Nimes

This morning I woke up at 7. I changed and ate breakfast and all that. It sucked getting up. I took a motion sickness pill and then headed to the bus. It took me longer to get there than I had planned but luckily I had planned to get there early. So it was all good.

We got on the bus and Cassandra and I were so exhausted we both just slept. Usually I look out the window to figure out where we are but this time I was too tired. We woke up in Nimes and then proceeded to be told that this is the place where Jeans were first invented and that now they make a lot of them and export them. We got off and went into this big garden thing where we were to walk around.

I am so tired right now and this is the last thing that I want to be doing… I think I’m going to just hit the highlights and come back to this later.

Cassandra and I split from the tour because they were going too fast so we decided to ditch it. Also then there weren’t a million people in our pictures. After that we looked at a ruin thing. The garden was cool and had lots of stairs that we went up and down a lot.

We got lost a bit and then found our way to the top which was like a tower thing.

It was cool but costed money so we skipped it. After that we went to find the Arena. It was cool too and the worlds best entact arena.It was cool and we used audioguides. After that we had lunch. And then went back to the bus. Then we went to the pont du gard. Biggest intact aqueduct, the one you see in text books.Then we went home. I met Patrick for Dinner because Cassandra didn’t want to spend money. It was fine.We got chocolate and Pizza. Then I came home.
 

I had the place to myself and it was 9, so I decided it probably wasn’t too late to wash my hair super fast. And I really was super fast. Then Madame came home and scolded me for washing my hair so late. Then yelled at me that I didn’t dry it with a hair dryer I just left it wrapped in a towel.Then I started writing this and she scolded me for putting my blog on the internet. Then she told me not to put anything about her on the internet. But I feel like nothing I put on here is very personal… And im going to erase it when I get home anyways and put it as a book. Maybe that’s why I don’t want to write this. I feel sufficiently scolded. And now I feel like I am not excited to write about my day.

Tomorrow I go to the Louberon region where I will do this :

8h45 - Meet at HOTEL DU ROI RENE

10h - Lourmarin Village - Tour of the Château and the Cemetary, visit village

12h30 - Lacoste village - visit village and picnic alongside château

14h30 -  Roussillon - visit ocre mines and the village

18h - return to Aix

Should be fun maybe. Goodnight.

So to keep the integrity of how I felt that day/ the night I wrote this, I'm not going to change this. Instead I will add to it. Starting over.

This morning I woke up at 7. I changed and ate breakfast and all that. It sucked getting up. I took a motion sickness pill and then headed to the bus. It took me longer to get there than I had planned but luckily I had planned to get there early. So it was all good. We got on the bus and Cassandra and I were so exhausted we both just slept. Usually I look out the window to figure out where we are but this time I was too tired. We woke up in Nimes and then proceeded to be told that this is the place where Denim was first invented and that now they make a lot and export it. But do you see where the name Denim comes from? “De Nimes” meaning “from Nimes” became Denim.

We got off and went into this big garden thing where we were to walk around. It was really pretty cool. It was called the Jardin de la Fontaine.

Les Jardins de la Fontaine is a public park located in Nimes in the Gard . They are built around the original source dedicated to Nîmes Nemausus . Their architectural organization also highlights two monuments ancient major city, the Temple of Diana and the Tour Magne .

Les Jardins de la Fontaine was one of the first public parks' of Europe and is still today one of the most remarkable.

Les Jardins de la Fontaine was made in 1745 on the basis of these remains. They made it possible to highlight two other Roman monuments have particularly stood the test of time, the Temple of Diana and the Tour Magne, both of which I went to. The project was led by Jacques Philippe Mareschal , military engineer of King Louis XV and director of fortifications in the province of Languedoc .

In the Gallo-Roman period , the area of Jardins de la Fontaine included including baths of the city (which you can see some remains).

It was really pretty. My tour guide was going too fast for me to follow though so Cassandra and I decided to just split from them to look at the garden at our own pace. It was much more enjoyable that way. I didn’t know that they used to be roman baths but I kind of guessed when I saw stairs leading into the big pond. It was really cool though. There were SO many fish in the ponds. They were also all connected so there was a ton of space for the fish. There was even two white and one black swan. They were really pretty and just added to the mood . We looked around the temple of Diana which was really in ruins but was also really well preserved when you think about how old it is, which is funny because we don’t actually know how old it is. The whole temple is a bit of a mystery.

The Temple of Diana (Temple de Diane) is a Roman site in Nimes whose ultimate purpose remains a mystery, as does the origin of its name.

Believed by some to have been originally built sometime during the reign of Augustus - others say in the 2nd century - it has been suggested that the Temple of Diana may have been a library.

I think it is kind of cool that we don’t actually know what it was for. I think it is kind of fun to walk around it and just sort of guess. We walked up and down so many stairs my shins were starting to hurt. We had a bit of a problem finding the Tour Magne but we eventually found it. It was where the Romans made a big lookout tower kind of thing so that they could see enemies coming from far away. It cost money so we didn’t go up it but it was really cool. From far away from the city you can see the monument though because it is the highest point in the city.

It was really cool. We saw some stray cats on the way back down and it made me sad for them. Stray animals seem to be more of a problem here than in the states I feel like; or maybe they are just more under control in the states. I have noticed on the French Price is Right they don’t say to have your pets spayed or neutered. So maybe that is the problem. ;-)

After that we went and found some lunch at a café. I also bought a cookie which was the best chocolate chip cookie I have had in a very long time. Then we found a gift shop so I bought a book of postcards for two and a half euros which is a very good price for 12 postcards. Then we walked by the Maison Carrée which was closed because it was Sunday but it was still very nice to see! It is one of the best preserved Roman temples to be found anywhere in the territory of the former Roman Empire and was built in 16 BC. It was awesome but there were a bunch of like teenage boys like climbing on the side of it which if it that happened on a US monument I think that the US would be ALL over that. But no one seemed to care or mind.

Next we found our way to the Arena of Nimes which was SO amazing! It seemed so huge and I was shocked that it is so old and still standing when you think of all the wars and people that have lived and could have destroyed it. It is pretty cool. Now they have added wooden benches and use it two times a year for bullfights and they even have added a removable roof. I think it is cool that it is still used for the purpose that it originally had. They used to do like exhibitions of men barehanded fighting lions and also exhibited animals like a zoo. In the middle of the day though there would be public executions by tossing people into the ring with a lion, or even attaching them to a stake and putting them in with lions or bears. It was pretty intense. The public at that point would all leave to have lunch so the only people who watched this part was slaves who were scared to guard their masters’ seats, sounds pretty scary to me. After that they would have famous Gladiator fights and then either let the loser live or die. It was pretty violent.

It was really cool to see the amphitheater though and the audio guides were kind of fun but not very informative. They were more for like imagining what it was like during the period but not really informative with information.

After that we headed back to the bus to go to the Pont de Gard.

The Pont du Gard (literally: Gard Bridge) is an ancient Roman aqueduct bridge that crosses the Gardon River[4] in Vers-Pont-du-Gard near Remoulins, in the Gard département of southern France. It is part of the Nîmes aqueduct, a 50 km-long (31 mi) structure built by the Romans to carry water from a spring at Uzès to the Roman colony of Nemausus (Nîmes). Because the terrain between the two points is hilly, the aqueduct – built mostly underground – took a long, winding route that crossed the gorge of the Gardon, requiring the construction of an aqueduct bridge. Built in the 1st century AD, the Pont du Gard is the highest of all Roman aqueduct bridges and is the best preserved with the Aqueduct of Segovia. It was added to UNESCO's list of World Heritage Sites in 1985 because of its historical importance.

It was definitely cool to see but we spent a lot of time there looking at it. Cassandra and I walked the bridge so that we could say we did, but then after that we decided to just sit and look at it from far enough away that we could see the whole thing. I was glad for the break from walking. We both were. We even tried opening some acorns from an acorn tree just for fun. It was really a cool bridge but we were too tired to want to walk around it more. 

The bus ride home we went through Tarascon and looked at the castle there. We didn’t really stop but George said there isn’t really anything else there other than the castle. When we got home I was exhausted. I got a message from Patrick wanting to do dinner and I said sure because I was hungry. Madame was going to the movies and Saturday nights I have to ea out anyways so I said sure. It ended up being just the two of us. We went and got a pizza and then split it. Then we walked to the convenience store so I could get some chocolate. I have such a sweet tooth here it is like crazy. I’m going to weigh 35589 pounds when I come back but at least I will be happy! J It was good. We went and sat at a fountain and just talked for a while knowing we would get told we weren’t out long enough if we went home. He told me he has a super rich roommate who drives a Porsche! I was like dang that’s cool and he was like yeah he lets me drive it sometimes but I’m always terrified I am going to crash it. I’m not surprised! I would be! I can’t imagine actually owning a car like that because I would be too scared to drive it. 

When I got home no one was home and it was only nine on a Saturday so I figured it wouldn’t be bad to wash my hair because it was starting to get greasy. SO I washed my hair over the tub with the handheld thing which I think is the only good part about that thing. When I was putting the towel on Madame came home and wondered where I was. I told her I was in the bathroom, she said doing what and I opened the door and said that I washed my hair super quick. She said “at this hour!?” I said I knew no one was home and it was still early so it would be okay. It was not. She got mad and said I was going to get sick and then yelled at me telling me that I needed to use the hairdryer now or else I was going to get sick.

I felt sufficiently scolded but I honestly thought it was okay because it was a weekend and not very late and I live in Oregon so I go to bed with wet hair all the time no problem… It was really sucky and kind of killed my good mood pretty quickly. 

After that I pretty much just went to bed after sitting in silence with the tv for a while in the living room trying to not take it personally and trying not to cry. I talked to Thad but he was stressed out too so the whole communication thing just wasn’t working. Eventually I just went to bed and tried to forget the night ever happened. I guess now I know….