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.
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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.
Oct 6, 2005 After finishing our exploration of Aigues Morte we returned to our car and headed across the Camargue to Arles. The Camargue is not only a source of salt. It's also France's second largest national park and home to hundreds of species of birds and other small wildlife. It is a fragile ecological biospace and it has its own French version of our cowboy. They are called guardians. In the old days they lived in thatched huts out on the wetlands. To this day, they are charged with preserving the Camargue and act as guides as well as herding the famous black steer that inhabit this place and we could see herds of them as we rode through this wild and wet area. We reached Arles and set off to explore the town. We wanted to see the rest home where Van Gogh had spent time. Today, it's called the L'Espace Van Gogh but it had been a sanitorium for people with mental disorders for many years, even before Vincent arrived. The engraving above the arched entrance said "Hotel Dieu." The courtyard is filled with flowers and the very same arches that line its permiter were the subject of a Van Gogh painting. We stood and compared. 
Stacey at Arles' Hotel Dieu.
Today's hospital courtyard is filled with beautiful flowers.
The courtyard of the ancien Hotel Dieu.
And here it is as painted by Vincent - The Garden Of The Hospital At Arles.We continued exploring the town and came across the Place Hotel de Ville, the "City Hall Square." By this time we realized that each and every town has such a place, but, despite their omnipresence, we found that so many are simply beautiful and striking. Arles is a small town and it was off season so the place was particularly wonderful: quiet and luminous in the setting sun. A few local senior citizens were sitting here and there, talking and socializing. It was peaceful and beautiful.
Place Hotel de Ville - City Hall Square in Arles, France.
People watching Arlesian-style.
Fountain near City Hall, Arles.
Medieval church on Place Hotel de Ville.
As we walked to still another Place, we came across the cafe that Van Gogh immortalized in his painting Le Cafe Le Soir (Cafe At Night). Now renamed Cafe Van Gogh and a haunt of tourists (wouldn't you want to have an espresso in this famous cafe?), it looked very much the same to us as we stood to compare and identify the various elements in the painting and in the real world in front of us.
A sign calls out the historic nature of the cafe in front of us. (Note: You can click for a larger version on any of these photos. Then hit "back" to return to the BLOG).
Le Cafe Le Soir. Thank you, Vincent, for sharing that with us.
Arles is on the Rhone river and we walked along the embankment as the sun was setting. A beautiful scene. We then strolled over to the Amphitheatre, one of the largest and best preserved in all of what had been Roman Gaul. It held almost 20,000 people but today not even the four of us, as it had already closed for the evening. Dinner was at a lovely restaurant off the Place de Forum where I discovered Soupe de Poisson (fish soup) that immediately became my favorite French dish. It's served with croutons, on which you smear some intense garlic aïoli and then parmesan cheese. Float those croutons in the flavorful broth until they get soggy and then voilà - bon appetit!
After dinner, we walked to our car and then took our long and dark ride back home to our chambre d'hôte (B&B) in Montpellier.
The Rhone river runs gently through Arles on its way to the Camargue and the Mediterranean.
The Roman amphitheater in a fading sunlight. Closed for the day when we arrived.
Lynn enjoys a salad at a restaurant in Arles.
Soupe de poisson - my new discovery.
Oct 5, 2005
We finished up our walk around Montpellier by retracing our steps down elegant Rue Foch, lined with beautiful old hotels (mansions). As we reached the Place de Ville (City Hall), we found an old building that we had been searching for earlier but without success. Many of these cities had medieval Jewish communities and Montpellier was no exception. In fact, it was the blending of the various cultures, Islamic, Jewish and Christian, that brought a flowering of culture and intellectual exploration to Montpellier - its university was famous far and wide, established in the 14th century. Perhaps that should be a lesson for our times as well.
The building we had been looking for was an ancient Mikvah - a bath - used by Jewish women to purify themselves each month. We entered and descended into the bowels of this ancient house and the bath was still there. We tried to picture in our minds the ancient city with its people of various faiths, intermingling and going about their business on a daily basis. Must have been something to see.
They love to trim the London Plane trees. Here, the Arch de Triomphe from the Promenade de Peyru.
Jews played a large part in Montpellier's history...this buildig was an ancient mikvah used by Jewish women to purify themselves.
Two young Los Angelinos looking out of medieval windows at the Jewish mikvah.
Psst....when do you think we can get down from here?? Beautiful old buildings in Montpellier.
We really like Montpellier. It has a great feel of energy and development while it maintains a deep pride in its historic center. The new tram that connects downtown to the outlying neighborhoods was a wonder to us. How come New York doesn't invest in its mass transit systems with new and innovative forms like these smaller French cities?
A new tram moves people in and out of downtown in efficient and pleasant cars.
Hurry, catch that tram.
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Our plan was to use Montpellier as a base to explore the surrounding countryside. We could go west and south towards Spain (Barcelona was only three hours away). We could go east into Provence or north into the mountains. For our first trip outside, we decided to strike out for Arles, a lovely city an hour or so to the east. It has a well-preserved Roman amphitheatre (that's used today for concerts) and, of course, was home to Van Gogh who was hospitalized there and who painted the surroundings during his stay.
On our way to Arles, Micky urged us to stop at the medieval walled city of Aigues Morte. (meaning Dead Waters). She assured us we would find it very interesting. It was ancient Gaul's first opening to the Mediterranean and was, until it got silted up and could no longer be used, a key defense against Spanish and other incursions. It lies on the edge of the vast and fascinating Camargue, a wetland formed by the Rhone River as it empties into the Mediterranean. Because the waters are so shallow, salt has been mined here for eternities. As the hot sun evaporates the water in the summer, salt is left behind which is piled into huge hills 30 or 40 feet high. Stores in the area sell Camargue Fleur de Sel, which is coarser than table salt, more like Kosher salt, but in any case it tasted like plain old salt to me, even though better flavor is attributed to it by the locals. Salt is salt.
The ancient walled city of Aigues Morte (Dead Waters), approached though quaint streets of the newer town outside.
Two pooches watch the action below in Aigues Morte.
You don't see too many of these any more: a Solex moped, France's solution to motorized transit after WWII. -- I had a couple back in the States - a motor with a friction roller rubs, and thus turns, the front wheel....or pull the motor off the wheel via that black handle and pedal away sens moteur.
Lunch was at a Spanish tapas restaurant on a Place St. Louis: Toro Luna. Quite good as we gulped down pan con tamate y anchoa (bread with tomatoes and anchovies). Switching from French to Spanish (on the menu) was confusing and then ordering from the French waiter, more so.
Lynn and Mike sharing good times at Toro Luna restaurant in Aigues Morte.
And here's the bill -- in Euros!
We walked on and entered the massive Tower Of Constance, which was built in 1242 by Saint Louis, at one corner of the wall. This was built to protect the King who had taken residence there (in between several Crusades in which he participated; thus the "Saint" appelation). And protection it did, indeed, afford. Surrounded by a moat, it had numerous slits through which the King's men would fire their arrows at any transgressors. During later years, it was used as an ominous prison for Protestants who were rounded up during the Wars of Religions. And still later, in 1905, immigrant Italian salt laborers took shelter to protect themselves from anti-immigration rioters. What a history!
The Tower of Constance, built by Saint Louis in 1254. Louis was no saint ... he was off to Africa to fight the Moors in varoius crusades.
You can see the salt hills piled in the distance.
The wall still stands in Aigues Morte.
Oct 5, 2005
Stacey and I started this trip in a Borders bookstore in Los Angeles - we were preparing for our French trip with guidebooks and maps. Maps, obviously, are important for a car trip abroard. The French roads are wonderful: well maintained, signposted to the max, many planted with trees on both sides that stretch off into the distance. But without a map to plan the way ahead you are totally lost. We bought a Michellin map of all of France. We quickly found out that we needed much more detail of the particular area to which we were headed -- Montpellier. Signs led the way, but then what?
It was late, after seven, when we hit France's seventh largest city. Seven is rush hour in France as stores close from 12 to 2 and then reopen until 7 or so. The roads were filled with speeding traffic that pushed us along...no chance to slow down and take a look at where we were headed as we pushed ahead, on to this highway then off here, then on to another. A sign said "Montpellier Mediteranee", and I knew we had been in town and were now heading out of town to the shore area (Montpellier is not on the Mediterannean but several miles inland on the Lez River). I pulled off the road and into a shopping center. What to do? We didn't even have the address of the B&B where we would be staying - just a phone number. So we called - no answer. How could that be? Our hostess was expecting us tonight and she's not home. I left a message and we waited. Soon the phone rang and I tried to explain where we were but Micky couldn't place the location. So I took my cell phone to a security guard who was directing traffic in the parking lot and a long discussion ensued, in French, between the guard and our hostess. After all that, however, she still could not really place our location. She suggested that we make our way to the airport and she would meet us there. That sounded crazy to me, the guy knows his way, blindfolded, around Brooklyn and the rest of NY city. So I persuaded her to give us general directions to any place near her house. Micky said we should follow signs to the Hospiteau Faculte. She lives near the university and that's a central neighborhood that many road signs point to. And it worked! After another half an hour we called back to give her more familiar landmarks and Micky came to meet us and guide us to her house that would be our home for the next few days in Montpellier.
The lovely house in Montpellier that was to be our base for the next few days.
Stacey and our hostess, Micky, on the back terrace of her home.
Micky's place is a lovely and sprawling house with several levels, a quiet back yard with a pool. It's nice to sit and feel the warm Mediterranean sunlight on your face.
It was very late and we were too tired to start investigating the city and find a place to eat. Micky graciously invited us to join her for dinner. A chicken had already been cooked and it was served with lots of little green peas, some wine and bread. This act of generosity, we found over the next few days, was repeated over and over and we couldn't have wished for a better place or more a more lovely host than we had discovered here on Rue de Paul Parguel in the city of Montpellier.
Our "home" was in a wing of Micky's house - we had our own entry, two bedrooms with big beds and shared a bathroom with Lynn and Mike. Each bedroom opened onto the backyard and the pool (which we never used - the week before we arrived it "had been like summer," according to Micky. But this week Autumn had settled in. Still it hovered, very pleasantly, around 70 or so which was perfect for exploring the town).
Hanging out in the backyard.
Our bedroom with a door to the yard.
We slept well and upped early for our first look at the town of Montpellier. Here's what Frommer's has to say about this southern city:
758km (471 miles) SW of Paris; 161km (100 miles) NW of Marseille; 50km (31 miles) SW of Nîmes
The capital of Mediterranean (or Lower) Languedoc, this ancient university city is still renowned for its medical school, founded in the 13th century. Nostradamus qualified as a doctor here, and even Rabelais studied at the school. Petrarch came to Montpellier in 1317 and stayed for 7 years.
Today Montpellier is a bustling metropolis, one of southern France's fastest-growing cities, thanks to an influx of new immigrants. Except for some dreary suburbs, the city has a handsomely laid-out core, with tree-flanked promenades, broad avenues, and historic monuments. Students are about a quarter of the population, giving the city a lively, animated aura. In recent years, many high-tech corporations, including IBM, have settled in Montpellier.
Micky gave us instructions on how to use the mass transit system. Montpellier is said to be a very progressive town (from the city-planning point of view). A new tram (trolley) has been built and bicycles are in heavy use and encouraged with a system of bike paths. It's a university town with a famous medical school and, thus, is crawling with students. Mike remarked that it sometimes seems like a giant campus because of the number of young people in its streets.
The tram took us downtown to the heart of the old town: the Place de la Comedie, a beautiful square, surrounded by spectacular old buildings including the old opera house and a lovely, old fountain.
Place de la Comedie in Montpellier, France.
Montpellierians going about their business.
Lynn and Mike in the Place de la Comedie, Moulins, France.
The squares in French cities are one of my favorite things - each beautiful in its own right.
Adjacent to the Place de la Comedie is the be-flowered Esplanade de Charles De Gaulle, a promenade with tall London Planes that sheltered you from the hot southern sun. It's a place to stroll or sit and watch people walk by.
The Esplanade Charles de Gaulle in Montpellier.
From the Esplanade we entered the old town with its narrow and ancient streets. The French recycle their old buildings instead of tearing them down (as we have often done in the states). Then the "new" city grows up outside the old and the old is, therefore, beautifully preserved. Shops are installed in ground level of the old buildings and it's a joy to wander endlessly through this street and that until tiredness or hugner set in. That's the time to head for any one of the hundreds of cafes that you can find just about anywhere: in a place or even, unexpectedly, down some narrow alley. Fabulous!
This is a semi-tropical city - summer lasts till the end of October and palms grow everywhere.
The wider streets are filled with gorgeous hotels (mansions) from the 17th century when Montpellier had a renaissance after a period of decline.
Beautiful old buildings and plams in Montpellier.
Cafe's everywhere.
Lynn wanted a French haircut and had been searching since Paris for a place to have it done. She finally found a place with the right price and feel in a narrow street in Montpellier. We left her on her own as we continued our walk. And, ooh la la, it came out great!
Lynn's new French haircut. Not bad, ay?
Lots of students in Montpellier - result?? Beer bottle on a statue's head.
This fountain's lion looks worried that moss is growing all around him.
We ended our walk with a stroll out to the old aqueduct that had once delivered water to the city from the remote mountains. Surrounded by royal gardens, it offered a fabulous view of the surrounding city from up on high.
The old aqueduct that brought water to the medieval city.
The mountains in the distance to the north.
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....more Montpellier and beyond in tomorrow's post.
