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Published: February 14th 2006
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Amphitheater at Nîmes
A lot nicer than the one I saw at Fréjus. Also still used for bull fights. Olay! The above title is a rhyme so you can pronounce Nimes correctly. I visited this city to the northwest of Aix for my research project on Roman ruins. It has the best preserved Roman amphitheater in France. It was a heck of a lot nicer than Frejus's, and bigger too.
This time I had company on my travels- Mollie came with me. We met at the train station to take a train to Marseille but the train was delayed by half an hour! We were in danger of missing our connection to Nimes, but then I had a brillant idea. We could take the bus to Marseille! So that's what we did. Adapted our plan and made it to the "train shed" with time to spare.
The ride to Nimes was much more crowded than my ride to Frejus and it was a good thing we reserved seats. We read most of the way there. By this time I was on King's "The Green Mile". So we got to Nimes and headed out to begin our adventure. When you leave the (very nice) Gare you walk down a wide boulevard that opens onto the Place de Gaulle. There's a
...And the crowd goes wild
Oh no! It's me! See Mom- I'm still alive! fountain in the middle and a church to the right and to the left you can already see the amphitheater. It was an impressive sight, with its two storeys intact and grand arches running all around. We walked up to it and around where we bought day passes that meant we could climb the Tour Magne in the Jardin des Fontaines too. We also got headsets in English to hear about the arena. We stayed there for an hour and climbed all round the place. This amphiteater is still used for bull fights. It was in incredible shape from what I could see. It's amazing to think that thousands of years later people still sit in the stands and cheer as they watch the mortal combat below.
We were really hungry after the arena, so we walked up the main drag looking for some food. We took a side street to look for cheaper places, but instead found the Maison Carree- the best preserved Roman temple outside of Italy. It was really impressive, just standing in this large plaza. Unfortunately it was closed for repairs, but we took photos of the outside.
Then we walked up Ave. V.
Maison Carrée
This supposedly a temple to Diana, but I just call it pretty. Hugo to the Jardin des Fontaines and climbed through the landscaped areas along winding pathways to the summit, where the ancient Tour Magne looks out over the town. They're not sure if the Tour was Roman or medieval, but it was really big and apparently used to be taller. Mollie didn't want to climb the 150 steps, but I wanted my money's worth, so I tripped lightly up to the top. It was really amazing to look out over the town from so far up. Coming down was actually harder for me because that's when my problem with heights kicked in. Yikes! But I made it down fine.
By now we were both ready to pass out from hunger, so we walked down the main drag again and stopped at the end where there was a Quick Hamburger place in this beautiful Belle Epoque building. Cheeseburger never tasted so good. And the potatoe wedges were delicious.
After satisfying our bodies we went back to the dual Musees d'Archeologie and d'histoire naturalle. They were both free, which was the best part about them. No, I kid. The natural history consisted of lots of stuffed and mouldering animals. The archeology
Tour Magne
Somebody was overcompensating! Lots of stairs to the top and bird poop the last 30 steps. Ew. was better- roman wares and statues, mosaics and some bronzes. In the outside courtyard, around the covered veranda were hundreds and hundreds of roman gravemarkers that have been dug up. It was incredible. Most just had inscriptions, but a few had busts of the person who presumably died.
We went back to the station and didn't have to wait long for our train to Marseille. In Marseiile we had another hour layover, but at least this time there was no wind or sleazeballs. I bought Snickers for when we were on our train to Aix and we enjoyed them thoroughly when the time came.
It turns out some other girls from IAU were on the train too. I call them girls because they are the type that you see so frequently at Fairfield- the ones with more shoes than brains that think they're nice to people, but can be very bitchy if crossed. The ones you're nice to because it's easier than telling them how you really think. (My friends from FU will know that these are the type I do my "OH MY GOD!!" impression of.)
I tell you this because I walked part of the way home with one of them- Candace the smoker. We walked a different way home than I usually use- it's a shortcut through the residential part of Aix. I had never explored it before because I didn't want to get lost in the backstreets. Which is what I did. I missed the turn that Candace had said would dump me out right in front of the Tour d'Agoysi and it was only through knowing to check the bus stop maps that I was able to backtrack to the right street. But once that got worked out I was fine.
Arlette had dinner in the kitchen for me so I heated up the soup and had potatoes and salad and hard-boiled eggs. It was a nice meal after an exhausting day.
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