Day 20: Around Uzes. The Pont du Gard and Nimes. More Roman than Rome

This morning we visited Pont du Gard, a huge Roman aqueduct of three levels spanning the Aude River.  Bloody amazing is all I can say.
I grabbed the last shaded car park and sorted out the tickets in the visitor centre, where I was advised by the helpful lady behind the counter to bypass the audio guide and grab one after visiting the museum and cinema if I felt it was still warranted.  Sage advice, as after watching a film about the aqueduct, then wandering around the museum for the best part of an hour (it was an amazing museum and highly recommended) we knew everything we needed to know and still hadn’t even seen the aqueduct.  All we wanted to do now was walk down and see it as quickly as possible!!

Those Roman babes knew how to rock a bikini!

A word on the museum; as I said, it was really well presented.  Using scale models and full sized replicas, as well as using film, it demonstrated how the aqueduct was constructed.  It also showed history of artifacts discovered in the area, and how the aqueduct with its supply of water further benefited the town of Nîmes, which actually wasn’t too short of water to begin with.  Those Romans loved their baths!

Finally, we were off walking down to Pont du Gard.  The tree lined path curved gracefully to the right and there it was, spreading out across the river ahead of us.  Amazing.  We just looked at it for a while, from the vantage of an ancient olive tree.  In fact, that olive tree!  So big and old.  Born and raised in a country where the oldest building I could hope to see would barely be older than the mid 1800’s, to be here and see so much history just amazes and humbles me.
Though it was pretty cool seeing the aboriginal cave paintings at Carnarvon Gorge back home.
Right, back to that olive tree.  A carved stone slab lying nearby explains, in French, it was born in the year 908 and was moved to the Pont du Gard from Spain.  That would make it some 1106 years old!  What!!

We continued walking down to, and then across the bridge built alongside the Pont du Gard in the 18th century, and grabbed a snack and sat under the huge shady trees along the river.

We walked up river, and under the aqueduct, past where people were swimming and kayaking, and Michelle returned across the aqueduct while I climbed a rough steep path to the top.
Climbing through the forest I had superb views across the valley and the aqueduct; at the summit I could see the covered channel the water passed through as it made its way across the aqueduct, through a tunnel dug through the mountain, and on downwards at a ridiculously low gradient of .24mm per kilometre.  The technology of the entire aqueduct, not just the Pont du Gard is just staggering.

Back up at the visitor centre I ordered a couple of crêpes, all in French.  I was pretty happy with myself.  At least I know I won’t starve in this country, being so far able to order baguette, jambon, chevre and crêpes, both sucre and figue confiture.  Lol. I still don’t know how to pronounce eau though, so I may go thirsty.  Unless I can point…
I also ordered a couple of cappuccinos.  I watched the girl making them, and thought it looked a little strange how she was doing it.  I could see her scooping a couple of spoonfuls of froth into the coffee cup.  When I collected them, they were basically an espresso, as in full on black, only a third of the cup full and with a small amount of froth floating on top with a sprinkle of chocolate. Ummm…
Next stop was Nîmes, to see where all this water was going too.

We ascended from the underground parking into this beautiful square, with a huge ornate fountain, La Fontaine Pradier, wondering where the arena was.  A short walk around the corner answered that question.  It was big.  More than 20 metres high. Supposedly it was the best preserved Roman arena surviving.  I’m not really sure what that means though, because if it has been patched, restored and in some ways remodelled, at what point does it no longer become the original Roman Arena?

Regardless, more bloody amazing. We grabbed the audio guide and made our way all over this large, almost 2,000 year old arena; hearing tales of gladiatorial combat, fights between animals, fights between gladiators and animals, executions of prisoners which no-one apart from the emperor had much interest in watching.  Unless they were were slaves holding their front row seats for their masters, or lower class not wanting to lose their prime seating. Most people used the execution time to go and grab their snacks and refreshments from the corridors.
The arena is still used to this day for bull fights, and there was also a display on the matadors in one of the gladiator’s old dressing rooms.

A short walk through town brought us to the temple Maison Carrèe;  A spectacularly well preserved Roman Temple (which again makes me wonder how much is actual Roman Temple), that is now a cinema where we watched an actually quite good dramatization of the forefathers of Nîmes and their alliance with the Romans as part of their battles through Gaul.

I quite enjoyed it, even though it was a little bit of Nîmes’ propaganda.
The agenda for today proved a little too ambitious, so the visit to Arles and Fontvielle will have to await another time, and we made our way back home.

Everybody wants their photo with the matador

Back in Uzès, we dined in the Place des Herbex at Terroirs.  I’m really loving southern France and their anise flavoured aperitifs.  Terroirs had absinthe, so I naturally ordered that, but the waiter talked me into trying Pastis du Marius, which was actually very nice. Absinthe (which specifically said it had wormwood in it) will need to wait another day.
Michelle had coke, which the waiter dutifully advised was a very good year as he presented with flourish the bottle.
My main meal was foie gras, again.  But with a little twist this time.  The patè included some gingerbread, and it was served with smoked duck and salad.  The waiter said good choice on ordering, and I have to agree with him.

The recommendation for dessert was the home made tiramisu, and it was undoubtedly the best, tastiest, moistest tiramisu I had ever had the pleasure of sticking in my gob.
Tonight was second semi-final for Eurovision, and I got home just in time before it started. But I couldn’t find it on the television anywhere!
Disaster!!  I clicked through hundreds of channels, and no Eurovision anywhere to be found. How can this be, I’m in Europe!  I’d even hoped to actually find an open screening of it in a square somewhere, but that wasn’t to be either.
I gave up watching it on tele, and went the online option.  Even that had a few dramas, with the internet disconnecting and taking ages to reconnect.  It eventually came good, and I only missed a few of the songs, which I’ll catch-up on later when I rewatch it back in Australia with the Julia commentary.
And how mean to leave Conchita hanging on till the very end to see if she got through!

Yep, there are more pics.