still thinking about the fall of Rome (Arles - Pont du Gard)

Today was all about the Roman influence and what they built. Although the most frustrating moment of the day was at the first sight of the Pont-du-Gard. I wanted an arty shot through the trees, but there was a man standing in the middle of the shot with his movie camera, filming the bridge. I waited for

Still not moving after 1,000 years.

 at least 5 minutes and gave up. He was still there filming as we walked onto the bridge itself. What a rivetting film-maker he would be ... here's 10 minutes of a static object being static, although you might notice in the foreground the numbers of people moving to and fro. What a ... I'm not allowed to use the words I'm thinking.

You know, you can make an educated guess about country of origin by clothes. Seriously.


Arles

We went to Arles today mostly because they have a significant array of Roman artifacts/ruins like Nimes but they did not close shop in anticipation of the weekend feast for Pentecost (the next in the series of May public holidays) and we could go to Pont-Du-Gard afterwards on the way home. Not that we want Arles to think it is Nimes' poor cousin ... in fact is they have our undying admiration for a couple of reasons:

1. they do not have sub-terranean car parking (Jayne hates it),

2. they do not close their major attractions for the feast of Pentecost.

We left early by Jayne's standards and started by finding a free above ground car park which is always a bonus.  We had a lovely breakfast (great coffee and croissants) and wandered into the town to happen almost immediately on the Roman amphitheatre. It was much closer than it appeared on the map and like most of France's monuments, is undergoing significant renovation and therefore offered a reduced entry tariff. 

We thought we had lucked something here when we read that this amphitheatre was in fact bigger
than Nimes.  In the main arena we witnessed local school kids participating in sessions to learn to be gladiators - just a walk from their local high school to the arena where it really happened.  There were a number of guided tour groups and maybe we missed something by not being on one of these (albeit they were all in French). Without the offer of an audio-guide, we were met with the spectacle of a Roman theatre festooned with lots of iron scaffolding seats. They use it for current bull-fighting displays - nice. It's great that they are using the venue, but as a visual of a time long past, it was less than inspiring.  We wandered around and took what photos we could, but we thought the theatre at Orange was far more impressive - even in the rain.

School excursions are so cool over here.

We wandered around some other Roman sights and made our way over to the Museum of Arles Antiquities which had an impressive array of artifacts spanning many centuries of history before the Common Era. I didn't realise that the Romans had mastered glass blowing in the 1st century BCE and produced delicate glasses. There were also bowls and jugs on display as well as a range of other things that their civilisation brought to the rest of Europe. There were lots of school excursions on here too - we both noted one boy though who looked particularly forlorn - bored or friendless we couldn't tell but no one else seemed to be noting his despondence - and he was trying to be noticed. Anyway, we wandered back through Arles, bought our baguettes for dinner tonight and drove out of town towards the next testament to Roman greatness, before the fall - the great Pont-Du-Gard.

Funeral stone.

One of the Caesars.

Pont-Du-Gard
In terms of bridges, this one rates. Far more spectacular than Pont D'Avignon and still largely intact. It is situated in a reserve/park where lots of French people come for picnics and bushwalks and swimming and water related activities. It is a really beautiful area. Sadly for us, there were too many school excursions and bus tours on the day, but, we worked around them.

 There was precious little signage within the area - no surprises there, so the dude at the Information Desk was constantly being asked the same question in a variety of languages. How do you pay to get in? It was all covered with the parking charge of €18. Pretty good value for a day's entertainment.

There was also a museum near the info centre that focused more broadly on the Roman use of water and their amazing plumbing systems, but it also provided some interesting information on the actual construction of the bridge. Although, this would have been superfluous had they provided audio-guides like every other tourist attraction.

Anyway, unless Jayne wants to add anything, I'll let the pictures do the talking.

The aquaduct bit.