Nimes and Pont du Gard

Today was a beautiful day.

The program paid for us to go on an excursion to Nimes, which is a really neat little city about an hour and a half away from Aix. It has a bunch of old Roman ruins in it, including a real-life coliseum where real gladiators fought and died. It was pretty neat. We also visited the "biggest, prettiest, and best-preserved aqueduct in the world" today, the Pont du Gard. Pretty awesome.

I have to say, it was really nice to get out of Aix. I mean, as thrilled as I am to be in France doing the things I am doing, we've started to realize that our options as far as activities go are pretty limited here. So getting out and about in foreign surroundings did us all some good, and it was really nice to see clean city streets that aren't overcrowded with people everywhere (in Nimes). We've also come to realize that everything is really crowded here.

First, we went to the Jardin de la Fontaine, a big park in the middle of Nimes. It has a bunch of fountains and statues and a few Roman ruins.

Next, we took a little hike up to a tower at the top of the park, La Tour Magne. I think we were told that it's the highest point in the department (sort of like a French county), and it's definitely the highest point in the city. And we got to go to the top of the tower where there is an awesome panoramic view of the city!

After the tower, I got lunch with a couple of my friends while everybody else went on the the coliseum. I got some sort of steak that was accompanied with two sides (salad, fries, rice, or vegetables). I ended up going with the fries and salad, and I was really happy with what I got. While we were still eating, every single other student from our program somehow ended up walking down the street where we were eating, and at least five of the other students sat down at our restaurant, saw what I had on my plate, and proceeded to all order the exact same thing as me. All five of them.

After lunch, we headed over to the coliseum, where we walked around for a little bit. It was really, really cool because you could go just about anywhere you wanted to. Actually, the arena is still used today for all sorts of things. In May, there are bull fights, and I think there are even recreations of gladiator battles at another time in the year. The pictures don't really do it justice, so I tried to take a lot of videos throughout the day. You can find those over on the right side of the page under the "Nimes Photos" link.

Pont du Gard was next--and I LOVED it! It was awesome, not necessarily because of the aqueduct, but because of the trails we could hike, the super clear river water, and the gorgeous, perfect weather. But everything was definitely enhanced by the presence of the aqueduct. (And actually, I'm having a really hard time choosing which pictures to post directly on the blog and which ones to leave for the link on the right because I feel like they're all so good!) After hiking for about an hour with a couple of girls from the program, we decided to go cool our feet off in the river water. After rolling up our jeans, we waded in. The water was a little chilly at first, but we got used to it surprisingly quickly! We just stood there for a while, enjoying the moment, occasionally skipping rocks across the water. It was really lovely--and my favorite part about the whole day.

I feel like I could have stayed there all day. It would be the perfect place to bring a picnic and just enjoy being outdoors--real outdoors, without the noise of a city 20 feet away. One of the best parts about the day really was the silence. If you get a chance, listen to the videos in the photo album I posted for today; the only noises are natural ones. It was a really nice change of pace for us, and I'm really hoping to go back soon with some of the other program students!