“Good food and good wine, this is heaven on earth.” Henri IV

And that was the case for three days in Nîmes mingled gardiane bull and sangria afloat ! That which we call the “French Rome”, share of the number of hills (September as the Italian city) and its Roman monuments, saw us arrive Wednesday night. A rather quiet first evening (apart from the active search for a free and straight place ! And yes leaning, the gas in the fridge no longer fulfills its function and the cold disappears !) where we treated ourselves to a good meal and a few house beers at the 3 Brewers, micro-brewery restaurant outside the city center of Nîmes, if it's not always fair karaoke, the place is really nice and their beers are far from bad ! A little tour in the streets of Nîmes which are already starting to come alive and in bed !

Tasting at the Three Brewers

The colorful streets of Nîmes

No fat mat’ the next morning since the SFR technician arrives at 9 a.m. to install the line (great internet to be able to work !) My first day in Nîmes was not exciting since I worked, while Monsieur was exploring the city (that I have already visited, no camera sorry ! An other time…) ! The evening releases us again in the streets towards the esplanade in front of the arenas, attracted by the drums of the company Transe Express, which after having warmed up the crowd flies away towards the cool and dark skies ! We fill our bellies with a bull's gardiane (which is none other than Provençal stew, Nîmes style !), pass near the Maison Carrée to briefly hear the gypsy Juerga and walk to La Placette a few streets away where the crowd is more sparse. A good blues rock band starts in the rain which unfortunately stops them on the second track. Too bad for the abortive end of the evening, it's almost 1 a.m. and we're entering TN'T !

Mobile-men

Rock Connection Musician in the Rain

The Transe Express company in video :

Saturday still a little work for me until 1 p.m. when we take the direction of rue Notre-Dame to attend an abrivado. From what I understood, originally riders brought bulls from the meadows to the arenas (puisque les camions n’étaient pas franchement d’actualité !) Pendant leur trajet, qui traversait des lieux d’habitations, des villageois (qui ont pris le nom d’ “attrapaïres” tentaient de faire échapper au moins un taureau en perturbant les cavaliers et leurs montures (se pendre au cou du cheval pour le faire cabrer, l’attraper par la queue…), pour leur échapper les “gardians” lançaient le troupeau au galop, d’où le nom d’ “abrivado” dérivant d’ “abriva” meaning “accélérer” en provençal. Ces abrivados se font encore, mais de nos jours le lâcher de taureaux se fait dans une rue fermée d’un camion à un autre (parfois d’un camion aux arènes). Certains courageux se lancent encore au milieu du troupeau !

Bulls

"Gardians"

Et avec les images qui bougent… 🙂

Quelques courses l’après-midi pour que Monsieur puisse installer la machine à laver de ma sœurette, boulot pour moi. The evening, ma petite sœur se joint à nous pour retourner voir un abrivado puis le concert de Sanseverino sur la scène de la Maison Carrée. Monsieur et moi terminons sur La Placette devant Johnny Jay and The Legends, avant d’aller s’écrouler dans TN’T.

Guitarist of Johnny Jay and The Legends

Johnny Jay

Nous quittons Nîmes dimanche, direction Arles pour la fin d’après-midi… Quelques courses, une petite balade et nous reprenons la route pour Istres où j’ai repris ma formation depuis quatre jours.

A bientôt sur les routes !