Jun 10th - Avignon to Nimes
Travel day
A slightly different travelling day today as we had to travel by bus to Nimes instead using rail (apparently “the train only runs in the summer!” 🤔).
As there were only 2 buses a day on this route over the weekend we didn’t get here until mid-afternoon (the other option was 06:30!) so we really only had the chance to get to ‘The Arena of Nîmes’, another amphitheatre from Roman times.
Like the one in Arles it’s also pretty impressive and, with the exterior extremely well preserved and the arches and top decorations being nearly intact, it’s in great nick for its age. Because of its good state of preservation the amphitheater is still used today and, while we were there, stage scaffolding was being erected for an upcoming concert. Obviously this detracts from the ‘Roman’ feel of the place a bit, which means you have to use a little imagination, but in spite of that though it’s good to know it’s still in use.
Nimes is a lovely town and walking back from the arena we had to pass alongside a local waterway, beautiful!
Those pesky Romans. Never did much for anybody. Just left all sorts of 'stuff' behind :-)
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