Roman bridge, a ferry, a floating bridge, and then, in 1828, a metal suspension bridge built using techniques developed by Marc Seguin. 157 meters long, it is today the last of the eight bridges built between 1825 and 1830 still in service on the Rhône.

A small town located "between the south of the reeds and the south of the stones" according to Daudet, Bellegarde has 16 fountains including the lion fountain built in the 19th century, a former unmissable meeting place for washerwomen.

Today located at the roadside, this Gothic-style monument, unique in the region, attracts attention and curiosity. It protected a cross, now preserved at the Auguste Jacquet Museum. Decorated with a representation of the two donors: the Duke of Berry and his wife Jeanne.

A stop is a must on the road between Beaucaire and Nîmes to discover this Romanesque-style chapel. Originally built in the 11th century, this building is one of the most curious sanctuaries in the region, the only remaining vestige of an old fishing hamlet once located on the edge of a marsh drained in the 19th century.

Located on the Broussan estate, just outside Bellegarde, on the road to Saint Gilles du Gard, this priory, built in the 11th or 12th century, is dedicated to Saint Vincent. Damaged during the Wars of Religion in the 16th century and later used as a farm building, this charming building, a listed historic monument, has undergone restoration work.

Along the road linking Beaucaire to Arles, in the immediate vicinity of the Via Rhôna, a late Romanesque chapel, built in the 13th century, an annex to the Saint Paul church in Beaucaire, is a testimony to an ancient hamlet.

The first building on the fortress site to be classified as a historic monument after having been used as a toril, this castle chapel known as "Saint Louis" is in the late Romanesque style. It retains an elegant bell tower composed of bays and small columns, decorated with sculpted capitals and mascarons.

Located today on the exterior wall of the Church of Saint Andrew, this carved stone bas-relief dating from the 12th century comes from the decoration of the first church in the village destroyed in 1666 by a flood of the Rhône. The Mystic Lamb represented in the center is surrounded by the symbols of the four evangelists each holding a book.