Another adventure! A fabulous city to visit. This is definitely a ‘must see’.
Easier than the bus perhaps, Julie and I took the train to Nîmes, about half an hour north-east of Montpellier. Buying train tickets in France is quite complicated. You have to book – you can’t just get on a train. And even when you’ve bought a ticket, you have to authenticate it (pass it through a machine) before you go onto the platform. (This is, of course, very similar to what happens in England, but it's somehow different too!)
You have to select your departure time and your return time. There are TGV trains and ter trains. The timetable covers both. You book and have to catch the same sort of train both ways. If you miss your return train, or decide to come back earlier, you can only take a train of the same sort that you booked! Having said all that, we got help from a very kind train official who did it all for us!! The cost for Julie was E16.40 return and for a slightly older person like me, only E12.40! Even if you’re gong that day, you have a very formal looking envelope containing your tickets – as if you’re flying off to Timbuktu!
However, after all the complications of the booking process, the journey was really easy!
It’s interesting that the station in Nîmes is a very long way from the tourist office. Leaving the Gare, you walk down the wide Avenue Feuchères and arrive at the Esplanade Charles de Gaulle.
which is a very attractive area with La Fontaine Pradier in the centre.
Beside the Esplanade is the Eglise Sainte Perpetué et Sainte Felicité – a very intricate and imposing church.
Leaving the church behind, and crossing the boulevard de la Libération you arrive at the stunning amphitheatre (Place des Arènes) on the corner of boulevard Victor Hugo. Unfortunately, without the benefit of pamphlets from the Tourist Office at this point, you have absolutely no idea what’s special about it! We resolved to get to the Tourist Office as fast as we could and start reading!
Having been lucky enough to get a pamphlet in English, we decided that there were three important sites to visit, Tour Magne by passing through the jardins de la Fontaine, the Square House (La Maison Carrée) and the Nîmes Amphitheatre (Place des Arènes) - which we’d just skirted. But first, we thought we’d better do a bit of reading about the history of Nîmes so we walked to a café in the jardins de la Fontaine. This is what we discovered.
The city derives its name from that of a spring, Nemausus, in the Roman village. The contemporary symbol and shield of the city of Nîmes includes a crocodile chained to a palm tree with the inscription ‘COLNEM’, an abbreviation of ‘Colonia Nemausus’, meaning the ‘colony’ or ‘settlement’ of Nemausus. Roman legions who had served Julius Caesar in his Nile campaigns, at the end of fifteen years of soldiering, were given plots of land to cultivate on the plain of Nîmes.
However, the founding of Nîmes goes back to the 6th century BC. The Volcae Aercomici, a Celtic tribe, settled around the spring, made it a deity, and built a sanctuary. In 120 BC the Volcae, who had a vast territory, accepted the advent of Roman legions without resistance.
Nîmes reached its peak in the 2nd century AD when it became a colony under Latin Law and was ornamented with sumptuous monuments. However, successive invasions and then the arrival of the Visigoths in the 5th century put an end to its prosperity.
During the Middle Ages, the population took refuge in the amphitheatre which had become a fortress. The Roman ramparts were used as a quarry where everyone helped himself to stone. Nîmes finally woke up from about 1,000 AD onwards. New city walls were built. Trade started again, thanks to the development of vineyards, olives and sheep farming.
The Wars of Religion in the 16th century were violent. Protestants were kept out of public life and turned to trading. Their cloth production was soon exported within Europe and to the Spanish Indies. The city became prosperous and its looks improved.
Thirty years of rapid success in the 19th century placed Nîmes and its silk industry at the European level. But competition from Lyons was fierce. Textile capital was very quickly reinvested in vineyards and a new era of prosperity began. Many private mansions were built near the station.
For about the past 20 years, Nîmes has put leading-edge contemporary art and the treasures from the past side by side. The old districts are being renovated and the city is spreading southward. Some of the greatest international designers have been entrusted with its town planning projects and it was certainly evident.
Coffee over, we thought we’d start exploring! Inside the jardins de la Fontaine is the Temple de Diane which is said to be the most romantic, but also the most enigmatic monument in Nîmes. Thought to be associated with the imperial temple, its exact role is not known. What is known is that the Temple was part of the Roman sanctuary consisting of a set of buildings close to the Nemausus spring, remnants of which were found in about 1739 when works were being carried out in the area.
Visible from a distance, the Magne Tower indicated the presence of the city and of the Imperial Temple located at the foot of the hill around the spring. It was the highest and most prestigious tower of the Roman town. Octagonal in form, it was then composed of three levels on top of a pedestal. Today the top storey has disappeared and it rises to a height of about 32 metres. Although this photo doesn’t really make it look very tall, Julie and I can attest to the fact that it’s quite a climb to the top, from which the view of Nîmes is remarkable.
Our pamphlet gave us the times for various events that were taking place at the three sites we wanted to visit and we had to return to the amphitheatre (closer to the station) and then go back to La Maison Carrée in order to fit everything in and catch our return train!
Built at the end of the 1st century AD, the Nîmes amphitheatre was one of the largest in Roman Gaul. It measures about 133 metres in length and is 101 metres wide. The façade, 21 metres high, is made up of 2 levels of 60 arcades each. Inside, more than 20,000 spectators were able to attend the hunting and fighting spectacles featuring animals and gladiators.
A system of stairways and passages allowed spectators to reach their seats and to leave them easily. Positioned according to social status, they were shaded from the sun by a canopy supported by ropes attached to poles. Today, Nîmes has one of the best-preserved amphitheatres of the Roman world. I took heaps of photos inside but none of them really do justice to its remarkable size.
We timed our visit well and were able to partake of a multimedia spectacle in 3D which showed gladiators and bullfighters in action. The 3D glasses were so good that it was quite possible to imagine oneself in the middle of the arena at times!!
Now we had to hurry to retrace our steps to the Square House (La Maison Carrée). Raised up on its high podium, this temple would have dominated the forum of the ancient city. This spacious square, the centre of public life, was surrounded by a portico, traces of which can still be seen. Some of the bases of the portico columns are preserved at the site. It was under construction when we were there so it wasn’t possible to take a photo that showed it free standing.
Built in the 1st century AD, La Maison Carrée has had this name since the 16th century. In fact, in old French, any rectangle with 4 right angles was described as carrée or square. Dedicated to Caius and Lucius Caesar, the adopted grandsons of the Emperor Augustus, La Maison Carrée is the only fully preserved temple of the ancient world. It’s very pleasant to look at with its harmonious proportions and elegant columns with Corinthian capitals (the upper part of a column that supports the entablature which, in its turn is the structure consisting of the part of a classical temple above the columns between a capital and the roof)!! It’s amazing what you learn when others use words you don’t know!
In 1992, La Maison Carrée was given a new roof, which is a faithful reproduction of the original, made up of ‘legulae’ – large flat tiles - ‘and ímbrex’ – hand moulded curved tiles. Opposite La Maison Carrée, the Carrée d’Art contemporary art centre offers a very fine view of this roof from its terrace. My legs didn’t allow me to climb another step at this point and particularly not to the top of the museum so I didn’t take a photo of the roof. I sat down on a lovely cold stone bench while Julie explored this modern structure and its contents (sadly without her camera!).
With very tired feet, we did our best to race to the station and were so glad to relax on our train back to Montpellier. It had been an excellent day, full of adventure.