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!