At least once a year, we gather round up our group of friends and head off somewhere on a bit of an adventure! This time we decided to head to the Roman city of Nimes… in France, believe it or not. (The year before was Berlin and the first one for this year is South Korea and Japan…).
We’ve gone on before about how amazing Nimes (see here and here), and although Ibiza was on the card for a little bit, Nimes won over everyone and so, on a sunny bank holiday weekend, 8 of us packed out bags and headed off to Southern France.
We decided to go for an Airbnb – it’s a place 4 of us found individually and so when presented to the group – it was a unanimous yes (one of the biggest criteria was that it needed to have a pool, especially seeing as the temperature was 30C the entire time).
This Airbnb was an architect’s home and you could tell as you wandered through.
We got to check out their offices downstairs where the lady showed us what the property looked like before and after. Suffice it to say, she has done an amazing job with the place.
Let me show you around our digs!
Once we settled in, we popped around to the shops for a bit of wine, some crudités and charcuterie (both fancy words for snacks) and pretty much spent all day and all evening splashing around in the pool.
It was brilliant! No plans to see any sights, no pressure to do anything but relax and have a good time – just the way every good friend’s holiday should begin!
For posterity reasons, and partly because I wouldn’t have my camera or phone anywhere near the pool, I’ve not got photos from the rest of the day (though I did have briefly some on Instagram stories.
The next morning, we woke up surprisingly hangover-free – I think having a huge dinner the evening before sorted us out, and so we sent off a group to forage for breakfast in the weekend markets and boulangerie a couple of streets away.
Breakfast over and done with, we strapped on our walking shoes and headed off to check out the city.
As you can imagine, seeing as Lloyd and I had been here before, we were those obnoxious friends who insisted on showing you around.
We started at Maison Carrée – the Roman Temple.
This is the best (or at the very least, one of the best) preserved Roman temples in the world and is over 2,000 years old.
*By the way, when you’re here, one of the best ways to visit the main sights is to get yourself a joint ticket for many of the attractions as it works out so much cheaper that way.
Leaving the temple, we slowly ambled through the city centre… making our way slowly to the Arena de Nîmes.
The Arena de Nîmes might be fairly reminiscent of the Colosseum in Rome (in that it’s also a Roman amphitheatre) but this is a better-preserved amphitheatre than the Colosseum.
It’s so much more ‘intact‘ than the Colosseum and is a pretty amazing place to visit in Nimes.
Plus, it’s still used for concerts and events so you could get to experience life like the Romans if you attend an event here.
This was the second time we visited and Arena de Nîmes is every bit as impressive as the first time.
All the walking around in the sun worked up quite the appetite and so off we left in search of lunch and a cheeky glass of wine or two…
…but more on that in the next post.
Read more: Best things to do in Paris
Check Out The Very Best Of Great Britain!
