[Summer in Grenoble] Nimes - Day 2: Lunch at Cafe Brasserie Le Jean Jaures

June 13th, 2015

It was slightly late, but was still lunch time when we left Les Jardins de la Fontaine and La Tour Magne.

So my friends and I came out to the big road that we spotted from the tower, thinking "how hard would finding a restaurant at a big road possibly be?"
The road is called 'Avenue Jean Jaures,' which reminded me of the big road in Grenoble, 'Cours Jean Jaures.' The figure who had the name "Jean Jaures" must be important.

It was a very clean and beautiful street.
My friends and I were slowly walking down the street, as we appreciated and took some pictures of the street.

it wasn't easy finding a restaurant either.

 but then...!

 We finally found a restaurant!
It was a typical French Brasserie called 'Cafe Brasserie Le Jean Jaures.'

Eating at an outside table at European restaurants is the best!
I could never forget the mood. I don't think I'll ever get tired of it and I still miss it.

We ordered our food, and waited.

After some wait, we received our food.

Two of us ordered a salad.
These were by far one of the most gorgeous, and most delicious looking salad I had ever seen.

I ordered a burger, just to be safe.
I mean, it's difficult to go wrong with burgers, right?

a friend being French.

Some of us ordered tiramisu for dessert.

I have no idea what it was (when I looked up the ingredients, I saw 'cheese and espresso' so I knew right away that it's not my kind of thing.)

I'm not a dessert-centered person either.

I prefer to eat every last bite of the main course and not have the dessert at all.

It wasn't a mind-blowing restaurant according to my vague memory, but it was a good restaurant to drop by with friends, after looking around Les Jardins de la Fontaine.

+)

Europeans appear to be very laid back. Especially when eating at a restaurant.

It's not operated in a "come in, eat, and leave when you're done" way, which is unlike the U.S. or South Korea.

It seems like a European lifestyle to enjoy the leisure even after finishing the food. That's why many waiters or waitresses don't bring your check as soon as you're done eating (This seems to be quite common on the French side). Most of the times, you have to wait quite a while until they bring you the check.

This seems to be less of a thing in larger cities like Lyon, Marseille, and Paris that international travelers frequently visit, though.

I like taking things slowly, so I don't have a problem with slow services most of the times.

but for those of you who are from the U.S. or South Korea, this might become quite irritating.

........

Maybe I'm born to settle in Europe.

This is why I really dislike the idea of restrictive international borders that makes things difficult to move in or out.

[Summer in Grenoble] Nimes - Day 2: Temple de Diane, Jardins de la Fontaine, Tour Magne

June 13th, 2015
After looking around the Nimes Arena my friends and I made our ways to the next destination

We went past this church (Eglise Saint Paul) along the way.
Europe has a lot of gorgeously constructed churches.

but we just kept on walking, because we did not know what it was back then
Probably not an internationally-renown landmark, since when you Google 'Eglise Saint Pual,' the one in Paris is the one that comes up first.

We reached 'Quai de la Fontaine,' which was a road that had this cool water way...

that was also a meeting place for mallards!
I had some opportunities to encounter some animals that I have never seen before in my life, mallard was one of them.

The water way sparked my urge to take a long-exposure shot.

we walked along the water way

made it to this fountain

followed the water way on the right.

and then made it to this place, called 'Les Jardins de la Fontaine'

but on the first look, the place seemed to have a lot more waterways/pools than fountains.

"What are you lookin' at?" -wild pigeon.

Here's a little information about birds in Europe:
They aren't afraid of anything!
The image of pigeons that comes into my mind are the ones that run or fly away when you make one step in their direction, even from several feet away.
but this pigeon I met in France, I had no problem taking a close up shot of it.

Who knows? You might end up being the one who gets hurt if you mess around with European pigeons.

Well-crafted statues, with significant signs of weathering.
I wonder how long this has been there.

Taking a short break.
Our shoulders needed it after carrying our bulky backpack for several hours.

After a short rest, we walked over to this ruin.

 which was called 'Le Temple de Diane'
Ancient Roman city needs some roman temples, right?

Structures made of stone or brick seems to do tremendously better in surviving through time.
If they're untouched, that is.

We made our way to other parts of the garden.

Before climbing the hill to La Tour Magne, we walked down to have a look at one of the pools of water, which were homes to the swans.
Swans were another species of animals that I saw for the first time in Europe.

I wasn't expecting to see a lot of wild animals in Europe, but it turns out, I got to see some animals that are very uncommon back at home.

all right, time to head over to Tour Magne.

We left the area with the pool, swans, and the Temple of Diana

and started walking up the hill.

walked past this cool looking garden

and kept on hiking upwards.

and finally after a long walk, we made it to La Tour Magne.

A sign told us that the entrance is at the back of the tower.

and at the backside of the tower, was this small door

Inside the tower, you can either buy the ticket and head upwards, or if you purchased Nimes city pass like my friends and I did, you can just use the pass to go up the tower.

The stairway is very very narrow, and that's the only one path that the people climbing up and coming back down have to share, so it is highly recommended to be cautious when walking up La Tour Magne.

When you reach the top of the tower, this view of Nimes welcomes you.
I can't really say that it was panoramic, because we could only see one side, since the tower was very small and the walls and the shade obstructed our view to a certain extent.

but the shade was still nice, because it was quite a hot and humid day.

Nimes also had a big road, just like 'Cours Jean Jaures' of Grenoble.

and there we saw the Nimes Ampitheater.

To me, La Tour Magne seemed to be the landmark that matches the Bastille of Grenoble, where you can have a nice view of the city from a higher elevation.

After appreciating the view and taking some pictures, we made our way back down
and we started to look for a place to have lunch at.