On the road to Nimes - France Blog. no. 4

Nimes is the capital of the Languedoc-Roussillon and an important tourist destination.  I had never traveled there but knew that it was the repository of very important Roman ruins.  The first monument we visited was the Roman amphitheater built around 1st. or 2nd. century A.D. It's been renovated by the French government at considerable expense but it's a splendid example of Roman architecture with its classical elliptical design and is well known as the best preserved amphitheater in France, possibly even the best outside of the Coliseum in Rome which is, of course, much bigger.  This building is still used for corridas where, unfortunately, they do end up killing the bulls.  In Portugal and Mexico they stage corridas too but the bulls are spared the ignominious death which is a much better outcome for both bull and spectators.  The interesting thing about Nimes is that it was built at the crossroads of the Via Domitia built by the Romans to connect Italy to Spain.  The second most historical building is the Maison Carree which literally means Squared House, it is also known as one of the best example of this type of architecture found anywhere in the territory of what constituted the Roman Empire.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/10/MaisonCarr%C3%A9e.jpeg/220px-MaisonCarr%C3%A9e.jpeg

Hopefully this link will work and give you an idea of how beautiful this building is. Of course it too underwent extensive renovations but one has to admire the French government's dedication to the preservation of its most historical buildings.  Sure it costs a lot of money but it's definitely worth it.  It attracts a lot of tourist dollars and supports building trades, artists and artisans whose special skills might otherwise be lost.

We meandered through the streets of Nimes, the downtown core is quite compact, free of cars and only open to pedestrian traffic which is wonderful.  All this walking gave us a good appetite. We stopped in a little restaurant which had the obligatory sidewalk terrace where we had a very leisurely lunch.  I had an appetizer of thinly sliced raw beef topped with slices of mozzarella and tomatoes (it's called carpaccio in Italian).  This was followed by tagliatella noodles with crispy fingers of duck and a little salad, no desert, some wine+coffee. It was most delectable.  We continued on to the gardens and the fountains in the center of the city.

Leaving Nimes we made our way to Aigues Mortes which is a walled medieval city built by King St. Louis who was very big into crusades, not a good thing in my book but apparently he is revered in France as one of the just kings (there were quite a few who weren't that great if you know a little about French history). Aigues Mortes in addition to being walled also had a tower where protestant women were sent to atone for the fact that they had chosen the wrong religion.  These women were of noble birth, of course, other protestant women were summarily executed and not quite as "lucky".  Along the way we also discovered that the source of Perrier water is in a little town called Vergeze. Originally the water was naturally carbonated but now the carbonation is added to the water to get that perfect Perrier mix of water and bubbles.  It's also dispiriting to learn that what was once owned by the French and is so distinctively thought of as French is now owned by Nestle.  Regardless it's pretty amazing to think of all those millions of bottles of Perrier circling the globe coming from this one source.

This post was not meant to be an exhaustive blow by blow of all the spots we visited in great accurate detail, if you want that there are plenty of guide books around and the ever ubiquitous Wikipedia always willing to inform you.   Hopefully it might have given you a little taste and maybe even a desire to visit that part of France.