Nimes

Nimes is famous for its Colosseum,

its spring around which many ponds, gardens, fountains and canals have been built,
a roman temple and

the ancient ruined Tour Magne (big tower) on top of the hill overlooking town.
So we are off to the colosseum, where it seems that Pink will be playing tonight.
Of course originally the entertainments at the arena were much more bloodthirsty
...gladiators...

and bull fighting!

The colosseum is ruined enough to look old and interesting but in pretty good condition when you can still climb all over it and there are concerts on there almost every night in summer.

Like most "sights" these days you get an 8 language audio guide to tell you all the cool stuff as you go round. It also means you can skip bits if it gets boring. There were also extra bits if you wanted to know more about specific gladiators or matadors.

I must have missed the piece that told me who this famous matador is but I did remember that touching hot bronze is dangerous!
I particularly liked the room with the matador uniforms/costumes.. they were brilliant colours like pink, orange and turquoise, covered with jewels and gorgeous embroidery.
They were also tiny. Those matadors were very small men!!

The tower had been gutted in a search for hidden treasure and was a bit weakened and crumbly as a result. Luckily the new stairwell up the centre also provided some much needed reinforcement. We were excited to see the tower of Nimes on this map showing the ancient Roman Via Domitia. You can see it is almost exactly the route that we are travelling from Spain to Rome.

Views of Nimes and the colosseum from the top of the tower.

Temple of Diana This is at the foot of the hill on which the tower stands and part of the gardens.



Gardens and fountains. The water was stagnant and putrid.

There is always something in scaffolding.. this time it is the 2000 year old Roman Temple , Maison Caree, (french for square house). There was not alot to see here but as the temperature was hitting 40 degrees we were happy to sit inside in the shade and air conditioning and watch the 3D movie on gladiators.