This is one of the side entrances of Jardins de la Fontaine. There are other ones on the other side of the gardens, but this one is the nearest when coming from the city center. The steps are, however, in a very bad shape, so its advisable to use one of the two main entrances.
This one is anyway close to the children’s playgrounds and also the square with the Lebanon cedar tree, and I find it quite handy.
When you leave the square with the Lebanon cedar towards the side exit of Jardins de la Fontaine, you will take these steps down. The railings are not wood, despite the outlook, but concrete (béton in French). This was very popular and I guess a bit fashionable style in the 19th century, to imitate the nature with concrete structures. And what’s interesting, they do look like wood! Just that the colour is grey.
One more picture from the town hall of Nîmes: the lovely little garden in the inner yard. It is changed according to season, and in the end of August it looked like this.
…or, when the body left the body…
It’s again the time, when the young cicadas emerge their nymph skins to become fully adults, and the empty nymph skins are seen on tree trunks, grasses and under the benches. Here, in the Jardins de la Fontaine in Nîmes.
The nymph skins are surprisingly small, so first it’s difficult to notice them. In the photo on the right, there are two skins. Can you find them? And above there are more, like the cicadas had been climbing up the tree…
So, now the singing of the cicadas gets even louder? Well, that’s the sound of summer!
Somehow I wanted to catch this scene, where the tourists are taking pictures of the Temple of Diana in Jardins de la Fontaine. Big cameras are passé, and hardly anyone really uses the iPad for taking photos (anymore), like the woman on the right. Nowadays popular are the cellphone cameras and again the tiny winy pocket cameras. It’s fun to observe the trends, isn’t it!
One of the nicest summer events in Nîmes is the film screenings in Jardins de la Fontaine. The week-long festival is called Un réalisateur dans la ville, and every year a different (French) film maker is invited as a guest, with his/her films. This year it was Jean-Pierre Mocky, in France a well-known actor, screenwriter, producer and director, but a little less well-known elsewhere. At least I had never heard of him.
So, perhaps due to that, I (almost) missed the screenings. Today is the last one: L’ibis rouge starts when the sun goes down. Should I go or should I stay? Anyway, the screenings are free of charge, and the atmosphere is great, with twinkling stars and singing of the cicadas…
Two young boys were doing acrobatics in the Jardins de la Fontaine. Jumping from bench to bench, standing on their hands, leaping over the picnic tables. Very discretely though, not disturbing anyone. Even their music player was not loud, but hidden in the canvas bag! I enjoyed watching their energy.
Mont Duplan is one of the Nîmes’ hills, in the soutwest part of the city. You can find there children’s playgrounds with a traffic park, a sports ground, picnic tables, and an observatory. Right next to this viewpoint there is an old windmill. As the park doesn’t close for the night, there are also lots of graffities and such… But during the daytime it’s quite a nice place to stop by.
Within the past few days the Jardins de la Fontaine has been filled with statues. But what kind of statues? Made of last years dead leaves! You can find these statues (and more) lurking in the bushes, peaking from behind the trees, or climbing on the walls. It’s a real hide and seek game, and everyone is delighted, especially of course children.
The statues are part of the garden event of Rendez-vous aux jardins of this weekend, and I hope they will stay there a little longer… The art work is of a theatre group named Le Phun, and seems to be part of the Marseille-Provence 2013 European culture capital program. Some theatre plays are also organized today.
With these pictures I participate in the City Daily Photo community’s June theme of ‘beauty of decay’. Other participants you can find here.
*** Update on Jun 3: The statues are no longer in the garden of Nîmes… It really was only for the weekend! But perhaps they pop up somewhere else again? If you’re in France, maybe you’ll bump into them?
The last major event of the feria, apart from the last corrida of course, was the parade of the orchestra of the Republigan Guard. Yes, the one that you can see normally (on TV) in Paris, on Bastille Day, for example.
We had already seen them perform at the Arènes the night before, and were so impressed that we came to see them again on Monday. And the parade was really magnificent – and for the first time I saw that the audience was marching along with the parade! All the way to the Jardins de la Fontaine. A superb ending for the feria.
Nîmes notes 