Seen from trambus: another trambus

The trambus lanes are dedicated for trambusses, other busses and cars take other lanes. And the design, yep, it’s very round.

Seen from Trambus: Liberté

Coming to another trambus stop, Liberté. Behind is a brand new apartment building, and a lower building, which one day probably will have to go… But what is most interesting, is the shape of the man in the stop signal: it’s like a star!

Seen from the trambus: Le Colisée

 

The trambus route to Nîmes center goes between the apartment and office block Le Colisée, designed by Japanese architect Kisho Kurokawa. The (rather grey and dull) building is said to be inspired by the Arènes de Nîmes, and was built between 1989 and 1995.

Seen from the trambus: Nemausa swimming pool

Going towards the city center: after crossing the highway bridge, you will see the Nemausa swimming pool on your left. There, right behind the trees. In the building there are also two restaurants, and some offices. The stade nautique de Nemausa opened in 2007.

The trambus of Nîmes

The ending station of the Nîmes trambus is in front of the Arènes.

The trambus is a combination of – as you can guess from the name – a tram and a bus. No rails needed, looks like a long bus, but otherwise the concept comes from a tram. And having now tested it once (no, twice, I went back and forth), it works!

In my humble opinion, the route is much more clear than those of the busses. It’s also fairly fast, and also frequent (at least during the day). It’s not as silent as the modern trams, but it’s supposed to be more environment friendly – the tram bus doesn’t use gasoline or diesel, but electricity. The ride cost one euro, and you can purchase the ticket when entering. Just don’t forget to stamp it!

Some people of course criticize the meaning and the cost (79 million euros) of a new type of bus which has (so far) just one line. It circulates between the Arènes and the commercial centre near the highway entrance. New lines are planned, of course.

Well, I don’t say anything to that. Just that I liked my ride. I will post during the next few days a few pictures taken in and from the bus.

Nîmes’ courthouse

After a little break, again new pictures from Nîmes…

The courthouse of Nîmes, or Le Palais de justice, is located just next to the amphitheatre, facing Esplanade Charles-de-Gaulle. This is the main entrance, which, however, is hardly used. In fact, I’ve never seen the gates open. The actual entrance is on the other side of the building.

The Palais de justice was designed by architect Gaston Bourdon and built between 1836 and 1846. It’s easy to see that the edifice was largely inspired of the Maison Carrée. Nowadays the neoclassical building is listed as a historical monument.

Saint-Paul church of Nîmes

I just noticed I haven’t showed many pictures of the Nîmes’ numerous churches. Here’s one on the Boulevard Victor Hugo, the Saint Paul church (Église Saint-Paul de Nîmes). It was built between 1835 and 1849 in Neo-Romanesque style, and classified as a historical monument in 1909.

It was at Saint-Paul where Yves Mourousi, a famous French tv presenter with ancestry of Russian nobility, was married during the feria in 1985 very lavishly. Nearly two million people attended the wedding, and it was much noted in the media (told us the Wikipedia).

Where the Roman watch towers stood

And here we are on the ground (compare with the previous photo). The large circle marks the place where a Roman watch tower used to be. Same way are the old city walls marked. And in the evening they glow…

On the roof of the arenes

Tourists on the very top of the Arenes (amphitheatre of Nîmes). It’s actually prohibited to climb up the most highest point, as it is as dangerous as it looks like… The amphitheatre is 21 meters tall, so I don’t even dare to think of an accident… Anyway, for a picture (taking) it’s not that bad.

Nîmes seen from the top of the amphitheatre

Here’s another view of Nîmes, seen from the top of the amphitheatre. There, where you now see a giant wall painting of the Spanish torero José Tomàs, will a few years later stand the new museum of Romanity. The work has just begun. Otherwise the views are of the nearby suburbs of Nîmes, a mixture of old, fairly low buildings and new and modern apartment buildings.