Nîmes is an interesting town. It as a substantial amount of Roman era buildings/monuments/etc. which are still intact including the Miason Carrée…
It also has a coliseum that is still used for the Bullfighting festival (among other things)…
Nîmes has a heavy Spanish influence also (hence the Bullfighting Festival). We wandered around and took some Pictures of some pretty cool stuff.
That night we ate a restaurant that was mentioned in one of the Michelin Guides that I looked at in a used bookstore. It did not have a Michelin Star, but it did have a “Bib Gourmand”. A “Bib Gourmand” is basically a picture of the Michelin man licking his lips, and is supposed to signify that the establishment has good food at moderate prices. While I do not want to quibble with the Michelin judges over what is a moderately priced meal, I feel that I must say that this was, hands-down, the worst meal I had in France. The worst for the price anyway, which while not too dear, was definitely too much. Nothing about the meal was really bad, but nothing was very good either. They had wines that were damn near as old as I am (and probably had better life insurance as well). I felt like Steve Martin in “The Jerk” when I asked the girl if she had anything “newer”.
The next morning we had breakfast at the market. This was good, a simple omelet and some coffee. The market was also fantastic, although I didn’t get too many photos inside. They had the “Rose de Lautrec” Garlic that I had been seeking out for a friend in Kentucky. So I picked up two kilos, and kept one for myself. I also picked up some dried salami that was pretty good.
Here is a picture of the Garlic and Sausage and the Cassoulet bowls that I purchased in Castelnaudary…
After the market we headed out to Pont du Gard, which was the whole reason for coming to Nîmes. The Pont du Gard is the longest surviving stretch of an aqueduct that once carried fresh water for the city from a point some 50 kilometers away. This thing is impressive.
After walking around and gawking at the aqueduct for the better part of the morning, we headed out for Montpellier. Even though it is a sister city of Louisville, Kentucky, I just did not feel the need to explore Montpellier. It was late afternoon by the time we arrived, so we headed down to the beach for a couple of hours and watched the sun set on the Mediterranean.
The next morning we flew back to Germany.
The last two weeks I’ve been out of town for work. I’ve visited the Christmas markets in Wiesbaden, Nuremburg, Heidelberg, and Mannheim. They all have pretty much the same stuff, and they all have Glühwein.
For those of you who don’t know, Glühwein is a mulled (spiced) red wine that is served warm. And yes it tastes just like you’d imagine it would (i.e. not very good, too sweet, and any other adjective you would like to apply). However, even though it tastes as bad as it sounds, I have sampled the Glühwein at all of them (for strictly scientific purposes).
Last Thursday night in Mannheim, a couple of us dined at a Turkish restaurant. I had the Lammskopfsuppe (Lambs head soup), and no, it didn’t stare back at me from the bowl. It was very tasty, although I kept hearing Mick Jagger singing “Angie” the whole time I was eating it.
The Turkish restaurant was a good prelude, because I’m flying to Turkey tomorrow morning. We will be there for work through Friday, but a few of us are going to spend the weekend in Istanbul. One of the guys going with us is from Istanbul, so he’ll be able to show us where to go and what to see.
Stay tuned, it should be fun!
As always more photos on the flickr page.
4 comments:
Great pics as usual, Tony.
The aqueduct is especially cool.
So how close is the Gluhwein to an ice cold bottle of Thunderbird?
-Steven.
Hey Tony,
While you are in Turkey could you look up a guy named Oktar Atakar and tell him I said hello? Also, tell him I want my goddamned plumb bob back. We worked together at Senler Campbell back in '92 and he pilfered my plumb bob.
He was this super-genius kid who was the son of one of Ozzie's buddies from the old country. He came over here to get a PhD from U of L and he worked for Ozzie while waiting to get accepted and start school.
First, he went buck wild. Then, he went certifiably nuts. His mother finally had to come over and collect him and take him home. One of his may foibles; at one point, he had 20-25 different credit cards that he had charged-up to their $2,000 to $3,000 limit.
Anyway, he borrowed my plumb bob (which has / had great sentimental value to me), then he went nuts, then he was dragged back to Turkey by his mother with my plumb bob in his luggage.
If you get a chance to look the guy up and get my plumb bob back, I'd appreciate it. I'll pay you to ship it back to the states. Although, by rights, Oktar ought to pay for the shipping.
W.
Wilhelm - I'm on it! Your plumb bob is in the mail!
Great pictures as always Tony (with the added bonus - no photos of sausages or other inedible meat products). Hope you have a great Christmas! We'd send you a snail mail Christmas Card which probably wouldn't make it to you in time, if we had your actual address :-)
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