Wednesday, May 7, 2008

Pont du Gard et Nimes

Today we took a day trip out from Avignon to see the sights of the Pont du Gard (an old Roman Aqueduct that is now used as a bridge) and Nimes (a nearby town, site of the only legal bull fighting outside Spain, I hear).

Our backpacking backgrounds convinced us that in order to eat a picnic lunch at the Pont, we needed backpacking food: Wasa, cream cheese, and Nutella. Yumm yumm. Back to childhood for both of us, we climbed through some bush away from the tourist hordes to find a good spot. Unfortunately, we later found a staircase leading almost to our picnic spot (whereas we scaled a few boulders and bushwacked a little). Perhaps our backgrounds failed us here.

With no time to swim or raft in the river, we caught the bus to Nimes, where we hoped to find Festival activities going on. Of course, on the first day of a festival, everyone is just setting up, so nothing is ready but all the good roads are blocked. We did get to walk around town, see a tower and some amazing gardens, and eat carnival food, but then it was back to Avignon for the night, where we passed out from exhaustion.

No comments: