Day 21 - Monday, February 17 - We take the train to Nîmes, an ancient Roman town, explore an 2000 year-old coliseum, bask in the warm weather and deep history of the place. Sunny 59°F (15°C)
Today we caught the 11:00am Train to Nîmes.
We are getting used to taking the train places now. The station wasn't very busy.
Finally the train arrived:
Gotta love reserved seats! The 25 minute ride cost 33.20 Euro for round trip tickets.
Nîmes is a small town to the north east of Montpellier. We chose to visit because there are quite a few old Roman ruins there. Brief description from Google:
Nîmes, a city in the Occitanie region of southern France, was an important outpost of the Roman Empire. It’s known for well-preserved Roman monuments such as the Arena of Nîmes, a double-tiered circa-70 A.D. amphitheater still in use for concerts and bullfights. Both the Pont du Gard tri-level aqueduct and the Maison Carrée white limestone Roman temple are around 2,000 years old.
What we didn't realize was how much open areas there are. Nîmes has an abundance of public space which is a nice change from the closed in feelings of old town Toulouse and Montpellier.
Directly upon walking out of the train station:
There's a long boulevard with a fountain / river / canal down the centre:
At the end of the long boulevard is a big open park area, with the Fontaine Pradier in the middle. A kind stranger offered to snap a photo of us by the fountain.
To the west of the park is the incredible Amphitheare of Nîmes, also known as the Arènes de Nîmes. It is really striking:
This 2000 year old amphitheatre looks a lot like the coliseum in Rome.
We decided to leave exploring the amphitheatre until later, as it was almost lunch-time, and we were hungry!
We wandered through some narrow streets:
Saw some interesting topiary:
Found Bar 421 and appreciated the tile art:
We found a statue that seemed made of old excavation parts
And everywhere we saw the symbol shown on this marker:
It looks like an alligator with a sheaf of wheat on his back. Turns out, it's a palm tree. According to Google:
The symbol of Nîmes, France is a crocodile chained to a palm tree. This symbol commemorates Rome's victory over Egypt in the Battle of Actium in 31 BCE.
The symbol was on a coin that was minted in Nîmes.
We found a tiny lunch counter making hot pastrami sandwiches and couldn't say no.
So good! We found a spot to sit and eat in the sun. So not French but who cares? We had ruins to see.
We walked northwest to Les Jardins de La Fontaine and wow. We first encountered the canal that lead up to the park.
We followed it for a while. It was full of fish!
Can only imagine how pretty this would be in the spring and summer with the leaves out
The park backs up against an outcropping, and we walked up to get a view overlooking the whole thing:
There was such an interesting water feature:
We later learned that all this water supported the textiles industry here.
It was so pretty! We climbed up into the forest to explore
and found this ruin, which is believed to either be a temple to maybe Diana, but also could be a library.
We then wandered through some more streets, searching out a ruin that was part of the old aqueduct system in Nîmes. It was kind of non-descript when we came across it:
Added bonus of some sleepy cats dozing in the sun
Made a video to show how this thing is just in the middle of a neighborhood
After that, we were ready for something a little more impressive, so we headed to Maison Carrée of Nîmes
Now that's a Roman Temple!
The Maison Carrée is one of the earliest examples of a Roman temple which can be connected to the imperial worship in the provinces of Rome. Dedicated to the presumptive heirs of Augustus, the princes of Youth, prematurely deceased, this building confirmed the control of Rome on the conquered territory while expressing in a symbolic way the allegiance and attachment of the people from the city of Nemausus to Augustus’ dynasty.
It was impressive! I mean, this is what you come to Europe for - 2000 year old temple!
Finally, we headed to the Arena!
Up close it was so interesting to see the detail and think of how ancient it is.
Inside, there was a tour, but it was quite a lot of people and in French, so we went our own way and explored. Incredible.
The detail - you can see where they've restored some of it:
But the archways!
And when we climbed up the inside was still beautiful
And the view from the stands. The Arena of Nîmes was built shortly after the Colosseum in Rome and is one of the best-preserved Roman amphitheatres in the world. It was built around 100 CE, and of the 400 Roman amphitheaters in existence it ranks in the top 20 largest. Go Nîmes!
The people on the tour lol. Apparently Dua Lipa performed here last year.
Yes, they still use this place for shows and performances. And climbing to the top to see the view was just wow.
What a beautiful day!
We really loved Nîmes!
After exploring all over the amphitheatre, we headed back toward the train station.
We found a small kiosk and grabbed some coffee and chocolate mousse and ok maybe a croissant too. We sat in the sun, people watching and it was lovely.
Took some pictures while waiting for the train.
A great day in Nîmes!
