Thursday, June 26, 2008

Nîmes Encore

A couple of days after the concert, Jube and I headed back to Nîmes, this time during the day. We stopped by Carrefour to see if they had an Xbox 360 for Le Pacha, but they didn't have the right one. Afterwards, we headed into town to walk around for a bit.

We saw les Arènes, as usual, and then went to the mall (fnac for Jube and Zara for me). We visited the Maison Carrée, but half of it is covered in scaffolding. It is being cleaned, and when that's finished, it's going to be really beautiful... but for the moment, it just looks sad. I had hopes of having a drink at the terrace restaurant of the Carré d'Art next to the Maison Carrée... We've never been inside, but the Carré d'Art is a museum of modern art. It was inspired by the Roman temple of the Maison Carrée, but is very modern architecture - think lots of glass, metal, and decorative pipes. Belle-Maman hates it, but I think it's kind of neat!

Anyway, since we couldn't go in there (because the whole point was sitting where there is a good view of the Maison Carrée which is now covered in scaffolding and advertisements), I had the idea of going to les Jardins de la Fontaine for a drink! I really like the walk there. It goes by a calm canal lined with sycamores, which are reflected very green. Les Jardins include an old Roman library (called the Temple of Diana, for some reason!) and lots of 19th Century landscaping... pretty canals, little pleasure gardens, lots of staircases. This time, Jube and I climbed up the hill that usually serves as a background for les Jardins. It reminded me a bit of Barcelona's Park Güell in the way it just kept going! We climbed for awhile, and I started getting tired - remember, all I wanted was a drink at an outdoor café so we could relax for a bit! I was wearing a skirt and sandals, and we kept passing people dressed for hiking - or rather, they kept passing us.

But then we made it to the top, where we found la Tour Magne. I was surprised to have found a part of Nîmes I didn't know! We paid €5 to get inside, and then started the grueling process of climbing about a thousand tiny stairs to get to the lookout at the top. I almost passed out on the way, but we finally made it! The view was gorgeous - we could practically see all the way back to Gallargues! We saw all of Nîmes from above. I was amazed! I'd never even heard of the Tour Magne!

Then we made our way back down to sealevel where I finally got to have my drink! Jube chose an apple juice and I had a diabolo fraise (which is just a fancy way of saying a Shirley Temple). We relaxed in the cool of the shade, watching little kids play in the puddles. And then we went back to Gallargues, where that evening I had a horrible headache (probably from climbing a million feet in the sun without drinking any water).

It was a wonderful day, and I only regret not bringing my camera - I thought that I'd seen everything there was to see in Nîmes, and I was wrong!

1 comment:

N said...

I'd never heard of Shirley Temple (the fancy way to say diabolo fraise)! ;-)