Hello from Nimes, France (Part 3)
Wednesday evening – June 1, 2016 (tenth post of this travelogue)
As I have mentioned, the city of Nimes is a jewel and we are so fortunate to have lucked into this stay. As noted in the last post, our apartment is right in the middle of historic Nimes and I do mean historic. Some of the history is described in this link. Quoting from Wiki:
Nîmes has a rich history, dating back to the Roman Empire when the city was home to 50,000–60,000 people. Several famous monuments are in Nîmes, such as the Nîmes Arena and the Maison Carrée. Because of this, Nîmes is often referred to as the French Rome.
The quote above mentions the Nimes Arena which is very much like the Coliseum in Rome. Some details are contained in this link. Here is a quote from Wiki:
The Arena of Nîmes is a Roman amphitheatre, situated in the French city of Nîmes. Built around AD 70, it was remodelled in 1863 to serve as a bullring. The Arena of Nîmes is the site of two annual bullfights during the Feria de Nîmes, and it is also used for other public events.
We took a walking tour on Monday and got some great photos of the arena:
Tuesday we hung around the area and just enjoyed a leisurely day.
Today we walked to both the Maison Carree link and the Cathedral of Notre Dame and St Castor.
The Maison Carree (see photo) was built in 7 AD (over 2000 years old). It is said to be “one of the best preserved Roman temple façades to be found in the territory of the former Roman Empire”.
The Cathedral of Notre Dame is quite a bit newer than the other two structures. Various sites give different dates, but it seems to have been rebuilt in the 1600s after being destroyed by various “wars of religion”. The exterior is not all that impressive, but the interior is incredible (see photos).
That is all for this post.