Nîmes
Posted by Martin Orr on Sunday, 10 August 2008 at 21:39
After Lyon, my next stop was Nîmes in the south of France. Unfortunately, on my way from Lyon to Nîmes I left my Interrail pass on the train, so I had to purchase tickets for the rest of the trip. Largely as a consequence of that, I didn't go to Avignon, about 30 minutes by train from Nîmes, and where I had planned to go for a day. This gave me time to get a bus to the Pont du Gard aqueduct, a pretty incredible piece of Roman engineering - a bridge with three layers of arches stacked on top of each other, 275m long across the top and 49m high.
The other thing in Nîmes is an almost complete Roman amphitheatre, still in use for bull fights - remarkably similar to what the Romans used it for. When I was there, it had a stage set up in the centre for concerts. I think it is a good thing (as in Cambridge) when historic buildings remain in use, especially for something related to their original purpose.