Last year I visited the amazing Millau viaduct for the first time. I knew it was big and I knew it was beautiful but being on it, under it, close to it… it just takes your breath away.

Here are my photos, taken on a beautiful day last September.

Driving up the A75 from the south is a perfect way to approach the bridge if you want to get stunning photos but it’s difficult to get all 7 masts in the picture at the same time.

The vast masts rise like sails above the road. We’re just passing the first one here.

With the sun behind us, the sky was looking amazing and the bridge so clean and white. Coming up to the 3rd mast here.

And on to the 4th.

You don’t want it to end. It’s just beautiful, all 2.4 km of it.

And the countryside on the north side of the river Tarn comes into view as you approach the last couple of masts.

It’s difficult to get a sense of how high up you are when travelling across the viaduct but keep scrolling down for more photos to show just that.

There’s a motorway service area on the north side of the valley and guess what – everyone stops there for another photo opportunity.

The viaduct was designed by French structural engineer Michel Virlogeux and British architect Norman Foster and is the tallest bridge in the world.

What a great place to stop and have a picnic lunch.

After crossing, we doubled back on ourselves to get the views of the viaduct from the valley road.

We picked a small country road, rather than the main ‘route national’ so that we could stop many times and get more fabulous views.

And a sense of how tall this piece of engineering really is. The tallest mast rises 343 metres up from the base of the structure and the deck (or road) is 270 metres above the ground below.

Passing underneath it and looking back into the sun.

This village, built into the rocks overlooking the Tarn, has a wonderful view back towards the viaduct too. We went almost off road in this place and then up over the hills and across country into the Massif Central.

All the time looking back, we could still see the bridge.

I love this quote from Coco Chanel:
“Fashion is not something that exists in dresses only. Fashion is in the sky, in the street, fashion has to do with ideas, the way we live, what is happening.”

I think the Millau Viaduct is the most gorgeous, stylish, beautiful, ‘fashion in the sky’ bridge in the world. What do you think?

Sadly, my Bags On Tour photo didn’t really work with this landmark. We had fun trying to get one though 🙂