Nimes

Welcome to Nimes! It is a beautiful city full of Roman ruins that you can reach in as little as an hour by train from Marseille.

The five of us (Camilla, Lisa from Germany, Chelle from North Carolina, Hannah, and me) spent the whole day exploring this place. It was a perfect day. Not too cold, overcast but no rain, fall leaves, and hardly any other tourists.

As we walked through the tree-lined streets, somehow reminiscent of Paris, we spent time trying to talk to each other in French, something we haven't had much will to do until now. I think we were all encouraged by our ability to communicate pretty decently.

We saw the best preserved Roman colosseum where they still hold bullfights. There we were able to go into the arena bleachers and underneath where the gladiator chambers are. We also made friends with a stray cat.

We chilled in a cafe for a few hours with a table full of pizza, bread and cheese, liver, and who knows what else.

We strolled through the breathtaking Jardins de la Fontaine (Fountain Gardens) on our way to climb the swirling, lighthouse-esque stairs of the Tour Magne (Great Tower).

And finally, a stop at the Maison Caree (Square House), which was sadly under construction. They show a 3D gladiator film inside but fortunately, by unanimous vote, I was spared that monstrosity. (Disney World's 'A Bug's Life' and 'Muppets' 3D adventures have scarred me for life.)

By the end of the day we were exhausted. (My legs still ache from the tower climb.) We got back to the train station just in time to board with about a million other people on an unusually short train. So we sat on the floor for an hour and a half, as the beautiful French countryside slipped past the windows that we couldn't see through. But it's ok, because I fell asleep on someone's feet.