Toussaint, Day 6...

Day 6 – jeudi 29 octobre
Aigues-Mortes and Nîmes

Aigues-Mortes literally means dead waters (Aigues is the local dialect way of saying « Eau .» So we spent the morning in the town of dead water. It actually gets its name from the extreme saltiness of the surrounding water – just like the Dead Sea. We had a tour of (of course) another castle/fortress from the Gothic period. It was actually fairly interesting – it got taken over by Louis IX so he could have a port fortress (everyone needs one of those). And this time our guide did not talk at the speed of sound, so we were fairly pleased with that.

For once, lunch was a little less filling. And by a little, I mean that we had fish instead of beef. It was still delicious – if you put the fish, potato, and garlic bread on your fork at the same time, it was a wonderful combination of flavors. However, we still had the cheese, dessert, and coffee, so we left really full all the same.

After lunch, we headed off to another new city – Nîmes. There, we saw the ancient Roman amphitheatre (literally about 2000 years old) and the Maison Carrée, considered the best preserved square Roman temple. The guide actually sassed Dr. Allen – he asked her to speak only in French, and she kept switching back and forth between that and English anyway. He was not pleased. After she left, we went into the Maison Carrée and saw a hilariously bad 3-D film that documented the history of the temple. We spent more time laughing at the ridiculous 3-D glasses than actually paying attention and it was totally worth it.

When we finished with the movie, we met up with the former French house assistant, Anne-Olivia, who was in the area. Somehow we ended up a bar, all having drinks. When a couple of us went to the bathroom, we realized that there was a camera in there, presumably to prevent hook-ups. This camera ran to behind the bar, so of course we hammed it up for those who might have been watching.

On the way home from Nîmes, we found the French version of Wal-Mart, Carrefour. Honest to God, there was no difference between the two, except the French one has no bags for your groceries. Awesome.