Where Blue Jeans Come From - De Nimes, Of Course.

Oct 8, 2005

On our second outing out of Montpellier, we travelled east once again. Our destination, the city of Nimes with its Roman ruins. As a bonus, we would then travel a bit north out of Nimes and visit what was, perhaps, the most impressive ruin we saw on our entire trip - the Roman aqueduct, the Pont du Gard, built to bring water to Nimes from a mountain spring some 30 miles away.

We parked our car in an underground lot and proceeded to enter the historic center of Nimes. We passed our first Roman ruin here at Port Auguste, just a portal that remains from the wall which once surrounded this wealthy Roman city that stood at the crossroads of the ancient world. Romans came and conquered this town in 50 B.C.


Port Auguste - inside looking out. The smaller arches are for pedestrians. Carts and chariots, use the large arches please.

We followed the walking tour map that we collected from the Office de Tourisme and headed to the Maison Carree, which means "Square House." Even though it's not square but a rectangle, it was a very impressive and well-preserved elegant Roman temple built between 2 and 3 A.D. at the dawn of the Christian era. It has beautiful Corinthian columns and a sculpted frieze and was built as to worship the cult of Roman emperor and his court. Nimesers (?) were walking by this ancient artifact or sitting in a cafe at its base as if it were any old building. I guess once you see something every day you begin to take it for granted.


The Maison Carée in Nimes - built between the 2nd and 3rd century A.D.



Ancient columns contrast to Nime's modern theater.


A temple to Augustus and his cult.

Next we visited the Roman Amphitheater, Les Arenes and like the one in Arles, it's well preserved from its construction at the end of the 1st century A.D. This oval stadium was able to seat 25,000 spectators and is in use today for concerts, sporting events and, yes, bullfights which are common in the south of France.


Les Arenes -- Nimes ancient Amphitheater.


Stacey looks out at Les Arenes.

.....

The day was moving along and we wanted to see the Pont du Gard before sunset. So we returned to our car and took the short ride up into the hills north of Nimes. What we saw when we arrived took our breath away. This would have been impressive if it had been built in the present era. But to see this monumental construction project that was built 2000 years ago made us stand in awe and respect of the tremendous engineering prowess of the Roman engineers who built it. It is said that the Romans themselves considered it a testimony to the greatness of their empire and, indeed, it must have inspired wonder and amazement to contemporaries who saw it or even heard stories told about it. At 160 feet, it was the highest bridge they ever built, made from huge blocks of stone that were hauled up via a system of pulleys and vast amounts of slave labor. It directed water from a spring in the town of Uzes, 30 miles to the Roman colony at Nimes. The Romans needed a bridge at the point where the aqueduct needed to cross the Gardon river and this was the magnificent result which still stands today. Wondrous!


We arrived at the Pont du Gard and this is what we saw.


A second pedestrian bridge has been constructed so that you can see the Roman work up close.


The supports for the pont were built into the rock.


A view of the Gardon river far below .


Roman beauty at sunset.


The Pont viewed from the left bank of the Gardon.

We left the Pont du Gard as the sun was setting. This was a very magical moment -- as we walked back to the car we kept turning around to get one more view of this monument to the skills of the ancient Romans.


Our last view of the beautiful Pont Du Gard.

We drove a few miles to the ancient city of Uzes where we had dinner on a square. The evening air was warm and caressing. The cafe was playing a Stevie Wonder album. The lights, strung in the trees, twinkled above. And we thought that this was about as good as it gets.