Les Arènes in Nîmes

Les Arènes in Nîmes, a very well preserved Roman arena

The third and final part of the Winter holiday is now to be covered. The first part brought my travel companions and I to Marseilles, the second to Aix-en-Provence and Avignon.

Day 4: Nîmes
We took the train from Avignon nice o’clock and arrived in Nîmes about 40 minutes later. The breakfast was made in the hotel room. As always we ate great baguettes with ham, cheese, sausages and crisps).


La maison carrée

We saw the 3D movie “Heros de Nîmes” in la Maison carrée which is an old Roman building. The movie was a disappointment because the 3D glasses we had to use were so scratched up that we couldn’t read the text on the screen.


Kristofer with a pair of useless 3D glasses

The weather was, as every day of our trip, fantastic and we strolled to Les jardins de la fontaine (The fountain gardens). This public park is according to the French brochure one of the biggest public parks, but one of the first according to the English version in the brochure (it’s maybe both?).


We had a fantastic view from the top of Tour Magne

Inside the park we saw the roman temple Temple de Diane and the Roman octogonal tower Tour Magne. We also had a pleasent lunch where we ate (again) baguettes, but this time we complemented them with ice cream for dessert!


Lunch in Les jardins de la fontaine

The highlight of Nîmes is without a doubt Les Arènes, a Roman arena (like the famous one in Rome). The one in Nîmes is very well preserved and is in use today. When we visited it was bullfight practice on the arena – fun to watch!

In the evening Cate, Joao and I ate food at the restaurant “It’s amore”, a delicious meal. The others went for a kebab and we found them sleeping when we got back from the restaurant. (Sorry that I don’t have an image of that – they were almost cuddeling).

Day 5: Last day of holiday
We slept long, too long to be able to visit Pont du Gard, yet another famous Roman sight, situated not far from Nîmes. It’s supposed to be very impressive, but as it was Sunday there were no buses going to the aquaduct. Instead we went to a free exhibition at “Musée du vieux Nîmes”. Apparently, Nîmes is known for its jeans production.

We ended our stay in Nîmes and the winter holiday at the Grand café La bourse next to Place des Arènes enjoying a good and expensive coffee!