City Break: Nimes

We knew that to escape the rainy Alps we would have to head south, the reasoning behind Nimes coming during our recent EuroVelo 17 cycle ride. On that occasion it was Avignon and Arles that got the attention, our route missing Nimes by a day – we felt that we had missed out and planned to return as soon as we could. Crap weather ensured that happened sooner than expected.

For good reason Nimes is known as the Rome of France and with some amazingly preserved ruins and museums it was going to be easy to occupy ourselves for 4 days. Our trip falling over Bastille Day was an added bonus. First we had to get there and cover the 450km drive without getting too frustrated about the price of the French toll system – something we’re still getting used to; that and the price of petrol! What would have cost us the equivalent of around €18 each direction in the US was now stinging us a whopping €84.

As is pretty typical with our travel arrangements nowadays we looked for apartments that allowed us to cook. However much we would like to eat out and savour the local gastronomy it gets expensive and we do like our own cooking! Plus we definitely prefer our perfected breakfasts. With Airbnb we are noticing more and more that additional fees often double the actual accommodation price, and so our first port of call is typically booking.com – on this occasion we went directly with the accommodation due to better pricing and a 10% offer. Conveniently located minutes from the Roman amphitheatre the Appart’City Confort Nîmes Arènes ticked all of our boxes – cooking facilities, reduced city parking fees, city views, and a sauna.

Our arrival pretty much coincided with the start of Andrea’s US workday so the first afternoon was pretty much awash. We had two full days to explore the city, then on day three it was all about the Pont du Gard about a 30 minute drive away.