Updated: Nov 7, Begining of November. Autumn starts manifesting its moody temper. Summer back then, was still the ruler and the days were wonderfully warm and long with some short rain intervals. I was intrigued. I walked up the large, elegant avenue starting from the train station when suddenly appeared the massive Roman Arena. Before going to Nimes, the images of this ancient place amazed me. Is this monument as old as it looks? As if it was a surrealistic dream in a middle of a French town.
Some t. Blood and cruelty, passionate love as the aspiration for sublime beauty, fused together. All the right ingredients to create a theatrical drama. It seemed intensively lustful and violent at the same time. Bigger than life. There is proof that this world existed and not only in fantasy.
I entered inside this enormous theater. It is one of the best-conserved Arenas in the world, before the coliseum in Rome. I have started to imagine the death sentence that the defeated gladiator received in front of the impassioned audience. Cecile reassured me that they didn't kill them so often as there was quite a lot of money invested in each gladiator. Nowadays, the Arena serves more to the corrida feast: " La Feria ", the Spanish-style bullfighting festival which happens every year in the city.
Outside the Arena. Even though I would not be capable of watching bullfighting, the images of that man, with an appearance of a flamenco dancer dressed in a traditional costume, moved me. It is hard to leave this iconic theater. Its tremendous power makes you feel protected while you are nearby. The sweet French patisseries and boulangeries were opposing the fierce Roman Empire that I left behind. Did I really?
I thought about a modest house, shaped in a square, but I was in front of a giant white Roman Temple. It was dedicated from Caesar Augustus to his grandchildren Gallus and Lucius.
