Journal Entry: Running of the Bulls - Nimes

What a day! And in a good way now. I got up at 6a and got dressed. My laundry was dry too! Yay! My socks were still damp after two days in Nice. 

I got to the train station at about ten until seven. I bought a ticket for Nimes on the 7:10a train. I realized after I bought it that I had an hour and twenty five minute layover in Avignon. So I walked around Avignon for an hour. I saw the (outside obviously) Papal palace and the medieval ruined bridge. It looked like a decent place, worth going back to some other time. 

 

Papal Palace - Avignon

Then I made sure I was back at the train station in time to catch my next train to Nimes. I was thirty minutes early, per usual. 

Once in Nimes, I looked at the map at the train station on how to get to Las Arenas, the roman amphitheatre. The information desk in the station was closed. However, I easily found the amphitheatre, and there was a tourist info across the street from it. They told me that the Arena was closed because they were having a festival. “festi” I think. There would be bull fights or maybe bull games. I read in the south of France, they often do not kill the bulls but instead try to tie a ribbon on their neck. 

 

Bull Games in Nimes

She gave me a schedule of what was going on and I noticed that in the evening they were running bulls through the streets. I looked for an earlier time and they were running them down Rue St. Anne at 1pm.

I walked up to the tower on the ill, but it cost €3 to climb it and I decided I didn’t feel like it. In fact, I looked at Rick Steve’s book when I got back and he said it wasn’t even worth climbing to the bottom of the tower. 

 

Tower

After that I went to the “Temple of Diana” which isn’t really a temple at all apparently. They think it may have been a library. I then walked down to Rue St. Anne and staked out a place to watch the bull running. It was amazing! There were cow boys, or that’s what I would have called them anyway, and two were girls. They ran the bulls up and down the street. One young man hung onto one of the bulls and was dragged down the street! He stood up and danced around and the crowd cheered him. I was afraid he’d be hurt.

Then when it was over, I stopped and got a steak sandwich with fries and a drink for €6. I bought a t-shirt for €5. 

 

"Temple of Diana" - actually probably a Library

Cowgirl

Running Bulls

I also saw (before I ate) the Maison Carreé. It’s a Roman temple that is well preserved because it has been in constant use for two thousand years.

 

Maison Carreé

After all that I went back to the train station and got a ticket on the 3:10p train to Marseille, direct without having to change trains.

I got a kebab from next door to the hostel, a little hole-in-the-wall place, cost €3.50. I then got a beer, a corona from the hostel bar and ate. The kebab was hot! Hot like when Richard makes sauce and is angry! It was quite good though. 

Tomorrow I pick up the rental car. I haven’t decided where I’m going exactly on the way to Carcassonne, but I’ll figure it out.