Nimes is Nice!

Nimes was one of the real revelations of the trip. A town of about 130,000 with the charm of Paris as well as the medieval city. It is on the edge of Provence--some guides don't include in in the area. Rick Steves doesn't even list it in his book for France. Thats unbelievable. But the Michelin guidebook for Provence lists is as a 3-star area--and well deserved. One of the best remaining Roman arenas in all the world and a wonderful city! An interesting mix of cultures--Provence, the Camargue, and some Arab and Spanish influences as well. Bull fights are a big deal here--those cowboys from the Camargue!

Wonderful, walkable streets in the old city with architecture reminisence of Paris. Lots of restaurants, lots of shopping.

As with the other cities we have visited--many wonderful squares and plazas. A great intersection of private "3rd places" with the public realm. I did not calculate the frequency of these plazas, but they are everywhere in the old city. No more than a 2 minute walk between any 2 plazas--some larger and smaller, of course.

I took this shot of the bus routes on a bus stop in the old city. Amazing coverage for a city of 130,000! Bryan-College Station just a little bit smaller--a system like this is unimaginable in a Texas city of this size. You have to have density to support something like this.

As most cities in this area, Nimes has a wonderful covered market. But couldn't they have done something more interesting with that facade?? Right in the heart of the old city--what an architectural violation. But inside--its another story!

The stalls are very much as we have shown for the other cities. But look at these chickens--obviously very fresh. The interesting thing is the different varieties of chickens offered. No such offerings in our industrial supermarkets.

This covered market merges into a shopping mall very similar in many respects to our own shopping malls--with some important exceptions, like this jack of all trades repair shop. The gentleman is working on a pair of shoes in this picture but you can see that he also works on bicycle tires among other things. A great example of the way small local businesses seem to survive a bit better in France.

A view from Nimes signature large park above the city. Notice the very sharp edge of the city in the background with local farmland and countryside. It would not be hard to go from a very urbane vibrant environment directly into a bucolic landscape. You can see the large arena just beyond the treed boulevard. Our hotel faced the Arena.

But even Nimes doesn't get it all right. This is the main avenue coming off of the wonderful central park. Hardly any sidewalks! All the space is given to cars. So even when you have the model right in front of you, it is sometimes hard to resist the siren song of private mobility at the expense of community structure.