Nimes
When Barb was in the planning stages of this trip, Nimes was her first choice as a place to base ourselves for two weeks while we explored the south of France. It's pretty central to most of the things that were high on Barb's bucket list. She duly started to book an apartment on booking.com that seemed to fit most of our criteria. However the place she'd found could not confirm whether we would be on the ground floor as requested (no lift access) and also the parking option was some 500 metres away in a parking station. Nope!
So then Barb found another apartment in Montpellier. This one had both on-site parking and lift access, and Montpellier itself was accessible by plane or TGV train. Yay! Best laid plans however ....
.... the apartment she booked got water damaged and needed repairs. So only a couple of weeks before we left Australia we were changed by the same company to another apartment, still with lift and parking. It's been okay, but not the best.
Today we finally get to Nimes! Barb has a big list of sites for us to visit. Can we do it all in a day?
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When we arrive (that's the train station in the
background) we are immediately entranced
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| A long avenue of shady trees invites us to walk into town |
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Barb sits by a rill that travels the length of the avenue
A sign said non-potable but we saw kids playing in it happily!
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| Always love a good fountain! There were fountains everywhere. |
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There's a rather lovely church and garden too,
and yes, a carousel in the near distance |
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The Palais of Justice
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| The local war memorial |
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| The memorial has a beautiful mosaic floor |
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| Barb with bull statue. This is a bullfighting town. Barb was too shy to climb on. What! |
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| But here's what we really came to see .... the arena! |
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| We are here so early, there's hardly anyone around yet |
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| So we find a place for coffee and croissant and a wonderful view |
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| Avenue Victor Hugo is full of banners for the up-comming bullfight |
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We buy our tickets and enter the arena. Wow! It's big and more or less complete.
Rome and your Colosseum - eat your heart out! |
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| It's enough to give you vertigo we're so high up in the gods |
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| Must be time for a selfie |
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John climbs to the top on his hands and knees.
Barb can't .... those steps are really high and there are no rails! |
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Just how tall were these Romans? The steps are tall and steep.
We hold on to the wall for support. |
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A Roman site still in use
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Our next stop after the magnificent
Arennes (Arena) is the museum across the road. It's housed in a very modern architectural structure at odds with the surrounding beautiful old buildings. Judge for yourself! Inside however was splendid! We spent quite a bit of time in the special exhibition of Etruscan era artefacts.
We'll have to make that a separate post all of its own. Barb, who knew precious little about the Etruscans other than a smattering learned at school in history and art lessons is now an Etruscan afficionado!
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That's the museum partially obscured by the bus that looks like a tram. No it hasn't got scaffolding around it, that's the architecture. As Barb's Mum used to say .... it's what's on the inside that
counts! Reminds John of the Selfridges building in Birmingham, but lacking the exquisite ugliness. |
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Culturally drained after the museum, we
re-inflate with drinks and a spot of lunch. |
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| After lunch we skilfully navigate our way down the wrong streets but happen upon a dig right in town |
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After consulting the map several times we chance
upon this lovely church .... and the right street!
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| Maison Carée - this is what we're after. But it's closed! |
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