A Two-Fer Post from Nîmes, France

There is nothing wrong with combining two days in one post, right? After a late night dinner last night at an Italian restaurant, I went to bed early after a full fun filled day. An FFF! Ha!

May 26 - Random Thoughts about this Trip and Today

After a week of revelry, like a college banger for a week of partying with a million people, the City of Nîmes is getting back its legs. The streets are open once again (they were closed off for most of last week until this morning), so there is car traffic once again, and people are going back to work in droves. I know this because I got up early enough to take a walk around the ring streets of busy Nîmes, to admire the coolish morning before the heat of the day, covering almost three miles of the modern world and the antiquities of yesteryear.

It’s not every day that one could walk by an ancient Coliseum, or an entrance to a walled city 2000 years ago, all juxtaposed within the modern city living.

Rome and Greece have similar dichotomies in at least architectural styles. Other places, too, like Petra in Jordan (I do want to see that country someday!).

You know what though? I think people have not changed much over the millennial years. Maybe the clothes have changed, and people drive cars now or use their shoe leather instead of saddling a horse or camel, but really, now much have we really changed?

I wonder if the women in Nîmes got up early 2000 years ago to walk around the city before they had to take care of feeding their brood, or other morning chores? Textiles were big in the area of France, so perhaps there were many weavers in this area to aid in the clothing of their loved ones, a big job no doubt.

Most of the today I was on my own. I took advantage of shopping for a few things, since I’ve been mostly window shopping since I’ve been here due to the Féria where many places were shuttered. I even got into the Nîmes Cathedral, another large church a stone’s throw from my apartment.

By 7 pm, fellow writer Katy and I welcomed another writer, Dave Vance, into the fold of Nîmes. He also came a bit early to town for the writer’s retreat next week, and hadn’t ever been in this area of France.

I gotta admit, the first time to this lovely medieval city is daunting. Getting lost is a thing here with all the winding streets. After a day or two, it’s easy to get out of and find your way. We wanted to help Dave acclimate and get him to his apartment in the same building as me since he’s been traveling for over 20 hours (including time differences).

Dinner at the ever busy Italian restaurant a stone throw away from my building rounded out this beautiful 93 degree day!

May 27 - Pont du Gard

Travel is not for the faint of heart, especially when things don’t go as planned. Take for instance the bus Katy , Dave V., and I were supposed to get on at 8:30 a.m. this morning. We were there in plenty of time, too. Oh, the 121 bus came and went, but since it was in “no shape to take passengers” (mechanical difficulty is what we were told), it glided on by without one fare. Other buses did the same thing. Hmmm.

Maybe at 2 euro, the bus lines don’t care. So, we had to wait until 11:00 am to finally get the 121 bus to whisk us out of Nîmes and to Pont du Gard - the ancient aqueduct the Romans built in 40 A.D. or so. I love this place. The entire operation of building this immense aqueduct came from the Roman engineers and ingenuity, and it amazes me about the breadth and depth it took to create this masterpiece. It was also very expensive to bring water to the thriving city of Nîmes from 17 miles away (elevated), but they engineered and designed and used the logic of gravity like no body’s business to share the local resources, and water being of biggest need. 💦

The whole thing was extremely complex, and the manpower alone had to be daunting from the start.

Interestingly, the monstrosity structure supplied the city of Nîmes with fairly clean water until the early 6th century. However, due to the city no longer maintaining the canal, the flow of water dropped considerably in the 3rd century. Who knows who is right on these dates, but that is what was provided in the visitor’s center. Bring in regional wars, inclement weather, apathy in keeping it going due to the cost, and lost interest by the folks who lived during that time, it’s a wonder the thing still stands proudly over the river. Some of it was even dismantled and demolished so people could build homes and churches with the masonry blocks because they were easy to cut and saw. Sheesh! 🙄

Some folks finally wised up to preserve this marvel, first in 1794 (after the biggest French Revolution), and then in the late 1840s where it was declared a historical monument. Thank goodness! It probably wouldn’t have survived much longer after all the pillaging kept going on.

Let’s hope monuments like this one will stick around a lot longer with the advent of UNESCO’s world heritage list: In December 1985, the Pont du Gard was placed on that famous list, consecrated as a masterpiece it is, and the nod to the exceptional human creativity and genius of the Roman civilization, whose site and setting were truly remarkable.

Even though we had a later start of our day, I am thankful to have gone once again to this incredible place.

One more thing, you gotta go with the program, even though it was hot again today - 94 degrees Fahrenheit! We drank lots of water to keep us hydrated - clean water, too! A silver lining!

Viva la France 🇫🇷!

Terri