Nîmes and Pont du Gard

The SCAD Lacoste students enjoyed a trip to Nîmes on Friday. After going inside the Arènas de Nîmes, we explored the city. And by "explored the city," I mean we sat down for lunch and coffee at a café in the shadow of the Maison Carrée.

After coffee, we visited the Carré d'Art - Musée d'Art Contemporain (Contemporary Art Museum) across the street, free with our student IDs. Art museums are becoming difficult for me; I don't like leaving all the art behind.
The building centered around green frosted glass and silver metal staircases. The art exhibits (and the small library and gift shop on lower levels) were on the other side of glass walls and doors along the perimeter of each rectangular floor. The man at the ticket desk sat solitary and small among all the glass and metal and open space above. If you went to talk to him, and you looked down next to a telephone on his desk, you would see his notebook, open to a page filled with intricate, precise pen drawings of animals.

 

After the museum, we did some actual exploring. We made our way slowly through the streets and alleys in what we thought was probably the general direction of the Cathédral (we ended up there eventually). Some stopped to shop, or to talk to four friendly French diners at a sidewalk café, one of whom was the proud owner of a small, big-eyed, gray dog sitting on his lap, and another one of whom wore thick-rimmed red glasses, a turquoise sweater, and invited us to meet her there the next night so she could take us to a real, authentic French soirée. We explained that we actually lived an hour away, and with polite well-wishes, continued on our way.

Cathédrale Notre-Dame-et-Saint-Castor de Nîmes

We spent some time in the Cathédrale and took lots of pictures, then left to explore more of the city and take more pictures. I bought a few embroidered rose and leaf patches to make into French brooches.
 

While Marissa and I sat outside a café, four girls our age walked up to us. Three of them were wearing trash bags. We'd seen small groups of these messy-looking kids throughout the day, and now one of the girls (who spoke some English) explained it to us: to raise money for their class and haze the freshmen, students of a literature class would let you smoosh a "pie" (whipped cream on a paper plate) in their face for one euro. We accepted their offer, and Marissa did the honors, though she found it was more difficult than you'd think to look someone in the eye then smoosh a pie in their face.

After all the exploring and pie-smooshing in Nîmes, the group reconvened at the Arènas and began the bus ride to the Pont du Gard.

The path to the Gard river led us past a one-thousand-year-old olive tree, then to the first century aqueduct. We walked over it and from the other side waded into the water. (Prepared students had brought bathing suits to France, but I stuck with a wade.) We swam, we skipped rocks, and of course, we took pictures.

  

Then we boarded the bus and returned to Lacoste, tired and happy.

Dainty Chin International