Author Archives: Trudy

Notre Dame of Lyon and Lugdunum

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Day 67, Friday, November 3, 2023

It is still not very nice outside but tomorrow is supposed to be even worse, so we take a bus and the metro to visit downtown Lyon.  Public transportation in Europe is so easy to use and much better than driving and trying to find a place to park.  We walk across the bridge over the Rhône River towards Notre Dame de Fourvière, the church high on the hill in this photo.

The funicular to the top is 3.50€ each and well worth it.  Sure saves us a lot of stairs.

Notre Dame de Fourvière is impressive.  It took 25 years to build, was completed in 1896, and is dedicated to the Virgin Mary.  This UNESCO World Heritage Site has over 2.5 million pilgrims and visitors each year.

We walk into the church and stop to stare in wonder.  This is one of the most richly decorated churches we have visited.

Everything is in immaculate condition, there are barely any signs of damage or wear.  The column are beautifully carved with magnificent capitals.

The floor is made of many small mosaic tiles interspersed with marble tiles.

A view of the altar and ceiling.  Gilt, marble, stained glass and coloured mosaics cover almost every surface.

On the sidewalls are six 50 square metre mosaic panels. Those on the left illustrate Mary’s relationship to the Church, and on the right, Mary’s relationship to France.

They are spectacular…but difficult to photograph.

There is so much to look at.

Here is a closeup of part of the ceiling…

which is also incredible.

We spend quite a while here, it is an awe inspiring church.  

This close up of one of the pillars shows their intricate decoration…all painstakingly carved from stone.

I need a photo beside these magnificent columns on the church steps.  It is quite cool and windy up here on the hill.  I am wearing 5 layers!

The crypt is closed today as they are setting up for some special event…we have not had much luck visiting crypts this trip.  But just outside the crypt there are these interesting molten candles.

We spend a bit of time at the lookout beside the church…

along with many others…but it is really cold and windy …

so after a selfie we head inside to a nearby café for hot chocolate, regional mushroom soup and a couple pastry treats.  It was so nice and warm inside!

Warmed up, and fortified, we set off in search or some Roman ruins.  These wishing trees are in the courtyard beside the church.

Nearby I spot this little fountain, just for dogs!

There are four church towers and each one represents one of the virtues…Prudence, Temperance, Fortitude, and Justice.

It is a short walk to the Lugdunum site.  Lugdunum was the capital of Roman Gaul in the 1st century.  During the Middle Ages it gradually became known as Lyon. These ruins are from the oldest theater in Roman Gaul and it is also one of the largest (108 m in diameter). we are pleasantly surprised that there is no fee to visit these ruins. It is a long ways down, and no railings. This theatre held 10,000 spectators.

Photos show where the theatre was completely concealed in 1933, partially excavated in 1934, and a view of the uncovered theatre in 1946.

Bob spotted these  bits of remaining marble that once covered the stone surface.

We wander through some of the back rooms and alleys, imagining what they must have been used for.

Pretty sure this was a takeout restaurant.  We saw very similar rooms in Pompeii where patrons could buy prepared food.

It is getting dark and the gates close soon so we walk back towards the funicular.

Everything looks different lit up for the night.

We decide we should walk about and see some of the old town of Lyon tonight.  The wind has died down and it is nicer than it was earlier in the day.  There is another huge church here and although it is impressive it looks so bare after visiting Notre Dame on the hill.

Interesting motto!

There were a lot of interesting little shops to peek into, although many of them were already closed for the night.  

We really enjoyed our leisurely stroll through Old Lyon.  The city is pretty at night, but it is getting late so we head home.

 

Lyon

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Day 66,  Thursday, November 2, 2023

When travelling for such a long time it is essential to schedule in some down days.  Today was one of those.  We drove to a big grocery store to replenish our supplies, did a couple loads of laundry, researched and planned activities for our stay here in Lyon, and worked on the blog…I seem to be forever playing catch up with my posts!  It is also cold, wet and windy so it is a good day to stay home.

Our apartment is on the sixth floor of an older building on the outskirts of Lyon.  On the way to Lyon we were commenting on how great it was that there was an elevator…but when we arrived last night we discover that it was out of order!  Yesterday was All Saint’s Day, which is a French National holiday, so there were no repairs scheduled until today.  Last night we only took up the bare essentials with the hope that the elevator would be repaired today.  We were lucky and by mid afternoon it was once again in working order.

Our hosts are an older couple who took great pride in explaining everything we needed to know about the apartment. They only spoke French and I was pleased that I was able to understand and respond in French.  All that Duolingo online French is paying off!

We had a very frightening experience last night.  In the dark last night we drove past the gate to the apartment complex and had to turn around so we could get back to the gate.  Bob put his signal light on and just as he started to turn left a young man on a standing electric scooter came flying down the hill past us.  He swerved and barely missed hitting us…literally by inches.  He was going very fast and he was out of sight in seconds.  It  really shook us up.  If he would have hit us it would have been an awful accident.  What an idiot!  He was dressed all in black, had no lights, was going way too fast, and he was very lucky he wasn’t seriously hurt or killed.

 

 

Nîmes to Lyon and the Pont du Gard

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Day 65,  Wednesday, November 1, 2023

On our drive to Lyon we visit the UNESCO World Heritage Site of Pont du Gard.

The Pont du Gard is an aqueduct bridge built by the Romans in the 1st century AD.

At 50 meters high, it is the highest Roman aqueduct bridge in the world. It is made up of 3 rows of superimposed arches (6 arches on the first level, 11 arches on the second level and 47 arches originally on the third level). It is in remarkably good condition and is considered a masterpiece of human creative genius. The Pond du Gard is the only example of an ancient 3-story bridge still standing today.

Our tour takes us down to the river bank to see the strong foundations that have supported this bridge through many floods.  We are shown a photo of floodwaters that were higher than the level of the bridge above these bottom arches.

And today we are going to walk across the very top third level, inside the original water channel!  This old photograph from the museum on site shows where we will be walking and just how high above the river we will be.

Nearly a thousand men worked on this colossal project, and it was completed in just 5 years!  We climb up to the very top level inside a staircase for tourists that was constructed in 1842…and that little staircase took three years to complete!

We climb the spiral staircase and emerge on the top of the bridge.  WOW!!  We are 50 meters above the river and the views are amazing. This is looking downstream…

and this is upstream.

It is time to walk inside the water channel that supplied the city of Nîmes with water under pressure for 5 centuries!  Can you tell I am excited?

Portions of the top of the channel are open and allow us to see the calcifications that built up inside the  water channel and eventually stopped the flow of water in the 6th century. Bob had to duck in a few places… 

but I am just the right height!

The aqueduct carried an estimated 8,800,000 gallons of water a day over 50 km, to the fountains, baths and homes of the citizens of Nîmes.

The aqueduct had an average slope of just 25 cm per kilometer, over a distance of 50 kilometers.  That is an incredible feat of engineering 2,000 years ago.  Bob kindly acted as packhorse so that I could take photos and use my walking poles.

We exit on the far side of the river…

and I take one last photo of the inside of the water channel that shows how dark it was when we weren’t under one of the areas open to the sky.

Everyone lingers on this open section of the bridge, reluctant to leave.  It was an incredible experience.  We are so glad we decided to take the guided tour that allowed us do this.

Another tourist took this photo for us, and just about cropped Bob out of the picture!

We were way up there!!

The second level of the Pont du Gard had a road bridge added in the 18th century so that it could still be used as a transport bridge as the original bridge only had a narrow ledge beside the arches to use to cross the river.  Walking back along this bridge we are surprised to see a lot of soldiers walk by, both men and women.  We think they are heading out for maneuvers of some sort as they are all carrying big packs and have camouflaged faces.  

On the way back to we pass two magnificent old olive trees.  The average life span of an olive tree is 500 years and some can live as long as 1500 years!The rest of the drive to Lyon has has a lot of variety.  We pass interesting rock formations, a nuclear power plant right beside wind turbines, lots of small towns and villages on the distant hilltops, all under  an ever changing evening sky.

Our last restroom stop was a surprises.  I love foxgloves but didn’t expect to see them on the bathroom doors.

This is what the toll booths look like… and on the other side it is a free for all as all the lanes of traffic converge into just two or three lanes on the highway.  It was dark by the time we arrived in Lyon and it took a bit to find our apartment.  Google maps was a bit confused and tried to take us to the wrong building!

Avignon, France

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Day 64 Tuesday,  October 31, 2023.

We are visiting Avignon today.  There is always something interesting to see on our drives.  I think this is an old chimney stack that is being dismantled.

There is a free parking lot on an island near Avignon with a free bus ride into town.  The first thing we see when walk through the town gate is this magnificent tree.  I know…lots of tree photos, but I do love these beautiful huge trees.  It is too bad our winters at home are too cold for these beauties.

We have seen so many churches…but every time we enter another one it is different and sometimes there are little jewels to discover.  I loved the contrast between the modern paintings and this ancient Gothic church that was built in the early 1300’s…Saint Agricol Church.  There has been a church on this site since 660.  Then there is the sunlight streaming through the stained glass windows!

The indoor market has a living wall… and lots of seafood.  Too bad neither Bob nor I are fans.  The very last picture is of Lapin…Rabbit.  Not something we are used to seeing.  I had rabbit once many years ago and although it was OK, it isn’t something I am interested  in trying again.  

We used to pick and dry these same mushrooms.  I knew they were a delicacy but I had no idea that Morels were so expensive … 640€ a kilogram!!

There is a flea market outside the  indoor market.  These old copper pots make me think of my grandparents and their copper pots.

After having our lunch we walk through this narrow street built between the walls of the Popes Palace and a rock cliff.

Bob has taken some amazing photos this trip…he might become a photographer yet!

At the end of this street there are some painted windows.  We see several buildings whose windows contain paintings of people.  They make me smile.

I love the look of all the cobbled streets but they sure are hard to walk on for a long time.

This is a scale model of Le Palais des Papes (Palace of the Popes). It is the largest Gothic building in Europe!   It was a fortress, a palace, and the seat of Western Christianity during the 14th Century.  Nine popes lived here and it is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Our 12€ admission tickets includes the use of a Histopad.  This device allows us to look in any direction, as well as up or down and the Histopad screen shows us what the  room would have looked like in the 14th century.  

I usually wait and try not to have a lot of people in my photos, but it was really hard to do that today.  Everyone stands transfixed, viewing these rooms as they might have been. This room was the treasury and in 1995 a secret chamber was discovered under the stone floor, that still contained precious treasures from hundreds of years ago.  There was no information on how this chamber was discovered.  It is amazing that it would still be there after all this time.  Bob is standing beside this secret chamber in the photo.

In this photo you can just see the top of a sculpture behind the Histogram…

It is made from corrugated cardboard and stands about 5 feet tall by Paris artist Eva Jospin.  I think it is fascinating.  

We take a break in the palace gardens and try to buy a hot chocolate from a machine that only accepts credit cards…it was beyond both of us!  No hot chocolate for us today.

The palace walls rise 52 meters above the garden!

The gardens look lovely from afar but they were actually a bit neglected.  

We return to the inside for the last part of our tour.  However the Histopad photo is not what grabs my attention.
Rather it is the three enormous silk embroidered wall hangings displayed on one of the long walls.  ‘Chamber de Soie’  or ‘Silk Room’ is also created by Eva Jospin.  

We spend a lot of time here as I walk back and forth, studying these huge embroidered panels.  I can not believe how much work it would take to make these.

Here are the other two…

along with some close-ups of the embroidery.

Next door is a small room that used to be a kitchen.  It also has artwork, including this sculpture, ‘Empyrée’, that is suspended from the top of the huge chimney in the center of the room.   Empyrée is from mythology and means ‘Highest part of the sky, where the gods reside’.  I am astounded to read that this is also by the same artist, Eva Jospin.

But then we walk into the next room and see this sculpture that is made completely from corrugated cardboard!  Wow, It is astounding.  I spend a lot of time here as well.  There is so much to look at in ‘Forest Galleria’, or Forest Gallery.  And who is the artist?  Eva Jospin!

Some close-ups of the different techniques used to create this forest.  I cannot believe the size and complexity of this sculpture…

until we walk into the next huge room.  OMG!!  There are simply no words to adequately explain this work called ‘Paysages’, or ‘Landscapes’.  There are three enormous sculptures in this equally enormous chamber.  This one is actually the smallest of them all and they are all made with corrugated cardboard!

This piece is reminiscent of a classical temple on one side…

and here is the back, all overgrown with trees!

These two sculptures are astounding…but then there is this absolutely unbelievable piece that is placed between the other two.  What can I say?

A close up of part of the front…

a side view.  I did say it is very large!

And a view through the center, which reminds me of a river flowing through a rocky canyon.

Honestly,  photos cannot capture the grandeur of this work! I did find a video explaining how these pieces are constructed with corrugated cardboard, but sorry, it is a FaceBook video so not everyone may be able to view it.   https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=437873248434139.      

And here is the link to Eva Jospin’s website.

https://www.suzanne-tarasieve.com/artist/eva-jospin/?lang=en&show=

There was also a room with a video about Eva Jospin and some photos of the process for creating these pieces.  I am in complete awe.

We climb lots of stairs to the roof of the palace.  We started our tour way down there, under the raised seating of this outdoor theatre.

The views from the top are amazing, but it is time to start heading back home.

As we walk back to catch the bus to our car we walk under the Pont d’Avignon.  Bob said they used to sing the French children’s folksong ‘Sur le Pont d’Avignon’ when he was in elementary school.   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_r8eALyO8E4

We walk through the fortified walls through this rather makeshift looking doorway.

Just as we are leaving to catch our bus one of the town’s little busses passes by.  This is the tiniest bus we have ever seen.

Thanks, if you are still reading and made it this far.  I know this is a really long post, but I want to remember all of it.  I actually pruned out a whole lot more photos!

Nïmes, Stay at Home Day

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Day 63  Monday, October 30, 2023

It is pouring rain this morning so we have a nice slow start to our day.  At noon Bob decides to go for a walk when the rain lessens and I start an online chat with Apple.  I had a new battery put into my MacBook in August and its 3 month warranty will have expired by the time we get home.

I was told that if I had any problems I just needed to contact Apple and let them know so they can record it and then it could wait until I was home to be repaired.  So that is what I tried to do…for over an hour!  Talk about frustration.  Finally I was able to arrange to have a supervisor call me  because our France SIM car doesn’t have international long distance.  The not so bright chat guy suggested I borrow someone’s phone so that I could make the call!  He was absolutely useless!  Yet he kept saying “I understand what you are saying 100 %”

I know this is a bit of a rant…but I just needed to get it off my chest!  Luckily the supervisor was amazing.  Within minutes it was all taken care of and I had received multiple apologies.

Bob only took one photo on his walk that went by the coliseum. Nïmes has a lot of water features.

At 5:00 it began to pour again and it came down in buckets!  Here is a very short video of the rain.  https://youtu.be/6S1s_y5HO_8    The weather has definitely changed, and it looks like we will be getting cold and rain for the next few weeks.

Arles, France…Walking in Van Gogh’s Footsteps

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Day 62,  Sunday, October 29, 2023

“Vincent van Gogh arrived in Arles in February 1888.  This was the start of an intense period of activity for the artist, in the Mediterranean light.  Indeed, it was his most productive era and during this 15 months in Arles, Van Gogh produced over 300 paintings and drawings, thus forging one of the most important periods in the history of art.  In May, 1989, Vincent left Arles for the Saint-Rémy de Provence asylum, leaving the name of Vincent van Gogh linked to that of Arles forever.” ~ Arles Tourism brochure.

Vincent spent a year at the asylum before moving to Auvers-sur-Oise in May 1890, where committed suicide on July 27th 1890.

Today we are going to follow Vincent’s footsteps as we walk through Arles, looking for the places where he stood at his easel creating some of his most loved paintings. Arles has placed a copy of each of his paintings at the location where Van Gogh would have stood.

First stop is the courtyard at the hospital in Arles.  Vincent stayed at this hospital three times between December 1888 and May 1889.

I feel like I have walked into a painting…

In the old hospital buildings there is also a wonderful photography exhibit by Pierre Vallet.  We later see some more of his work on display in the Arles Amphitheatre.

There is a sculpture of Van Gogh in the courtyard.

On our way to the next location we pass an old church that is hosting an AI exhibition. The audience is invited to sit and interact with these AI games.Here are the screenshots of some of the other games…notice that one of them has a character named Bob.

We pass a shop window with a creepy window.  Halloween is only two days away!

Arles is a pretty town.  We are trying to follow the not very clear map to find the next location when I notice…

this plaque set into the sidewalk.  So now we just have to follow the plaques, and it feels like a treasure hunt!

The stairs of the Trinquetaille Bridge was painted from this spot.

We climb the steps and cross the bridge, walking beside the Rhône River to our next destination.

We pass these ruins which are Roman baths…looks interesting but we are on a mission.

We pass a couple of old stone façades, just one wall left standing.  Back home it would have been torn down.

Starry Night over the Rhône…too bad the river cruise boats are in the way of our view, but we are able to pick our several of the landmarks in the painting.

We make small detour to check out the remains of a bridge that was destroyed in the bombardment of Arles in 1944.  There are many reminders of both the First and Second World War in every town and city that we have visited.

Then we pass a little carnival that was just getting set up.  I thought it was interesting that they have chairs for the parents to sit while their children are on the rides.  

Unfortunately the Yellow House that Van Gogh shared with Gaugin was also destroyed during the bombardment. It stood on this very street corner.Several young boys were hanging about and one of them, Leron (in the blue jacket) asked me to take his photo.  They were fun.

Van Gogh’s next painting was done in the amphitheater, so we buy tickets to go inside, even though the plaque is outside for tourists to see. The Amphitheatre painting shows the arena full of people, but there aren’t many people here today.

I took some black and white photos in the passageways beneath the seats.  I like how the light streamed in through the openings and all the old stones.

We climb to the top of the amphitheatre tower and get a great view of all the very French rooftops.

And up in the tower what do I find?  Graffiti!  It has been around for a long, long time.

Set in one of the stones at the top of the staircase to the tower is a sea shell, partially buried in the stone and just below it another stone block that is full of smaller sea shells.  I love it when we notice these little kinds of details, details that I am sure many people don’t ever notice.

We take another detour to visit the The Roman Theatre of Arles.  It  is a 1st-century Roman theatre, built during the reign of Caesar Augustus.  Bob is sitting consulting our map to figure out where to go next, as we have wandered off the path laid out by the plaques in the sidewalk.

I just love the way the stone steps have been worn down by countless footsteps over the centuries.

We pass this poster of a young man who is carefully looking at another poster

We walk through this old building to reach the square on the other side…

to look for the painting, Café Terrace At Night.  We find the cafe but there is no sign of the plaque with the painting.  We find the location which must have been very close to the spot where Van Gogh stood.

I noticed that the café isn’t open so I went up to take a peek in the windows.  Everything inside looks ready to receive customers, and there is the plaque that we were looking for!  However….

I think it has been closed for a while, as there is a pile of old  mail on the ground at the door.  Too bad, It would have been nice to go inside for a drink.Walking through this plaza I notice another photography exhibit but it is getting late and we still have one more painting spot to find, so we decide not to go in.

But we do a quick peek inside the Church of Saint-Trophime.  We never know what we will find behind church doors.  Every church is different, ranging from quite austere to the incredible elaborate.

We find the park where the next painting should be located and a monument to Vincent but we can’t locate the painting.  Pansies have been recently planted for the winter garden around this monument.

Bob checks out one part of the park and I go look in another.  The tower is part of the Roman Theatre that we sat in earlier.

Finally we find it!  But looking at these photos, I think we should have turned around and taken the photo of the garden in the other direction.  Guess we were getting tired.  There were three more spots on this walking tour but they are almost on the town’s outskirts and we have once again run out of daylight.

It is only 45 minutes to Nîmes and here we are driving in the dark once more.  One more interesting fact, the whole old town of Arles is a UNESCO World Heritage Site!

Chauvet II, Caverne du Pont d’Arc, France

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Day 61,  Saturday, October 28, 2023

Today we are going to visit another UNESCO World Heritage Site to see the oldest prehistoric cave paintings known to date in the world!  The cave is an hour and a half drive from Nîmes, so we leave early.  The drive to the caves is interesting as the countryside is constantly changing.The Sycamore/ Plane trees are starting to show their fall colours.

As we drove into the hills it got foggy…

and we were soon below the clouds.

The Chauvet cave, or Caverne du Pont d’Arc contains exceptionally high-quality paintings dating back 36,000 years.  It was discovered in 1994 and has never been open to the public. Only a very small number of scientists are allowed to visit each year to study the Chauvet cave.  The lessons learned at the Lascaux caves helped prevent any damage being done to the amazing art discovered in the Chauvet Cave.

Construction on the replica cave began in October 2012 and it was opened to the public in 2015. Chauvet II is located 9.5 km from the original cave.

All the photos of the building and the inside of Chauvert II, Caverne du Pont d’Arc are by Patrick Aventurier and can be found on the Chauvet II website. https://en.grottechauvet2ardeche.com/history/

An arial view of Chauvet II.

The building that holds the replica cave.  It has a viewing platform on the top of the building.This is the view from the top of the building.We have time to watch an immersive sound and light experience called ANIMAL before our cave tour begins.

Here are two videos I took during the show.  I don’t know how to edit videos, but they are not long, one is just over 2 1/2 minutes and the other is 3 minutes long.  It really was a spectacular show.

https://youtu.be/n9nf7gZ3V1M.     

https://youtu.be/tsU3uZaAuPI

Before we enter the cave our guide asks us not to ask questions about the construction of the replica cave until after our tour, to help us feel as though we are in the real cave.

The Chauvet caves contain a masterpiece…the oldest known artwork in the world.  They are over 36,000 years old…that is 18,000 years older than the Lascaux Cave we visited earlier.  These handprints tell us that the right hand of the artist had a crooked little finger, perhaps it was broken at one time and didn’t heal properly?

These red dots are palm prints.  If you look closely you will see that there are a few prints that show the fingers and the little finger of the right hand is crooked.  These palm prints were done by the same artist as the previous handprints!

One of the first charcoal drawings that we see.  Because charcoal was used the paintings were able to be carbon dated to determine their age.

Some of the engravings were made by pressing into the soft mud walls of the cave with the artist’s fingers.There are very few owl depictions in prehistoric cave art.  We get to see one here.

As we walk further into the cave there are more animals on the walls.

The next four photographs are all part of a panel showing the largest collection of animals in the cave and it was located in the very deepest part of the cave.

We are in front of the Lion Panel: a12 metre-long fresco of a lion hunt that takes my breath away! We stand in awe, as the flickering lights reveal these drawings.

The lighting mimics flickering firelight and the animals almost appear to move.

Of course the lighting is set on a timer and all too soon it is finished.  I tell our guide that our time here is too short and I don’t want to leave… she asks if we would like a  bonus viewing and when I say yes, she turns the lights on again.   We all got an extra 20 minutes in front of these magnificent paintings!

The Aurignacian Gallery is a complementary area to discover on our own after the cave visit.  There are life size replicas of prehistoric animals.  Wooly mammoths, Megaloceros , the huge deer in the background, …

Aurochs…

Cave Bears and Cave Lions…and Bob’s favourite, the Wooly Rhinoceros.

There are interesting interactive panels, including this photo of a baby wooly rhinoceros that was found in a mine in Russia in 2007…

and one of this steppe bison found in Alaska in 1979.

Something I didn’t know before this trip and all the caves we have visited is how like us Prehistoric Cro Magnons were.  They were hunter gatherers and were anatomically very similar to modern man “but more robust, having larger brains, broader faces, more prominent brow ridges, and bigger teeth. They were well renowned for creating a diverse array of artistic works, including cave paintings, Venus figurines, perforated batons, animal figurines, and geometric patterns. They also wore decorative beads, and plant-fibre clothes dyed with various plant-based dyes. For music, they produced bone flutes and whistles, and possibly also bullroarers, rasps, drums, idiophones and other instruments. They buried their dead, though possibly only people who had achieved or were born into high status.”  ~Wikipedia

After our visit at Chauvet II we drive to the location of the original cave along this narrow road with lots of tunnels.

It was quite the experience.

We park and this is our view.

The cave was located near the  Pont d’Arc, a natural stone bridge.  We would have liked to walk up to the location of the original cave, but it is getting late and we still have an hour and a half drive before us.  Too bad but we don’t want to be driving home in the dark.

The cliffs here are full of what appear to be cave openings, and there is a sandy beach alongside the river that is a popular spot for families.

Bob spots this rock formation in the distance that looks like a horse’s head.  He is good at finding rock formations that look like people or animals.More tree lined roads on the way home…the leaves look golden in the setting sun.

All too soon the sun sets…and we are driving in the dark, but only for the last half hour or so which isn’t too bad.

Nîmes, Musée De La Romanité

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Day 60, Friday, October 27, 2023

Bob visited the Musée de la Romanité this afternoon so he is writing today’s blog,

It is interesting to see so many ancient Roman artifacts in Nimes, so far away from the center of Rome.  Nimes was not an outpost of the Roman Empire but a regional capital with a population of over 50,000.  It was an important link between Rome and Spain. This bust is from the 7th century  BC.

A wall fresco from 40 AD.

In memory of Marcus Attius Patterns who died at age 25 in the 1st Century A.D.

The floor tiles were the most impressive, as some of the rooms were as big as our modern living rooms.

4th Century pottery.

12 Century relief of a griffen (head of an eagle and body of a lion) fighting a dragon.

A relief from the 12 Century depicting the Temptation of Adam and Eve from the Notre Dame Cathedral of Nîmes 

Nîmes, France

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Day 59, Thursday, October 26, 2023

Nîmes is a pretty city.  It the most Roman city outside of Italy, and it was the regional capital during the Roman Empire.  Today it has a population of about 150,000.

On our way to the center of town I peek inside this open window and I am surprised to see a boxing ring!

I love this door knocker and it even looks a bit ‘Halloweenish’.

We turn the corner and there it is.  The Amphitheater of Nîmes, or the Arènes de Nîmes.  It held over 20,000 spectators and is the best preserved Roman Amphitheater in the World.  It is so well preserved because it has been in constant use since it was built.  In the 6th century it was turned into a fortress, and in the 14th century it was filled with houses, workshops and warehouses.  In 1809 this was all demolished and work was done to restore it to its original state.

Today, the amphitheater hosts bullfights, concerts and sporting events.  It host many cultural and festive shows all summer long.  We will come back and visit the interior another day…today we are just strolling.

Today it is also offering shelter for this homeless person. The Maison Carrée is a very well preserved white limestone Roman temple that is about 2,000 years old.

Here is another view of the the Maison Carrée from the street opposite to it.  It is impressive.  Both the Amphitheater and the Maison Carée are UNESCO World Heritage sites.

In the 1700’s canals were built to supply a better source of drinking water and to power textile mills.  These mills made ‘serge de Nimes’ or as we know it today ‘denim’ (‘de’ or ‘from’ Nimes)!  Today it is a beautiful park with exotic plants, statues and walkways.

We walk along the canals and find some Pétanque players.  This is a popular pastime everywhere in France, although we have only seen one female player. It is more common to see elderly men playing when we are out and about in the afternoon.  We noticed this extraordinarily tall man on his bicycle which Bob says is the tallest bike he has ever seen.  The men around him barely come up to his armpits!

A Pétanque game in progress, with observers and critics!  The players are incredibly skilled and can knock an opponent’s ball out of the game with one throw.

On the way home we pass St. Paul Church and go inside.  I really liked the sculpture right by the entrance and the dome is beautiful.

One more view of the amphitheater on the way home.  This is only a couple blocks from our Airbnb.

As we were waiting to cross the road two vehicles with fully armed military drive by.  There were four soldiers in each vehicle and they were scanning the surroundings as they drive by.  The sign on the side of their cars says Vigipirate Operation Sentinelle.  They are part of the 10,000 soldiers that are currently active in this operation to defend and protect the French.  As France is currently on high alert the Vigipirate Security Alert System has been at its highest ‘Emergency Attack’ level since October 15th.   This means that our bags are searched when we enter tourist sites, museums and other places where there are lots of people.  We stay aware of our surroundings and we certainly avoid anything that looks like a protest, or large gathering of people.  So not to worry, we are safe.

Cannes to Nîmes, France

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Day 58, Wednesday, October 25, 2023

Time to move on….today we have a four hour drive to Nîmes. We have been using the toll highways for these longer drives as it usually saves us a couple of hours of much slower driving through little towns with lots and lots of traffic circles. Most intersections use a traffic circle here, so Bob is now a traffic circle expert.  I finally took a photo of this beautiful big tree that was in our back yard garden in Cannes as we were leaving.   It had huge limbs that arched all the way down to touch the ground.  Unfortunately a photo just doesn’t do it justice.  

We are only on the road for a short time before the landscape changes, and we drive past red rocks that remind us of Arizona…and cypress trees that make me think of Vincent van Gogh’s paintings.

Now instead of Sycamore/Plane trees lining the roads, there are Cypress and coniferous trees.

We were going to visit Cézanne’s Studio in Aix en Provence, but it didn’t work out.  When we tried to book a ticket online the site wouldn’t allow same day bookings, so we decided to drive there and hope to get tickets.  That proved to be a very difficult task.  Between one-way roads, a couple missed turns and crazy rerouting, we finally gave up.  We weren’t even sure we would be able to get tickets and I was getting frustrated…it just wasn’t meant to happen today.  We get back on the highway and we are soon at our new home in Nîmes.  It is quite small with a cheery hot pink sink and shower and it will be our home for the next five days.