Nîmes at a glance

Nîmes has been called the most Roman city outside of Rome and is a great place for mooching about the Roman sites including one of the best preserved arenas in the world.

And the old Roman Maison Carrée isn’t too shabby either. 

The Tour Magne is all that is left of the once massive city walls. And after having been up the tower, why not have a walk around to see if you can work out where all the stone from the walls went. Hmm.

But impressive old stuff aside, the cenre of Nîmes is a nice place for a stroll.

When it comes to shopping, you may notice that things coming from Nîmes, or de Nîmes as they say round these parts, include denim. 

So you could think of coming to Nîmes as a pilgrimage for your jeans.

As you explore the city, there’s one thing that’s hard to miss. 

The Romans were keen on water as well.

Sorting out the city’s water supply was one of the first things the Romans did and they created a 50 kilometer aquaduct from Uzès.

If that doesn’t sound very far to you, try running it, which is exactly what these people are doing.

En route these plucky runners will get to go over the Pont du Gard at about the 20K mark. If you’d also like to see it up close and personal, but don’t think you have the puff, you could always hire a canoe and have a paddle underneath it. 

So where does all this water flowing through and around Nîmes finally end up?

The answer is here.

Nîmes is an ideal base for exploring the Camargue, a precious biosphere of salt marshes that’s home to flamingos, coypu, semi-wild horses and populated by gardians, or Camargue cowboys, who rear cattle, which being France of course have their own appellation controlée.

Every now and then, the Camargue comes to Nîmes. These people are here today for the festival of the 'Levée des Tridents'. And in case you’re wondering what a ‘trident’ is, it’s the pointy sticks they're holding.

And after leaving them to get on with their festival, there's time for a final wander around Nîmes by night.

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