Day trip to Nimes

We had heard that Nimes had some very well-preserved Roman sites, including a Colosseum-style arena. Master J is interested in this type of thing (as am I), so we did a day trip there. It is only about half an hour from Montpellier by train.

What a beautiful place!

We found the arena not long after getting of the train. It's not as big as the Colosseum in Rome, but still impressive and in pretty good shape (and much less crowded). It has been used as a bull-fighting arena in modern times, hence the wooden seating.

After that we bought some baguettes and had lunch in a nearby park, then went wandering.

We had been making our way in the direction of an old Roman temple, the Temple of Diane. We found it in all it's beautiful ruin. It was lovely...

I love that places like this have been preserved, even in their state of ruin, and that we are able to walk through and explore. This is why I travel; not only to see how others live today, but to see how they/we used to live.

The next day we packed up and caught a train to Barcelona.