Nimes

We slowly got ourselves ready to leave after enjoying 4 nights at the La Brise campsite in Saintes-Maries-de-La-Mer. The sound of the sea had made it feel like home.

We drove through farming areas to a tiny 6-pitch independent campsite on a horse farm just outside Nimes.

Nimes was originally a Celtic then Roman town. We have passed by here before at the Pont du Gard - the largest standing Roman acquaduct in the world. It was part of the 50km route to stream water to Nimes. We had a good day there with wine tasting and a light show at night.

We were met by the owner on arrival who gave us the best bike route with bike paths for getting into town and seeing the sights. Nimes is not that good for cyclists having lots of traffic - so it was good advice.

We cycled in but got a bit lost. After improvising a bit we arrived at the Magne Tower in the Gardens of the Fountain. It is a 36 metre Roman tower built in 3BC and was part of the city walls originally - that don’t exist any more.

We went up the ever narrowing steps inside and were happy when we eventually got to the top. The view over the town was worth it.

After getting back down again we walked down through the beautifully designed gardens and walked through Diana’s Temple - a ruin now. It’s called a temple - but it’s thought it might have been the library of the emperor Augustus.

We got back on the bikes towards the so called Maison Carree- or Square House in English. It’s the most complete Roman temple in the world - and architecturally perfect according to many professors who have studied it. After visiting it Thomas Jefferson copied it for his Virginia capital building.

But first we were starving without having lunch so had a quick croque monsieur at a cafe looking onto the temple. The Roman arena was about to close in an hour so we dashed over there to do the audio tour. This is probably the 4th Roman arena we have visited on this trip. The audio tour was quite entertaining telling us about the different types of gladiators and events that happened in the arena.

We got down into the ring ourselves and saw it was set up for bull racing that we just saw the day before. We saw how hard it would be to jump over the barrier - when the boys seemed to just spring over them.

After seeing all areas of the arena including the vomitoriums which are big stairways to allow the big crowd to leave quickly, we walked back to the Maison Carree.

We checked out the inside. It’s now just blank walls but a shrine would have been there with carvings on the walls.

There was information on screens telling how the building had been restored and how a Nimes scholar had worked out the inscription on the top from the holes left to attach the letters.

The inscription was to Gaius and Lucius, grandsons of Augustus Caesar- who he adopted but unfortunately both died prematurely.

We just saw the whole lot in time before it closed as we were leaving.

The view from the outside area at the front was where all major ceremonies and sacrifices happened.

We then got on our bikes and had a good route but a slow journey as we had to stop for Glenn to pump up his slow puncture on the way. We eventually made it back to the campsite in the twilight.

We had a vegetable and bean stew for dinner and after planning the route for next day we were soon in our beds.