We set off on friday just after lunch heading for Nimes. James had to go into work in the morning so we did well to be on the road by 12.30pm. Even though it was 300km away we made good time and decided to stop on route at Montpellier which is about 40km before Nimes. We are use to the terrible traffic around Toulouse so were pleasantly surprised when we managed to navigate ourselves into the city centre with ease. We found a great car park building (thanks Ken the GPS) and came up the escalator and into the main square.
We walked through the cobbled streets to the arc de triomphe and into the Jardin des Plantes which is apparently France's oldest botanical gardens and was laid out in 1593.
The Aqueduc de St-Clement
By this point Jasper was desperate for the toilet so we started the elusive find a toilet in France hunt that we seem to do every time we arrive in a new city. We can't work out why the French do not like to have any signs for the toilets and where do they all go? Perhaps the diet of coffee and bread stops the need. Anyway we used the worldwide toilet fallback McDonald's, ignoring the 'for patrons only' signs on the doors!
We then jumped in the car and headed for Nimes. I still have not got use to the staggering amount of history and amazing places there are to visit in France. Around every corner there seems to be some gorgeous little village, or a significant historical monument or building. This was the case when we headed to Nimes. According to our guidebook the outskirts of Nimes are bleak and traffic clogged but if you get past all the truly awful high rises you get treated with an amazing city centre. The main reason we went to Nimes was because I wanted to go and see pont du Gard which is a 2000 year old aqueduct built during the time of the Romans to carry water from Uzes to Nimes for the temples, fountains and baths that were being built. As Nimes is close by I thought it would be a good place to stay to access the bridge. I also read in our lonely planet guide book that it had a Roman amphitheatre. We have seen lots of castles and Jasper and James have had medieval battles up and down the side of hills and I thought that this would be a good opportunity to see a different slice of history - the gladiators! Nimes was truly beautiful with not just the amazingly preserved arena but also many other beautifully restored buildings showing the progression of history. The arena is still used for concerts and for bull fights and is an amazing building. Best of all it was not crowded and no queues so we could just wander as we pleased.
Not only has Nimes done an amazing job of preserving their historic monuments but they are also just about finished a city rejuvenation programme. The pedestrian boulevard between the train station and the city has had a lot of time and money poured into it and looks fantastic. It includes lovely planted areas, a playground, cafes, water features and paving. It is a great example of what can be done with a bit of planning and money and made us think of Christchurch and how wonderful it would look if they did something similar to the Christchurch square.
The boulevard outside our hotel
The hotel we stayed at was in a great location right on the new boulevard between the train station and the city centre. It was a quaint two star hotel but we had to adjust our expectations when we walked into our room. We normally stay in apartments which have a kitchen and a lounge and although we realised that this would not have a kitchen we did not really realise that our chamber would be just two bedrooms then down a hallway the toilet and bathroom. It had nowhere to sit and watch tele and nowhere to make a cup of tea. The idea is that you pay an extra 7 euros per person for breakfast which for us isn't great as there are five of us so it gets expensive plus gluten free was not catered for. So instead we took our toaster and jug to our room (even apartments don't have these) and managed to make our breakfast in our room - gave new meaning to the term breakfast in bed! We did have to go and buy a couple of mugs to have a cup of tea but apart from that was all fine.
Once we were settled in we set out to have an explore and get some dinner. We discovered a Ferris wheel by the arena so James and Jasper had a go.
James and Jasper in the Ferris Wheel
The view from the top
We then went in search of somewhere to eat and got reintroduced to the French habit of eating late. We looked into several cafes where people were eating only to discover it was the staff eating their dinner - it was about 6.45 by this stage. In the end we went into a bar and had a drink and waited till 7.15 hoping that by now something would be open!
Having a drink waiting for the restaurants to open
We went back to the bistro recommended by the hotel and yah they were open. We had a lovely meal. Jasper and Penelope had beautiful salmon for the kids meal!
We then walked back to our hotel through very deserted streets and came across the first of many crocodile statues in Nimes. The crocodile recalls the city's foundations, when retiring roman legionnaires who had sweated with Caesar during his river Nile campaign, were granted land to cultivate.
Crocodile fountain
The boulevard was now lit up by a green light along the water feature, I guess to stop people falling in, it also looked very pretty.
Due to heating that would not turn off we all had a bit of an unsettled night but managed to get up and out into the beautiful day and I even managed to find a cafe that did takeaway coffee.
First off we headed to the arena and had a great look around helped along by the audio guides. The children got activity books to help them learn about the use of the arena through the ages. Jasper loved the idea of gladiators but Penelope struggled with the fact that bull fighting still took place so we had lots of interesting chats.
The arena with the ferris wheel in the background
Hope no Gladiators come running in!
Outside the arena.
As part of our entry ticket we were entitled to go and watch a 3D movie about the Heros of Nimes. This was held in the stunning roman temple Maison Caree.
Jasper standing on the remains of a Roman pillar.
On the steps of Maison Caree
The movie was very informative and not gruesome which was a relief for Penelope especially and it was a pretty special thing to watch a movie in such an amazing building and then walk out and be in the city that the movie was about.
Thankfully our search for a cafe for lunch was a bit easier then it had been for dinner and we found a great little local cafe serving steak hache and chips for the kids. James tried the raw beef specialty and I had the plat du jour (meal of the day) which was a fish parcel with rice. All very French right down to the little French lady in the corner having her coffee with her cat on her knee.
From there we headed to the Jardins de la Fontaine, which are another wonderful roman monument.
The Roman Baths
The gardens hold the remains of a spring, temple and baths and a walk through the gardens brought us to the tour magne, a tower that was built in 15 BC. Jasper couldn't resist the temptation to run up a tree that was on a serious lean.
We climbed the 140 steps to the top of the tower for a view over the city.
Climbing up the tower steps.
The view from the top.
We walked back down to the gardens and had a lie in the sun while the kids rolled down the hill. Then went to look at the temple of Diane before giving the kids a ride on some bikes they had for hire in the gardens.
Temple de Diane
James took the kids back to the hotel for a rest and I went in search of the shops and a coffee. It was lovely just wandering down the old cobbled streets and Nimes is big enough to be interesting with a variety of lovely shops but small enough not to get lost. I even managed to find my way back to the bakery we had seen the night before which had the most amazing meringues. I had a yummy coffee then headed back to the hotel to collect the others. We had decided to do early simple dinner and had brought some gluten free buns with us and went to Quick (like Burger King).
The next day we got up and away by 10 and headed to pont du Gard. It obviously gets very busy here in summer as there was a new car park and information centre which was huge. We wandered down the path and were treated to the majestic sight of the massive bridge.
We had a great explore and Jasper managed to find a narrow rocky path to take us on to get a good view. Even though you can't walk on the top of the bridge we managed to walk through the tunnel that was used to carry the water through to the aquaduct. We walked across the bridge to the other side, found a playground and toilets and the kids and James threw stones in the river. I imagine in summer it gets very busy as you are able to swin in the river.
We had decided to head to the beach for lunch and found a place in our guidebook just south of Montpellier that looked promising called Palavas-les-flots. It was incredibly busy but we managed to find a park and then wandered down to the esplanade. We decided to get take aways for lunch and eat on the beach as that was what the locals were doing. We ordered our galletes and chips with the idea that the GF family members would just not eat the bread. The French do not do fast food and we discovered the reason for that, they can't! It took 40 minutes for us to get our food and we could not work out why. It wasn't a problem though as the atmphosere was great with lots of people and the sun shining and the beach right there.
The beach was nicer then it looks in this picture, it wasn't all rubbish bins and high rises, although we don't know what the obsession here is with building ugly high rise apartments right on the seashore.
We then went and got an ice cream from the most amazing glacier, walked along the beach back to the car.
Another great adventure!
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