Nimes, Pont du Gard and Carcassonne

At the end of our winter break, the last weekend in February, we went down to Provence and the SW of France for a weekend. We spent Saturday in Nimes, a city in Southern France that dates back to the Roman Empire.


This is the elliptical roman amphitheatre in Nimes, built around the 2nd century, and the most well preserved arena in France. It is still used today for bull fights and concerts.


View of the Nimes amphitheatre.

Inside the amphitheatre.

I love this picture of the boys running to catch up with Kevin.

This is along the le Quais de la Fontaine, the embankments of the spring that provided water for Nimes along the first civic gardens in France built in the 1700's.

The Jardins de la Fontaine in Nimes.

Saturday afternoon we went to see the Pont du Gard, literally a bridge over the river Gard. It is part of a Roman aquaduct built in the first century AD to bring water from Uzes, 50km away, to Nimes. The full aquaduct had a gradient of 34cm/km which totals a 17m drop and delivering 20,000 cubic meters (approx 5 million gallons) of water daily to Nimes. As engineers, it is always so amazing to see the design of these amazing structures, done without mortar and precisely cut to fit together and endure.

The boys enjoyed throwing rocks in the Gard River.

After the Pont du Gard, we traveled further SW down to Carcassonne, a fortified medieval city.

The fortifications consist of a double ring of ramparts and 53 towers.

Night views of Carcassonne.

Sunday we spent the day exploring Carcassonne.

The boys loved running along the ramparts.

We held on to Piper when there were large drop offs!

Inside the Basilique des Saints Nazaire et Celse, the cathedral in Carcassonne.

We ate lunch at the restaurant with the red shutters.

The boys loved this model of Carcassonne around this monument.

A final view of Carcassonne.

Next post will (finally) be of my girls' trip to London!