When in Nimes...Do What the Romans Did

Can you say 2,000 years old?

Those Romans saw Nimes (pronounced NEEM, and 18 miles or 30K from our town of Uzes)...and they wanted it. They didn't want to conquer it as much as they just wanted to make it a retirement destination, kind of like, say, oh, you know, Florida or Palm Springs. Back in the day, those old retired Roman men in victory robes wanted to kick-it in the sunny south of (what came to be) France, 30 miles from the sea. But they also wanted to remember just how darn great they were...SOOOOOO, they created an official symbol of the town and pressed this symbol into their coins. They symbol: a crocodile chained to a palm tree. Palm tree = Victory. Crocodile = Egypt. Chain = Conquering. The symbol is all over Nimes today.

Now, because the Romans loved Nimes so much, they built an aqueduct, which includes the famous Pont Du Gard, still intact, right near our town. In fact, I can run there...if I wanted to run for three or so hours. They brought water into Nimes, built a colloseum, built temples, built libraries and towers. And we went to ALL of them today!!!!! They're still there.

As it always is in Europe, there's one little sign that says, essentially, be careful, and then everything is yours for the taking. We scrambled up the stone benches of the colloseum, circumvented the entire darn thing, aimed our fantasy weapons out of the turrets, marveled at the keystone which essentially held tons and tons of rock together, saw the chisel marks of the stone cutters and fitters (the rocks fit perfectly without MORTAR!), sat on the same worn stone as the spectators did 2,000 years ago as they watched gladiators fight and cheered for more gore.

We saw the Maison Carree. No one knows what it was. But we know what it is: it's a beautiful building with columns, ornate stone carvings, kind of like a miniature Parthenon.

We saw the Temple de Diane, which really wasn't for Diane at all but for Augustus and his rich family.

We climbed the 139 steps up the tower and saw the city. No one knows what the tower was used for either.

And then, of course, there were the old, dusty, gray, black-baggy-suited smoking village men (not to be confused with "village people") playing la pétanque. You'd see the same men in any European village, really. Petanque is the french version of Bacci Ball. In the Jardins de la Fountain on decomposed granite, these old men lob metal balls at their target (a small red ball). What's amazing is not so much that they get so close to the red ball, but the defensive maneuver they all seem to pull out of their...bald heads... to lob that ball, line drive style, and take out their opponent's closest ball. I couldn't believe the skill! And they were serious competitors, too. They'd whip out their measuring tapes to check distances.

What I liked most about le petanque is not so much the sport itself as the point that in Europe there are places to gather...in every town. Whether your an old man who wants to throw a steel ball around before your afternoon beer, or you're a separate set of old men who just want to watch Petanque, or you're a pair of teenagers who just want to kiss on a bench, or you're some serioulsy talented urban kids who want to do Le pars cours. Wait. Okay, this deserves more than a comma. Listen up, Lou-Dog Norris and you Villaman & LaPlante boys. These Pars Course boys are incredible. (Check out pars cours on youtube). They are street gymnasts, new school style. Today, we watched kids scale old Roman bridges from a running start, stick off-axis back flips off 300 year-old, 8-foot high stone railings onto flat stone, and transition to the next trick with a drop and roll. And remember, these kids were doing this right next to the petanquers!!! In these gathering places, people petanque & pars cours together, drink coffee together, drink beer together, eat glace together (ice cream). Euros have places to gather. It's amazing to watch. And when you see it, you know It matters.

Our time in Nimes today, to engage in understatement, was great, ending in a skipping, running descent from the tower back to the town through amazing gardens and hidden grassy spots.

Funny stuff that doesn't really matter:

On the way to Nimes, Frances wanted to sit in the back of the bus, presiding over the rest of the bus the whole way there (30 minutes). And on the way back, she wanted to sit in the seat with the curtains. "So cool!"

Eleanore kept forgetting she was wearing her sunglasses. In the Colosseum, she kept saying, "It's so dark in here" and Frances kept reminding her to take her glasses OFF.

Jeff stood in the Colosseum, his arms spread wide, and bellowed the Monty Python question, "What did the Romans ever do for us?" And then answered his question with the Monty Python repsonse, "Well, they gave us the library, the arch, wine, education, roads, art, strong central government." And then the response to the response: "Yeah, right, well, besides that, what did the Romans ever do for us?" It was, truly, hilarious. But then I think everything that guy says is funny.

Frances the Spiller nearly spilled over our entire table of ice cream, chantilly (whipped cream), petit cafe and cappucino 3 separate times. OMG! Finally, Jeff embarked on some serious color commentary about the domino effect of the table knocking over the Maison Carree then the Colosseum then the police arrested her and took her to Paris to stand charges and the Tour Eiffel fell over, too. Sound effects abounding. It was as funny as anything I've heard in, well, hours...it's GOOD having Jeff around to make me laugh. :)

We need to be able to post 9,000 photos. Only five will fit.

'Till tomorrow!

Carolyn