FastsInFrance: Nîmes

Finally, after meaning to do it for a while, we spent a day in Nîmes yesterday. I'd been told it was nice and it didn't disappoint. A day wasn't nearly enough to see the city (especially with plenty of sitting around having coffee and a nice long leisurely lunch), so we bought a ticket to the Roman monuments, and saw the city a bit by walking between them. The best by far was the Arena, which is still used for events today. They really got the audioguide right, too, full of a zillion little facts. The kids latched onto the schedule - mornings was men fighting lions and bears, lunchtime was prisioners fighting to the death or being mauled to death by lions, and then the afternoon was gladiator fights. Apparently it was extremely rare for the losing gladiator to lose his life by the "thumbs down" signal (we also learned it wasn't really a thumbs down) because in that case a lot of money had to be paid to the gladiator's training stable in recompense. Another highlight was the Tour Magne, with views over the city. We missed loads too - hope we go back sometime.