Jun 11th - Nimes

 On a recommendation yesterday to go early before it gets too hot, our first place to visit today was the ‘Magne Tour’, the ‘Great Tower’.  Built by Augustus in the 2nd century BC, and on the tallest hill in Nimes, it’s located in the ‘Jardins de la Fontaine’, the ‘Fountain Gardens’.  It had originally been part of the 7-km walls that surrounded the city but unfortunately this is all that remains.  It was a bit of a hike up through the gardens but well worth the climb for the nice views of the city. 

Once down and out of the tower we were already into our next intended goal, the Fountain Gardens.  Apparently one of the first of Europe’s urban parks these gardens were commissioned by King Louis XV in 1745, and they are magnificent.  Seemingly half hillside-terraced and the rest on the flat the gardens are full of fantastic wide marbled stairways, fish-ponds, water features, Roman ruins (including a ‘Temple to Diana’), and has some beautiful flower-beds as well.  

Our last visit of the day was to the ‘Maison Carrée’, the ‘Square House!’ (pretty imaginative the French!), a Roman temple built in 2AD.  Very impressive on the outside (enough to make Thomas Jefferson want to copy it when designing the Virginia State Capitol), on the inside it’s the complete opposite.  With stark white walls and ceiling, and nothing to indicate it’s Roman origins, it’s like being in a square table tennis ball!  Very odd!