We Explored France’s Forgotten Roman City 🇫🇷 2 Days in the South of France

We Explored France’s Forgotten Roman City 🇫🇷 2 Days in the South of France

Hey guys and welcome to the beautiful town of Nîmes in the south of France, right at the edge of Provence. We’re gonna spend here the next two days discovering everything that we can about the Roman heritage of the town and see what else Nîmes has to offer in terms of sites and of course the food scene. So right now we are by Porte d’Auguste, which was the ancient Roman gate to the city of Nîmes. And right there behind us you can see a statue of the founder that is Emperor Augustus. Nîmes is a very historic town. It was founded by a Celtic tribe in the 6th century BC and then it was later conquered by the Romans. So back in ancient times Nîmes was set on Via Domitia, which was the main road that used to connect Italy now to Spain. So it was a very important checkpoint along the way. Right now at this point in time Nîmes is considered sort of the Rome of France because it has some of the best preserved ancient artifacts and Roman buildings. First things first, we had a long train journey and we wanted to get a bite to eat because we’re famished. We’ve been revived by that meal. They’re not stingy at all with the cheese. We had two, it was a version of croque madame, croque monsieur with a lot of cheese. It was very, very good. Now we are on our way to the Jardin de la Fontaine. This was the first public park in France and one of the first public parks in Europe. And before you get to the gardens, there’s this beautiful canal that you can pass by and just, I don’t know, take in the scenery. And that very impressive fountain over there. Jardin de la Fontaine is one of the main attractions in the city of Nîmes. And along the way over there, we’ll see all these beautiful stone bridges. We actually have to climb all the way up to the hill where we get to see a really good view over the city. And we also get to see one of the oldest structures in town dating all the way to the 3rd century before Christ. We actually took a trip around Provence exactly four years ago and ended up in Nîmes for a day, an afternoon, something like that. Yeah, it was very short. And we did actually come here to Jardin de la Fontaine and we climbed the hill all the way up. And this kind of staid with us, as it’s a really beautiful part of the town, very impressive. Yeah, it’s very impressive and exotic and looks very majestic. It makes for a really nice walk. And yeah, you have to sort of set aside an hour or two even for this. And there’s a bit of a climb too, as always. Okay, we made it to the top here at Jardin de La Fontaine. The walk here was beautiful. It’s actually a very serene park, loads of greenery. And we’ve had amazing views along the way. And behind us is another beautiful view. So this is one of the three main landmarks from the Roman times. It’s called Tour Magna, and it’s one of the 80 towers they used to fortify in Nimes walls back in the day. And it’s the last one that’s still standing. From the top over there, you get to see amazing panoramic views of Nimes. Unlucky for us, it’s a bit late and it’s closed because we do have the ticket for it. And in case you visit Nimes, make sure you come here. It’s a very scenic walk and it’s not too steep at all. And you get here in a few minutes. And it’s one of those things where actually the journey is somewhat better than the actual destination. Nimes used to be a fairly young town. We saw loads of young people hanging out by the bars and the terraces along the old town center over there. So we’re gonna try and see if you can find a place to have a good glass of wine, because we are here at the edge of Provence, one of the best wine regions in France. They’re especially known for their rosé, but not only. So let’s see if we can find something. If you don’t mind. Don’t mind at all. So we said we’d go to a wine bar, but instead we ended up going to some sort of a sports bar. Yeah, the wine bar that we wanted to go to was closed due to health reasons. It was actually really nice to be amongst young people again. Very affordable. Very affordable. €8 only for a beer and a wine. Acceptable? Oui. She says ‘oui’. I think that’s French for horrendous. Bonjour, ça va? Quick intermission for the shortest ever apartment tour. So first apologies for how disgustingly sweaty I am. You’ll understand why I wanted to show you the stairwell that we had to climb up on and carry all this luggage. But for now, this is our beautiful new apartment for the next three nights. It’s Amazonian themed, as you can see. There’s plants everywhere, none of them real. Let’s go. This is the entry hallway, bit of a table. This tiny room here, we got just the toilet and nothing else. And now let’s move on to the beautiful living room. It’s obviously in the attic, so you can see low ceilings, more foliage over here. There’s a beautiful little elephant in the corner there. And for some reason, a foosball table. No idea why. Instead of a dinner table. Exactly. There’s no actual proper table in this apartment, but we do have a foosball table. Well, you’re meant to have fun here, so. The walls are green. You’ll guess why it’s the theme. We’re moving now on to the living room, which is a combination between the Amazon, Japan, and some sort of a weird hammock situation for reading and stuff, as you can see. The bed is not existent. It’s a beautiful little mattress on something. And over here, we have the remainder of the bathroom. Toilets out there. This is more plants. And we have a shower cabin and a sink with mirror. Hopefully you’ll be able to enjoy the little nook over there for, I think you can either try and bounce if you’re a very short person, or you can read over there. This is our home for the next three nights. It’s super affordable. We only paid £60 per night. From here, you’re very, very close to all the main attractions of Nîmes in minutes of walking. And now we are going back to the vlog. Good morning and welcome to our second day here in Nîmes. We are off right now in a very local neighborhood where we’re staying, full of amazing street art, actually. All these murals on the buildings. First stop is gonna be Les Halles de Nîmes, which is, Les Halles is always the name for the street market, the food market. Okay, the back of the food market is a shopping mall. Beautiful design, really cool rooftop thing. It looks very new. But fairly deplorable shopping options, honestly. Okay, we’re now entering the food market. Have you ever seen this much garlic all in one place? In all my years of going to food markets, never have I ever seen someone who specializes in potatoes. I mean’ it’s a niche. All the different kinds of potatoes. These are like seven or eight. Somebody was very excited to start eating. I always bamboozled. Is it not good? It has raisins. I was promised chocolate. Why add raisins to the chocolate? Why not? It’s sweet, it’s good, it works. Well, this is ruined. Feels like there’s two kinds of people. The ones that love raisins and the ones that completely despise them. I got a fougasse with anchovies. Fougasse is sort of traditional Southern French. Interesting breakfast, anchovies for breakfast. Why do you always feed it to me sideways? Well, definitely doesn’t have any raisins. Oh, very fishy. I actually like it. We’re off to the arena. Now that we have some food, tiny, tiny, tiny snack, we can now go take part in a gladiatoral fights. Okay. Okay, so this is the arena slash amphitheater of Nimes, built around the same time as the Colosseum, the 1st century. And it was about a third of the size of the Colosseum. So just to get a scale check. Look how big it is. And it’s only a third of the Colosseum. It’s really well-preserved. Yeah, apparently it’s one of the best preserved in the world. Oh, okay. Yeah, so sometimes they still do organize events here. They have concerts. And they don’t do bullfighting here, right? I don’t think they do. Yeah, some of these arenas are used for bullfighting nowadays. We made it in, being off season. Of course they’re doing restoration work to it. So I feel like if you compare this visit to the Colosseum, it’s kind of like comparing ‘Gladiator’ to ‘Gladiator 2’. It wasn’t that bad. Well, this is not that bad. This is beautiful. Why are you dissing Paul Mescal? She just likes Paul Mescal. Surprise, bulldozers. Oh my God. They used to have bulldozers back in the day? It’s actually really nice. I think we can go all the way up to the top there. Okay. I think. It’s a bit less crowded than the actual Colosseum. Oh yeah, of course. Too bad it’s overcast today. Yeah. Well, let’s see if we can get a bit higher up. Apparently some of the slaves that fought here as gladiators would reach some sort of big-ish level of fame within the area, similar to the ones in Rome. So you could end up being some sort of a slave slash gladiatorial star. But you would still be a slave. Of course. Although you could earn your freedom somehow, didn’t you? That was the whole thing in the movie. I’m not sure if the movie is very accurate. You mean the movie is not accurate? Apparently from the very, very top, you can get a really cool view over the city. Yeah, yeah, I’m sure. Let’s see. Is this the top, top level? I think so. Oh yeah. Ooh, that’s cool. Now what? It’s quite windy up here. Yeah. But it is a different feeling than being down there at the bottom. If you have a fear of heights, maybe not come up here, because it’s quite, I don’t know, intimidating. More impressive than I thought it would be. All right guys, fun fact time. So apparently in the middle ages, they built houses inside of the mini Colosseum here, and essentially created a tiny village within the town. There are houses down here. And then a few hundred years later, Napoleon was ruling over France, and he ordered the clearing of all these houses and restoring it to the Roman form. So now they’re just hosting concerts here and other events. Apparently even Elton John came here and Metallica. And Ramstein. And Ramstein. And David Bowie. And David Bowie. There we go. That’s a good memory there. I think we’re getting better views here than we did yesterday from the other spot. And it’s so airy. If you are in the south of France, you definitely should consider coming here or maybe going to Arles. They also have a similar arena. Obviously nothing’s ever going to top visiting the Colosseum, nothing. But it is a decent alternative if you want to see how it kind of all worked out. We wanted to go for brunch and we had two really nice places saved, but they were both closed. Although on good maps, it appeared that they were open. Alas, we went to a really nice clothing store. So we kind of hung out there for a bit. And now we came to an Enoteca Shop for lunch instead of brunch. Hence why we have white wine. So we ended up going to French Retailers, which was this really cool clothing shop that we went past a few times. And we both ended up buying one item each. I got a t-shirt. I got a skirt. Nimes is a decent shopping destination actually. The stores inside the old town, really nice. Maison Carrée, the building behind us, is one of the best preserved Roman temples in the world. This was built in honor of Emperor Augustus’s sons who died very young. And this was a place for worship, but interestingly enough, it was not a place of worship for gods. It was a place of worship for the emperor and his family. Apparently many buildings around the world have been modeled around this temple here, the Maison Carrée. And some of them are actually the British Museum and the Virginia State Capitol, I think. It’s very imposing, but it’s so much more grand from outside than it is from the inside. So Laura became very silent all of a sudden. And I didn’t know why. There’s a duck competition going on here. It’s ducks and koi fish. Wow, there’s so many koi fish as well. Yeah. Ancient temple or ducks and koi fish? Ducks and koi fish. I feel like this is the most beautiful part of town. Yeah, same, same. These canals that converge here in this spot with these beautiful statues behind us. And these impressive stairs. It actually looks like Rome, I feel like, this part of the town. Honestly, it does. And I remember being very impressed the first time we came here with this whole garden. Are you ready for the vibrant shopping scene of Nimes? Are you ready? I’m ready to change it up a bit. Guys, I mean, we’ve seen some really beautiful churches and cathedrals in our lifetimes, but honestly, you are not ready to see the beauty of the cathedral in Nîmes. The facade is gorgeous. Very simplistic. We are now in front of Gard Ô Vin, which is one of the best wine bars in Nîmes. We’re the first people here because it only opened an hour ago. And we are now having a glass of wine each. Well, that was a fun evening. Yeah, so update, we managed to go to the restaurant that we wanted to go during brunch. And yeah, we went during dinner because it was open during dinner and not during brunch. Honestly, it was one of my favorite wine bars we’ve ever been to. Really, really nice. We sat indoors because it was a bit nippy, but like the outdoors part was beautiful. Nîmes an interesting blend between France, some Italian elements, quite a few Spanish elements, because it’s very close to Spain as well. And we came here on a Monday, so it’s starting to become more vibrant, I feel like as you go into the week. Tomorrow we’re leaving this place. We’re taking one final train to finish this French series with a lot of food. That’s gonna be our next video. A lot of food. That being said, we hope you enjoyed this video in Nîmes and don’t forget to drop a like and subscribe to our channel. We’ll definitely see you in the next one.

In this video, we explore Nîmes — often called the Rome of Southern France — a city where ancient history and Provençal charm blend effortlessly. From the incredibly well-preserved Roman Arena to the grand Maison Carrée and the tranquil Jardins de la Fontaine, we walk in the footsteps of emperors through one of France’s most fascinating towns.

Beyond the ruins, we dive into Nîmes’ vibrant street life, sip on local wines, and savour delicious regional cuisine in hidden corners and sunlit squares. With every turn, the city offers a timeless mix of history, beauty, and the laid-back rhythm of the south.

🎥 Expect:
Magnificent Roman architecture
Local food & wine moments
Golden streets and charming alleys
That irresistible Southern French atmosphere 🍷🌿

Whether you’re a history lover or just dreaming of la belle vie in Provence, this vlog is your escape to the heart of Nîmes.

﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌
DISCOUNTS FOR YOU

🎞️ Music and stock footage we use — https://artlist.io/referral/6116552/Horia
🩺 Travel Insurance — https://bit.ly/3JRRbEZ
🌎 Express VPN — https://www.expressrefer.com/refer-a-friend/30-days-free?referrer_id=88711126&utm_campaign=referrals&utm_medium=copy_link&utm_source=referral_dashboard

﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌
SUPPORT OUR CHANNEL

Want to help us make more videos like this, only better? Here’s how you can do this:
Buy us a coffee — https://buymeacoffee.com/goneagain

﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌
AMAZON STOREFRONT

https://amzn.to/4dD9Phx

﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌
LET’S CONNECT

□ SUBSCRIBE to our YouTube – https://bit.ly/4ae5kaa
□ Laura’s Instagram: https://bit.ly/3JVAF6U
□ Horia’s Instagram: https://bit.ly/4b6RE1U
□ Our Instagram: https://bit.ly/3PPyqVy
□ Email us: goneagaincreative@outlook.com

﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌
CHAPTERS

00:00 Intro
00:40 Arriving in Nimes
02:37 Jardins de la Fontaine and Tour Magne
06:50 Dinner in the Old Town
07:42 Apartment Tour
09:37 Local Food Market
12:18 The Roman Arena of Nimes
17:01 An Incredible Roman Temple
17:51 More Roman Ruins
19:53 Nimes Old Town and Local Wine