Andre and Wendy: Nimes

Today we spent the day in Nimes. We took the train today, 35 minutes versus 1.5 hours by bus. We were waiting at the wrong train spot so glad we saw people moving to another area that just didn't seem to make sense, made it on with about 3 minutes to spare. We left on the 9:30AM train and caught the 5PM train back to Avignon.

Nimes is called the “Rome of France”, much better than the Venice of France that we visited the other day. The street Avignon Feucheres is a beautiful street right outside the train station that leads you to the main attractions in Nimes. The street is lined with beautiful trees that I'm sure are appreciated for shade in the warmer weather.

First stop was the Tourist Info for a map and some ideas on how to spend the day. We bought a pass for 3 of the attractions to visit, as well we were pointed to many other things to see. It is a great city to visit, plenty to see, we definitely could not do everything in 1 day.

We started with a visit to the Arena that is from the end of the first century AD, shortly after the Colosseum in Rome. It can seat 24,000 people. It is still used today for various activities, it was actually closed the last 2 days for private filming. David Bowie, Elton John and others have had concerts here. At one time there were actually people living in homes within the Arena, but they were all removed and it has been brought back to what it would have been like in the beginning. A great audio guide, and fun climbing all the different levels to hear different stores about the gladiators.

We moved on to Maison Carre, which was a temple. Very impressive from the outside, but only a few things to see on the inside. There were some sketches of what it would have been like in the 1^st century AD when it was built.

Next we moved very quickly through the Jardin de la Fontaine, you get there following along a very pretty canal again lined with trees. Jardin de la Fontaine has a pretty big hill that you need to climb to reach the Magne Tower that we wanted to visit but knew closed at 1PM and it is now 12:30. It was a tough climb up as we were moving fast, but we made it. Happy when we arrived that there was a group of 15 people already on top so he told us to have a seat for a few minutes until they started down, very happy to hear this. We were seated for about 30 seconds and another couple came in and he told them to come back at 2PM, not sure why he wouldn't let them come up with us, but I'm not questioning him. It was a group of kids with a teacher coming down, very funny watching a young teen totally overreacting on the stairs down with her friends holding her hands above and below here. This is one of the better places we have climbed, a nice hand rail the entire way! Made it to the top, 200 stairs each way, and were treated to beautiful views of the city. He told us we had to be back down at 1PM so we knew it was a quick visit. We were there for about 5 minutes and another couple arrived, not sure how the guy makes decisions who gets to go up and who doesn't when it was close to closing. Back down the 200 steps we go and spend some time going through the Jardin de la Fountaine, a beautiful park that lots of families and school groups are enjoying. Love that there are places to fill up water bottles from fountains in France.

Visited the Temple de Diane that is within the Jardin de la Fontaine, not sure what the 4 teens were doing behind the wall when we went in, pretty sure it wasn't good :) Again this is from the 1^st century.

Next went to Halles market for lunch, as usual we walk by many places on the way there but can't decide where to eat. Ended up at a counter in Halles market, I had poached salt cod and Andre had a local beef dish, both were very good.

Lunch done and we went to visit one of the original gates to the city, after being in Avignon with so many gates it wasn't that exciting. Moved on to see the point of arrival of the Aqueduct, one of only 2 remaining in the world, the other in Pompeii. We had seen pictures of this in Pont de Gard earlier last week, so it was nice to see in person.

Went into the old town and tiny streets, no where really in mind, always fun to just get a little lost. Found the Notre Dame Cathedral which the outside is under major renovations outside but you can still visit inside.

Found another entrance gate then headed back to the train station to get tickets for the train back to Avignon. Here you have to purchase which time you want to get on the train, different from Nice when you could board any train you wanted going to your destination.

First full train or bus since we have been here, maybe because it is 5PM on a Friday night. Quite a few people had little suitcases with them, must be off on trips for the weekend.

Back to the apartment by 6PM. No need for much for supper after our huge lunch and we are both too tired to go out on any adventures tonight. Tomorrows plans are to stay in Avignon so will explore more there tomorrow.

Steps today 25,000 or 15.75 km 43 floors, felt like 100 floors.

At the NImes train station