We spent a good two hours here, climbing up and down and all over the place. Spencer was in heaven - rocks to climb on, things to jump off, and bits of stories about fighting warriors? Is there anything cooler to a 4 year-old boy?
You know Spence was enthralled because as a general rule he did not like posing for pictures much. This was a rare moment when he was actually holding still.
From Wikipedia: The elliptical Roman amphitheater, of the 1st or 2nd century AD, is the best-preserved Roman arena in France. It was filled with medieval housing, when its walls served as ramparts, but they were cleared under Napoleon. It is still used today as a bull fighting and concert arena and can seat 16,300 people.
This little gem of a temple is called the Maison Carre, or Square House. Also from Wikipedia: It was built c. 16 BC, and reconstructed in the following years, by Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa, who was also the original patron of the Pantheon in Rome, and was dedicated or rededicated c. 2-4/5 AD. The temple owes its preservation to the fact that it was rededicated as a Christian church in the fourth century, saving it from the widespread destruction of temples that followed the adoption of Christianity as Rome's official state religion. It subsequently became a meeting hall for the city's consuls, a canon's house, a stable for government-owned horses during the French Revolution and a storehouse for the city archives. It became a museum after 1823. Its French name derives from the archaic term carré long, literally meaning a "long square", or oblong - a reference to the building's shape.
Gary doing his Hercules impression. He autographed copies of his new workout Buns of Bronze afterwards.
Foundations of a Roman house found by accident centuries later.
Now, how did this get in here? Oh, because we like treats! 
Most cities in France (and Europe, for that matter) have monuments to the soldiers of the city who died in the World Wars of the 20th century. I thought Nimes' was particularly beautiful; the street level looks like this, above, and inside and below street level is this lovely mosaic. The walls of the sunken circle are engraved with the names of the fallen.
A bit of trivia for you; denim derives its name from this city - serge (a kind of material) de Nimes. Denimes. Denim. You learn something new every day!
The drive north through the Massif Central mountain range was stunning with its fall colors. It was a lot like driving through the Smoky Mountains of North Carolina, only with castles or churches on about every other hill. I brought books to read on this trip but could not tear my eyes away from the scenery, especially when stuff like this was whizzing by at 100 kilometers per hour! Let's just say I took a lot of fuzzy pictures of hilltop castles as the we passed along the autoroute. What a show!
At Millau we drove across the Millau Viaduct - the bridge in the background below. It's the tallest man-made structure in France, even taller than the Eiffel tower which comes in second. We stopped to take a picture, and had our first experience with the "squatty potty!" heh We opted to use the handicapped restroom that actually had a toilet, as did every other tourist who entered the ladies'. Not that I'm not up for the adventure or anything, of course, but, ew.
We did this trip without movies, without Dramamine, and most of it without music even, except for the "Let's Learn French Today" songs that Gar downloaded for the trip. We had no computer and our ipod batteries died the second day. The kids did great - got a little crazy sometimes, as you can see, but overall, they were stellar little travelers. We were very pleased. And they really tried to learn and use some French while we were there!
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