Ancient Roman ruins dominate the south of France. What a formula these Romans had - conquer a place, build an amphitheatre, install a forum, surround everything with a wall and then flog it off to a fat senator or tired general!!!
On our way from Toulouse to Marseille, we stopped at (pictures top to bottom): Arles, Carcassonne, Nimes and Pont Du Gard. They all contain ancient Roman artifacts. Arles is where we celebrated Paul's 41st only 25m from the 20,000 seat, AD70 Roman amphitheatre! Carcassonne (pop 46,000) is a UNESCO protected, 12th century, 3km walled medieval city with 52 towers and a million tourists. Nimes (pop 130,000) has the best preserved 24,000 seat, AD139 amphitheatre, a 15BC temple and a 20AD tower. Pont Du Gard is what is left (275m) of a 50km, 90AD aqueduct that took 1,000 men, 10 years to build with 100,000 huge stone blocks and no mortar!!! No need to visit Italy by the end of this day! Distance travelled so far: 7,986km.
Darling! Paul Happy Birthday, miss you both very much. Have fun and for gods sake John, find some clothes!!
ReplyDeleteI am glad to see that in at least half the photos John is naked. What happened, did he discover that he had more clothes in his empty bag? Or did the 'mavri' scare him?
ReplyDeleteI ask you, what have the Romans ever done for us ?
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