3 Must-See Sites in Nîmes: Gardens, Gladiators and Augustus’ Wall

Gardens, gladiators, and Augustus’ wall were must-see sites in Nîmes that took me back to Miss Clegg’s Latin class in high school.

Some of you reading this story remember Miss Clegg, or you may have had a teacher like Miss Clegg. She never knew that I had English translations of Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey, as well as Virgil’s Aeneid, which had been loaned to me by my beloved Aunt Edna.

I still have nightmares that Miss Clegg discovers my secret and I get an “F” in Latin and I never graduate from high school.

Nîmes (pronounced “Neem”) dates back to the first century BC and was named for the Celtic God Nemausus. It was established as a Roman colony by Julius Caesar, who granted land to his soldiers after they had served 15 years in the army. During Augustus’s rule, Nimes was a prosperous city with a population of 60,000 citizens.

Mighty structures such as the aqueduct Pont du Gard were built to serve Nimes (see earlier post on Pont du Gard), and a regal temple, Maison Carrée, was erected to honor the Roman gods.

Another landmark is the Amphitheater, which dates back to the 2nd century BC. The Amphitheater and Maison Carrée are situated in a vast historic district in the center of town. It takes about 25 minutes to walk the area.

Amphitheater

One of the must-see sites in Nimès that is hard to miss is the Amphitheater, also called the “Arene.” It is one of the ten best-preserved Roman arenas in the world, accommodating up to 25,000 people. An audio guide was available, and it proved to be quite worthwhile. You can walk into the arena, sit in the stands, and relive stories of gladiators and lion slayers.

Seeing the stately Maison Carrée, formerly a Roman temple, made me feel as though I was in Rome, not France. The 3D video production, shown almost every hour during the day, told of the heroes of Nimes who lived through the city’s various ages.

La Madeleine in Paris was modeled after the Maison Carrée, as was the Virginia statehouse in the US, designed by Thomas Jefferson. It is said that Jefferson was so taken by the beauty of the Maison Carrée when visiting Nimes as Minister to France that he wrote his friend Madame de Tessé: “Here I am, madam, gazing whole hours at the Maison Carrée like a lover at his mistress.”

Today, it is one of the most well-preserved temples from the Roman Empire that can be found anywhere.

Le Tour Magne

The Tour Magne stands on the highest spot in Nimes and can be seen for miles. It is all that remains of the Wall that surrounded the city built by Augustus. To take full advantage of my “Gran Tour” ticket, I walked to the top of the hill and up the spiral staircase to Tour Magne. It’s one of those things I can cross off my list and say, “Whew!! Don’t have to do that again!” The view was amazing. The walk? Let’s just say that’s why I ate pizza when I returned to Uzès. I earned it!

Jardins de la Fontaine

One of the most enjoyable parts of the walk to the top of Tour Magne is that to get there, you walk through the Jardins de la Fontaine, considered by many to be the most beautiful gardens in the world. As I was on the path up the hills winding through the park, I thought how wonderful it must be to live near such a place.

The people of Nimes and visitors were out by the hundreds today, enjoying the perfect weather and well-maintained property. Like other tourist areas I’ve seen on my trip, the place was immaculate– from the trimmed shrubbery to the stone stairways.

A city of two worlds 

One of my most striking impressions of Nîmes is how two worlds —the ancient and modern —coexist harmoniously. The rock poster on the Amphitheater says it all.