Nimes & Avingnon

Today was yet again, another fun day of exploring. We started our day with a visit to the Pont Du Gard, an ancient Roman aqueduct. It was pretty neat to see. This area didn't have a whole lot other than the aqueduct itself so we saw that, ditched the tour group, and took a hike through the woods. We ended up in some random field with an awesome view and hopefully no poison ivy! It was kind of one of those things you could live without seeing, but it was still interesting to view. The Romans had built the entire structure by placing stones on top of another by using only rods as connection. It's crazy! Our next stop was a walking tour through the city of Nimes. First, we toured the ancient Roman ampitheture where gladiators and bull fights used to be commonly held. It was another structure that was interesting and held a lot of history. We were given an hour of free time to explore the building and take pictures. My friends and I, being the way we are, climbed to the very top of the building, stood on the ledge and yelled "THIS IS SPARTACUS" ... The looks we got I'll tell you what... I think we embarrass "America" more and more everyday, but like I've said, it's been a lot of fun and I don't regret a single moment of this trip. After the visit at the ampitheture, we took another short walking tour through the streets of Nimes to an ancient Roman temple that is the most intact temple in the world. It was very pretty. We were given 30 minutes to go and grab lunch & most of us needed an ATM so three of us went and grabbed money while Madi went to a pizza place right down three street to grab a spot and order a pizza for the four of us to share, but unfortunately our French was misinterpreted and we ended up with four pizzas, one for each! They were delicious, but way too much to eat! On the bus again, we set out for Avignon which holds the Palais De Papes, or the Palace of the Pope. The city was much like Carsaconne, which was surrounded by a castle wall. The castle itself was nothing like versailles, it was more so the typical stone castle. After viewing the castle we had three hours to do as we pleased, which we spent well. Dinner was at a small restaurant, but the meal was delicious! Our bus driver Jean Pierre is awesome. He blasts the music on the bus and makes fun of us girls all the time. For bonding, he reserved a TV in the

lobby and bought France color face paint for us to watch France play in the World Cup tonight. It should be fun, I'm excited! We've become better friends with the Colorado kids in our tour group, they're a lot of fun. Tomorrow we go to Nice, can't wait!