Nimes’ own
LAURA MILLAR visits the French city steeped in history and with more than a touch of Roman influence as well
STROLLING along Nimes’ elegant Esplanade Charles de Gaulle on a warm Friday afternoon, this wide avenue, which sits in a beautifully manicured park, is full of children running around, couples walking and small dogs yapping.
So far, so French – but I stop short when I see a familiar-looking structure rising up in front of me: a huge, oval amphitheatre, almost identical to the Colosseum in Rome. Standing nearly 70ft high, it was constructed in 70AD.
Today it’s used to stage concerts, ballets, opera and one of this region’s most popular sports: bullfighting.
Inside, however, it’s still easy to picture chariots thundering around its inner perimeter or gladiators pitched in deadly hand-to-hand combat – particularly as some of the Russell Crowe film Gladiator was shot here.
Despite being in the South of France, Nimes still bears the hallmarks of its very Roman past. The amphitheatre (or arena, as it’s known here) is the most prominent – and opposite it is the fascinating, newly opened Musée de la Romanité (museedelaromanite.fr/en), which is full of artefacts, mosaics and frescoes discovered in the region from the period when the Romans ruled.
Nimes was important to them because of its position close to the coast and also because it had its own source of drinkable spring water. Today, it’s a buzzy university town, composed of handsome architecture.
Streets are lined with elegant, pale stone, classical-style buildings, while in the historic old part, known as L’Ecusson, there are dozens of quaint, charming narrow alleyways.
L’Ecusson is the perfect place to browse souvenir shops – many of which sell products based on the local plant, lavender. Stop at a cafe for a refreshing glass of crisp, pale Costières de Nîmes rosé or just soak up the atmosphere. A five-minute walk away, up Boulevard Victor Hugo, is the Maison Carrée.
This multi-column stone temple dates from 2AD and looks as though it’s just been built.
Surrounded by lively cafes and restaurants, the square is a popular hangout with the younger population.
By now I’m getting hungry, so I head to Les Halles, Nimes’ huge, covered food market, where different stalls sell a range of local produce.
Typical dishes include brandade, a sort of pate made from salt cod; tapenade, a black or green olive paste and my favourite petit pâté nîmois, a small veal and pork pie.
I buy a few things and take my picnic to the nearby Les Jardins de la Fontaine, a beautiful, sprawling park and botanical gardens, scattered with 19th-century statues, exotic plants and trees, which is also the location of the source of the original spring which supplied the city.
The Romans spent nearly half a century in the Gard region of southern France, of which Nimes is the capital.
As their population grew and they needed more water to supply their ornamental fountains, pools and baths, their ingenuity caused them to build the next monument on my journey.
Just 18 miles away is the Pont du Gard, all that remains of a 30-milelong aqueduct which transported water to Nimes. Eighty-eight gallons of water per second gushed through this structure, which took 20 years to