Nimes, Pont du Gard, and Avignon

Saturday, August 17th:  Lots of photos for two days.  The first day is at the city of Nimes, with its many well-preserved Roman ruins.  (Fun facts:  Levi Strauss imported fabric "de Nimes" to California in the 1860s, starting a world-wide fashion trend,  This is also the source of Perrier water.)  The next day the photos are of Pont du Gard, a famous Roman aqueduct which supplied water to Nimes.  And, lastly, the old city of Avignon. 

Our bungalow at Inn4Bears, Nimes, France.  The  inn has at least 4 cats - 1 sociable, the others semi-feral, but all cute.

Inside.

The pool.

Working on the blog.

The Clock Tower in Old City Nimes.

The Nimes Arena or Amphitheater -- most complete in the world.

Fountain, specially Fontaine Pradier.

A cathedral.

Palace of Justice in Nimes.

The Nimes emblem - crocodile and palm tree.  The Romans conferred an honor to Nimes when it became a colony and created a special coin that reflected the name of the local god and also celebrated a Roman victory in Egypt, hence the palm tree and the croc.  In the antique design, the croc was chained to the tree but he was liberated (?) in the modern version.

Dinner of paella.  They really do add quarts and gallons and handfuls of ingredients.  We got the first serving, at 7 pm, piping hot and loaded with good stuff - chicken pieces, mussels, prawns, clams.

Maison Carree, a Roman temple.  Carree means square and this building is a rectangle.  In olden days, the French language called a rectangle as a "long square." 

Corinthian decoration.

The location for the morning market.

Meats, actually skewers, ready for grilling.

Seafood.

Sweets.

Cheeses.

More seafood.

Shrimp.

Shells.

Olives.

The Maison Carree again the next day.

Model of the Maison Carree and the colonnaded Forum that used to surround it.

The front porch, a bit weathered.

The backside of Maison Carree, with a slight curve in the roof eave.

The inside of the Arena.  It is still used for concerts, bull fights and other events. We did a 45 plus-minute audio tour that explained the arena's history, with a focus on gladiators (who fought other men - lower class fighters made war on animals).

Tour Magne, the high point of the city and a remaining part of the walls surrounding the city.

The original emblem for the city - see the chain?

Les Jardins de La Fontaine.

Jets d'Eau in the garden.

Pan.

Temple de Diane.

Magne Tower

View from atop the tower

Panorama of Nimes.

Another view from the tower.

Next day, we did a long road trip to the Pont du Gard and Avignon. Our section of Nimes is so hilly and twisty that it took almost an hour to get out of town . . .

First view of the famous 3 level Pont du Gard aqueduct.

Top two levels.

River Gard - very popular with swimmers and boaters on a hot summer Saturday.

In 1745, a bridge was built next to the original structure to allow visitors to cross the river beside the aqueduct.  It was built at the base of the second level.

All three levels.

Again.

The tunnel for the water to flow toward Nimes.

The top of the aqueduct showing the water channel.  Most of this channel is covered.  It delivered 50,000 imperial gallons a day to Nimes for bathing, fountains and drinking.

The backside.  Each level of the original structure gets narrower as it goes up.

The path of the water from Uzes (upper left) to Pont du Gard (center right) to Nimes (lower left).

A drop of 56 feet over 31 miles (average gradient is 1 in 3000).  However, the gradient at the Pont du Gard is 0.98 inches in 1,496 feet. This was all determined by line of sight (human eyeballs assessing the grade) and primitive tools.  We spent quite a while in the excellent museum on the site, which did a great job explaining the engineering and construction techniques.

The largest stones weigh 6 tons.  They used cranes and wheels powered by men on foot to lift massive amounts of material.

Wooden templates were used to build the arches, but once the keystone was place the templates were moved to the next arch for contruction.

Old city of Avignon- - the Palais des Papes and its square.

Three different towers in Avignon.

A city vineyard with the Rhone River in the background, from atop the Jardin des Doms.  The vineyard is preserving historic grape varietals.

Half of a bridge -- Pont Saint-Benezet.

Palais des Papes (Pope's Palace) - 14th century theological schism led to the Pope's exile from Rome.

 

Notre Dame des Doms d'Avignon.

A formidable thunderstorm blew into Avignon just as we were finishing our sightseeing, so we parked under a cafe awning, had drinks, and watched people for more than an hour.  Then we asked Ron to retrieve our umbrellas from the car and found a nice, indoor restaurant before driving back to Nimes.