Nimes is an extremely old town, founded by the Romans in fact. So, it has a small city centre, with lots of very close-knit, narrow streets. Within an hour or arriving in town, I had availed myself of a most fantastic steak frites, for the bargain sum of 6 Euros - it was then I remembered why I chose France to visit. Many towns in the south of France become like different places in summer, Nimes being no exception. A music festival in the Roman amphitheatre (featuring Depeche Mode and Toto amongst others during my stay), brings many more people to the town. "Nimes Thursdays" were also very enjoyable, the squares in town basically become one huge market, full of interesting stuff.
Nimes has perhaps the best preserved Roman amphitheatre anywhere in the world, built in about 100AD. The outside looks amazing, huge stacks of arches one on top of another form the main structure. The theatre is still used, for gigs, bullfighting and performances, and a 6-7000 seat arena has been built inside the old Roman structure. Am incredible historial monument to look around inside - certainly one of the more memorable stadium tours I have been on. Because of the heat, much time was spent ducking into air-conditioned buildings, but we managed to see all of the main sights in town (which you can do in a day if you try hard enough). The rest of the time was spent eating and drinking - a particularly enjoyable night in a random French bar in particular, talking about the World Cup with the punters.
After a few days in Nimes, it was off to Avignon, where the Popes used to live for a time in the Middle Ages. Another Roman city, this time with big city walls enclosing another close-knit centre. The Avignon festival was on at the time, I was previously unaware of this, but apparently it is the biggest arts festival in all of France! So, the town was like Edinburgh in August - full of people, with lots of productions going on, and arty-types wandering the streets drumming up business. Unfortunately, the vast majority of the productions (no, actually ALL of them) were in French (part of the "save the French language and culture" Nazism), so they weren't terribly interesting to (even a French-speaking) English tourist.
The main attactions in Avignon include the old pope's palace, which is something of a pilgrimage site for Catholics - to see what the church built with their ancestors' money. The other sight is the Avignon bridge, subject of a French nursery rhyme, part of which was washed away - so only half remains. There is a beautiful park and viewpoint at the top of the city, which is the best place to see it from - and with stunning views to mountains in the very far distance. A very nice town, although if you want to see the best of it, probably best not to go in July when the festival is on!On the way home, I experienced something close to a vision of hell on earth in Marseille airport. Marseille is not the nicest of towns, and the airport was full of people that had seemingly never been on a plane before - with 20 of their families there to see them off. There was no gate information, there were kids playing football (and booting the ball EVERYWHERE) in the departure lounge, and more than a fair share of screaming babies. Nightmare. Still, a very good week away in all - and both Nimes and Avignon are lovely places to go for a few days away.
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