Nimes and the Pont du Gard

Being an intrepid traveler, I decided to take a trip this weekend to Nimes (pronounced Neem) and the Pont du Gard. This time, I was a solo traveler, but no worries, I made friends. I went on a tour with 'George.' Only 25 euros for everything. I highly recommend his tours! But unfortunately if you don't speak French, you are out of luck. And he has a very interesting provençal accent.

Anyways, first we went to Nîmes. Nîmes is known as the "Little Rome," because of all of its Roman ruins. We first arrived at les Jardins de la Fontaine, which is a park full of Roman statues, and canals that were used by the Romans to bathe in. In the park there is the Temple of Diane, which was primarily used for parties and soirées, not exactly for prayer. Then we hiked up the hill (it was rough) to see the Tour de Magne, a very, very old tower built before the Romans arrived and conquered France! Unfortunately the top was missing, and we didn't have time to climb to the top of the tower, but it was still magnificent. Afterwards, George led us around the quaint little city of Nîmes to see La Maison Carrée (Square House). Unfortunately, it was under scaffolding. But think: Pantheon. I forget the exact importance of the building, but to me it resembles a temple, so I am going to conclude that it was a temple. Next we walked to Les Arènes, the most complete and well-preserved Roman arena/colosseum in the world! The audio guide that came with the entrance ticket was really humorous. I love how 'English' in Europe translates into 'British English.' I learned all about the arena, the gladiators, roman orgies, and christian martyrs from a very nice British voice. Life could be worse!

Les Jardins de la Fontaine

View of the City of Nîmes

La Tour Magne

Les Arènes

After Les Arènes, we hopped back on the bus (but only after grabbing a sandwich for lunch, of course) to travel to the Pont du Gard. I couldn't tell you how long the bus ride was, because I fell asleep. Whoops. But on the way to Nîmes I made a friend with an American living in Aix. She was nice, and we talked in French the entire time. Also, by coincidence, one of the girls who is doing a home-stay with the family I eat dinner with was also on the trip with a bunch of people from her program (IAU?). Needless to say, I made some new friends, so traveling alone turned out to be not so bad!

At the Pont du Gard, George took us on a hike around this cliff so we could get a stunning view of the ancient Roman Acqueduct. The Pont du Gard was constructed to bring water all of the way to Nîmes, a good 15km away. It was amazing how large and intact the bridge was! We were there in the late afternoon, and the sun struck it in such a way to make it look like it was glowing. From what I learned in my Provence class, the bridge has 3 levels of arches, and it is 50 meters high, because the water actually floods up to the first levels of arches. The bridge is also built with a slight slant in order to sustain the crushing water. I have to hand it to the Romans--they truly had a great knowledge of architecture! And thank goodness that WW1 and WW2 didn't destroy everything in France. Where would we be today without the sight of the Pont du Gard across the Gard River? Not sure. A bit of advice, though: if traveling to the Pont du Gard, bring a good pair of sneakers. Hiking up and down a mountain in leather boots is not preferable, and surrounding the Pont du Gard are rock formations, so the best way to get around is in sneakers. Please, learn from my mistakes. And take pity on my poor boots. I swear, if they survive this semester, I will treat them to a polishing and fix-up at a nice cordonnerie.

The Pont du Gard

Love

So, I can now check off the Pont du Gard on my life-goal-must-see list. Check! Next on the list? Bordeaux, Montenegro, Monaco, Australia, ... But next weekend Efram is coming to France (yay!) and we are going to... the one and only... city of... PARIS. So excited. Maybe I'll have time before this weekend to blog more about my life in Aix (instead of only talking about my travels around Europe and France), but who knows what assignments my professors will give me last-minute. So until then, bonne journée à tlm (tout-le-monde in short-hand).

Bonne soirée!

Carnaval de Nice

How can I begin to describe the Carnaval de Nice? For starters, it ended last week, so unfortunately I am a bit late in posting this. But no worries, it will still be the same carnival next year. The theme for the carnival was: Le roi de la planète blue, which translates into "the King of the Blue Planet (Earth)." The carnival itself was a combination of Macy's Day Parade meets Pirates of the Caribbean meets Alice in Wonderland meets Cirque du Soleil. Quite the combination! It was quite the show.

Our program took us to Nice pretty early on a Sunday morning, and the bus ride to the region of Les Alpes Maritimes was only about an hour and a half. We got dropped off next to... THE BEACH! Unfortunately it is a rock beach and was only about 50 degrees F when we arrived, so it was no Ocean City. But I did touch the water (Mediterranean) and pick up some neat rocks.

BEACH!

Outside of the carnival there were street performers, floats, hair stylists creating strange hair-do's, people doing face painting, there were a bunch of grunge drummers wearing red kilts, and there was even a collection of wind catchers made from kite fabric (I don't really know how to explain these... see picture). For the carnival, we were given a giant bag of confetti (there is still confetti all over our auberge and in random pockets in my jacket) and silly string (in french: bombe).

Wind-Catchers?

The actual carnival started around 2, 2:30. We grabbed a great spot in the front, where the parade started, before it hit the bleachers. It was marvelous. The entire show was so much fun. We even got into a silly-string war with some random French people. They weren't very nice, because we would try to take pictures, and they would spray us with silly string. In our faces! But no worries, we got them back. The carnival lasted about 2 hours, after which me, Eszter and Jeff congratulated ourselves for surviving by getting some gelato, and taking a walk along la Rue des Anglais (yes, it was really called that--its the 'Boardwalk'). We left for Aix around 5, got back, and voila. Ate dinner at Bistro Romain (so delish) and passed out, ready for another week in Aix!

À bientôt!

Mechanical T-Rex Float

Creepy Float

The View

Mother Earth?

The Italian Vacation (Part 2)

My apologies for not updating my blog in... forever. I was battling the flu (la grippe) last week, and have been catching up on work and attending carnaval in Nice. To continue where I left off:

We arrived in Naples, got to the hostel, checked our e-mails, and went out for the most delicious pizza dinner: Gino Sorbillo. You have not lived until you have eaten at Gino Sorbillo. Not only was the pizza the best, it was cheap! After devouring pizza, we returned to the hostel and passed out. We woke up early, and made our way to the interesting Naples metro #4 to get to Piazza Garibaldi, so we could take the Circumvensuvia to Ercolano and Pompeii. Down under the metro, we met up again with our fellow American photographer who we first encountered in Rome. And he had friends! They were two other guys who go to University of Tennessee, and one was from Nashville. Needless to say, we felt a bit at home with our fellow Tennesseans. Getting by with my elementary knowledge of Italian and ability to read confusing Italian transportation signs, we found our way to Ercolano (aka Herculaneum). Similarly to Pompeii, Ercolano was also destroyed when Mt. Vesuvius erupted about 2,000 years ago. However, Ercolano is much better preserved than Pompeii, and had the most beautiful mosaics, selon moi. Unfortunately, my camera battery decided to die on me in Ercolano, so my photographs are mostly mental. But I did steal some photos from Eszter, who had been smart enough to actually charge her camera the night before. We spent some time in Ercolano with les autres garçons, had some more pizza for lunch, and made our way to Pompeii. Now, don't get me wrong here. Pompeii was also great, but it was so massive, it was raining, and without a guide, you are basically lost. We saw the brothel and the really neat house with the frescoes, but aside from that, a lot of things were closed off (like the large theater) or hidden from view. However, we did have some delicious orange juice. Who knew they had oranges in Southern Italy? After a day of touring ancient ruins, we took the Circumvensuvia back to Naples, and relaxed for the rest of the day.

Mosaics in Ercolano

For our Day 2 in Naples, we traveled to the beautiful island of Capri, just off the coast of mainland Italy. Normally it is sunny this time of year, and Capri is quite the sight to be seen. However, due to the permanent cloudy presence over the entirety of Europe, we couldn't really see very much in the morning. We got to Capri, and decided to hike to the Villa Jova, and old Roman fortress/castle. My Routard Guide said that the hike to Villa Jova is beautiful with all of the gardens and homes. However, it was so foggy we could barely see anything. It was still beautiful, especially the orange and lemon trees in the mist, as well as the little mosaics personalized for each home. The island is so interesting to walk through, because there are very few streets, and there are houses everywhere. There are specially-designed one-row cars to get people around the island, and even that is cutting it close space-wise. And it is so hilly! I can only imagine trying to carry groceries back home, or walking back from the center to anyplace near Villa Jova, which was a good one-hour hike. Villa Jova is also known for its great views of the island and coastline because it is at the top of the mountain, but unfortunately we just saw fog. Tant pis. Next we had lunch, and then when we finished lunch, voila! the fog was gone, and the sun came out. It was perfect. We walked to the Natural Arch, and then attempted to find the Roman Grottos. Capri is known for its Blue Grotto, but because of the unfortunate weather conditions, we didn't do that. Instead we tried to find a different grotto. On the way to the "grotto" we passed by a collection of rocks and caves, but kept on walking. We continued walking for about 30 minutes, and then realized that we had indeed passed the grottos and were taking a lovely tour around the ENTIRE east coast of the island. So. Many. Stairs. But the views were beautiful, and we got such a great workout! We literally had to run to catch our ferry back to Naples, but we got there just in time, and rewarded ourselves with some delicious gelato. :) For dinner we went to a bookstore/cafe, and had more delicious Italian food.

Cute little signs outside of the homes in Capri

View

Day 3 in Naples was actually spent in Naples. Unfortunately, no offense to Naples, there is not much to do there during the winter, because many things are closed. First we hiked to Castel dell'Ovo, which was a let-down. It was free, which was nice, but there was nothing for us to see, just a look-out point. It was very windy, so it was difficult to stay there very long. Next we went to Palazzo Reale, which was the most beautiful thing to see in Naples. A definite must-see for any visitor! It was originally built for a King that never actually came... so instead other members of the Royal family resided there. There were rooms upon rooms of elaborate tapestries, wood-work, oriental doors, gold-leafed everything, paintings, ceramics, you name it, it was there. Oh, and did I mention that the entire foyer was marble? It was beautiful. Afterwards we attempted to see the Theater, but its closed for tours in the winter. We also tried to go into some other churches, but they were either closed during the week, or closed during the winter. Just our luck. No worries, though. We did see our fair share of churches and chapels. And we also ate Hot Sfogliatelli. I don't really know how to explain them, but they are pastries with citrusy and cinnamon tastes. They are best hot. We also tried Baba Rhum, which is just cake soaked in rum. It was ok. We also visited the archaeological museum, and saw all of the lovely things that were missing from Ercolano and Pompeii. Unfortunately, the mosaic room was closed for renovations, but we saw a lot of frescoes, coins, and Roman sculptures. For dinner, we again returned to Gino Sorbillo. I think by that time they recognized us. We also left them 26 centimes plus the money for the bill. Long story.

Palazzo Reale

Day 4 in Naples was spent in Salerno and Vietri sul Mare. We woke up early to catch a train to Salerno, but had to wait an hour, because trains don't run very often between the two cities, or at least not for us. We got to Salerno around noon, and then decided to go to this really famous ceramic city called Vietri sul Mare. Unfortunately, the public transportation of Salerno was on strike until around 1, so we just shopped around and explored Salerno. If you ever get a chance to go, please go to Vietri sul Mare. It was beautiful, and has the most extensive collection of ceramics. I bought some nice things for the family. :) After Vietri, we returned to Salerno, went to the Duomo, tried to go to the Archaeological Museum (closed for winter), and Eszter bought a pair of awesome Italian leather boots. Jealous. Salerno was really neat and fun, but there was not much to do other than visit some churches, shop, and eat gelato. And that is exactly what we did. Definitely what I call a successful day! The Duomo was a beautiful church, with lovely marble. There was also a little kitten that followed us around. After another long day, we returned to Naples, had dinner at a restaurant that specializes in 'Art Food' (although we did not order these things because they cost an arm-and-a-leg), and passed out again.

Vietri sul Mare

Duomo in Salerno

Day 5 in Naples we went to the Monté de Pieta, another pretty little chapel that is only open on Saturdays and Sundays. We tried to go to the Naples Underground, but we had to catch a train, and the tour was delayed by about 45 minutes by a school group of 1st graders...we were very angry. But we did do some shopping, and say adieu to the city of Naples, and adieu to the end of the Italian Vacation. Adieu.

Monte de Pieta