We got up at 5 AM, checked out of the hotel, and took the metro to the train station to catch our 7:15 train. I had to stand in line to get a ticket, and oddly enough, Laura did too. For some reason they wouldn't accept her EuRail pass for this particular train (it was TGV). We arrived in Nimes a couple of hours later around 10. Nimes is a really small town and the Hotel Concorde is within walking distance of the train station. The hotel owner was busy with 'family day' so we left our luggage behind the counter and decided to explore the town.
First stop? The Place des Arénes, the amphitheater. We took an audio guide tour of the place and walked around. By the time the audio guide was finished, we were starving. We decided to try some crepes - since we were in France after all. We stopped by a place called Au P'tit Nimois and I got the la forestiere crepe, which has bacon, mushrooms, fresh sour cream, and Swiss cheese.
Ampitheater
Looking down into the inside of the amphitheater
La Forestiere crepe: lardons, champignons, frais creme fraiche, emmental
Refueled with food, we continued exploring Nimes. Next up was the Maison Carree. This is the only Roman ancient temple completely preserved. Unfortunately, the place was under restoration, so the front was covered up. Otherwise, the picture would look a lot better. We watched a short movie inside.
Maison Carree
Next was an interesting set of monuments which is called La Place D'assas. This was created by Martial Raysee, a french artist in the Nouveau Realisme movement who did classical sculptures for this series. The series is dedicated to the sacred nature of the spring. Then we passed by some big water fountains.
La Place D'assas
The water fountain
Then we walked to Jardins de la Fontaine. This was laid out in the 18th Century in the area of the former fortified ramparts and includes the ruins of an ancient sanctuary of a sacred spring called Temple of Diane.
Jardins de la Fontaine
La Temple de Diane
Finally, we went to Tour Magne, which is a ruined Roman Tower set on top of a hill.
La Tour Magne
After all of our sight-seeing we passed by a cafe and decided to take advantage of the free wi-fi advertised. I got a hot chocolate (which came out as a bar of chocolate and milk in a mug) and we checked our email.It was finally around 5 by then, when the hotel owner would be back. We were then able to check into our room... which was interesting. The room had a bed - and a sink and shower stall... right next to the bed (no walls or anything). I guess these are the perks of a one star hotel!
We settled into our room and relaxed for a bit then ventured out into the rain that had started to pour to get some food. We went to the same place we had earlier for round two of crepes. I got the la chocolatine crepe, which has chocolate, almonds, and coconut. Delicious!
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