My Travels And A Little Bit of This And That: On the road to Nimes - France Blog. no. 4

My Travels And A Little Bit of This And That: 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 ...

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.

Direction La Grande Motte - Post no. 3 from France

The sun was shining bright and early, actually not too early since we were still a little confused sleep wise, maybe about 9:00 a.m. It takes a little time for the body to adjust+we're not as young as we used to be the end result being everything takes longer.  A brisk shower to wake up and then off for breakfast.  I enjoy French breakfasts a lot, they remind me of my childhood.  There was a lovely little dining room, outside patio was also a possibility but I wanted it a tiny bit warmer.  Fresh croissants and baguettes sliced down the middle were on offer which is pretty much standard.  Nevertheless in concession to more Continental tastes most hotels now offer cereals, milk, yogurt  ham and cheese.  There were also bowls of fresh fruits and fruit salad cups.  I love that when you ask for cafe au lait, they bring each of you a pot of steaming coffee and a separate steaming pot of milk.  Also love those delightful little jam jars, so pretty, have never seen those anywhere else but perhaps they're common in other European hotels.

We really enjoyed Hotel Les Bastides, I highly recommend it if you ever end up around this part of France.
We packed the car with the two heavy suitcases and off we went.  I had asked for directions previously but we only had a very rudimentary map and no GPS nevertheless we didn't get lost once.  The directions are very well indicated, unlike those in Mexico. The only thing which confused us a bit were the "postes de peage" on the autoroute.  Some booths are prepaid but it's hard to know which ones.  The first one we encountered in Nice we had to pay directly with coins into a machine.  We didn't have enough coins and had to stop the traffic behind us.  I had to get out of the car and go look for someone who was working there, it was a bit stressful with all the honking of irritated and impatient drivers.  They do so love to lean on that horn.
These "postes de peage" along the highway were much more impressive in terms of size. They're about 12 feet deep and you literally don't know where to go, they have huge T's meaning tickets written on top.  Somehow the first few we had to pay directly into the machine, I had made some change in anticipation so that was cool.  For the next ones you had to grab a ticket and off you went.  Some kilometers later is where you pay depending on the distance you covered and where you took your ticket.  The machine would not accept my Visa card and this time it was too much money and I didn't have enough coins. One guy showed up so was able to pay cash with bills.  That was handy.  We had figured out the system.  Tickets first, slot it in at next stop and pay.  It's a hassle when they only want Carte bleue.  What's also freaky is the merging of 12 lanes of traffic into 3 or 4 lanes after you've passed the "postes".  It all seems quite random but with a purpose. With no lines on the ground to guide you you just aim in one general direction and hope for the best.  French drivers are generally good drivers.  It takes a long time to get your driver's license here and many people fail and have to go for numerous trials again and again.  I would have probably failed.

Got to La Grande Motte literally The big Lump.  It's a little town that grew near Montpellier and is now quite big.  It's mostly a tourist destination filled with lovely villas, there's a huge golf course, a yacht club, a very long beach and a cool downtown with distinctive pyramid shaped buildings.  It's a pretty uppity place but we have relatives here and that's where we were headed.  It's nice when you haven't seen relatives in a long long time you can expect a little TLC.  We couldn't find the place though so had to stop at a bar to make a phone call and the relative came to get us.  We're pretty much settled in. It's a very big house, there's an outdoor pool been in quite a few times.  We also do a little back and forth between this house and another, which is even bigger, where relatives have gone and dogs have to be taken care of, a shar pei dog with no folds and the biggest Newfoundland dog I have ever seen, about 87 kilos.  Cool thing about this house there's an indoor swimming pool and the temperature is at a balmy 31 degrees. We've been swimming there every evening before dinner which is stylishly French late, around 8:00 p.m.

Look for my next blog on our excursion to Nimes.  I had read somewhere that there are more Roman ruins to be found in France than in Italy, it might be true because the South of France is filled with well preserved temples, statues, aqueducts,amphitheaters and Roman arenas, till then.

Saint Paul de Vence - France no. 2

We visited the beautiful Medieval town of St. Paul de Vence, one of the jewels of France, so exquisitely well preserved.  It's situated up high on a hill which dominates the valley with breathtaking views of the mountains and the villages below.  Again we we were surprised at how green and lush everything was.  Parking is a bit of a problem as it is in all these types of locale which are strictly pedestrian.  The parking was situated below ground, quite a few levels, with hairpin turns since there's really not much room to build and space is at a premium.  The parking was almost full, again very surprising, this being early May I didn't think there would already be so many travelers in France.  Many of the tourists were French and Italian.  At the exit of the parking you wind your way through the predictable boutiques selling herbs of Provence and various soaps from the region+ lavender.  Ever since I've been made aware that these so-called herbs of Provence are often grown and shipped from Romania I've been reluctant to plunk down some euros never sure of the actual provenance.  It's sad but everything is made elsewhere now even France isn't immune to that virus.  I think I would rather go into the hills and pick the herbs myself, they're quite plentiful there.
The village itself is made up of narrow streets with huge cobblestones, some streets are not only narrow but steep, only one person can get through with another following behind.  There are a lot of beautiful art galleries  some well known artists who spent time here were Paul Cezanne and Marc Chagall who actually died in Saint Paul, we visited his rather modest tomb in the local cemetery.  Various visitors have started placing rocks on the tomb, one rock per visitor, a little sign of acknowledgement and respect for the great artistic visionary Chagall was.  We meandered among the many side streets, lovely little plazas await in unexpected places, went up on the palisades and took what I hope will be decent pictures.  I'm not a great photographer by any stretch of the imagination.  The air was redolent with lovely flower smells like you find in the South of France.  It's easy to see why many would want to retire here, I certainly wouldn't mind if money were not a consideration. We shared an Italian ice cream, returned to the car and wound our way back to our hotel, Les Bastides de Provence but first made a little pit stop to grab something to eat.  We weren't very hungry and starting to feel quite tired and jet lagged at this point.  We needed some rest.  We were driving to La Grande Motte (near Montpellier) the next day.  Driving can sometimes be a stressful and difficult experience in another country.  As it turns out it wasn't too bad except for the "Postes de peage"  where you have to pay but that's a whole other blog.  Enjoy this one.