LIVE BOLD
Alissa standing at the top of the Arènes de Nîmes with the full sand-covered arena floor and curved stone seating stretching out behind her

France

Nîmes with Kids: Gladiator Sand, Souvenir Bows, and Swimming Under the Pont du Gard

Two days in Nîmes exploring the best-preserved Roman amphitheatre in the world, letting the kids pick souvenir bow-and-arrows from the gift shop, and a day trip to the Pont du Gard that started with an accidental Uber and ended with a swim under a 2,000-year-old aqueduct.

Alissa ·

This post may contain affiliate links. If you book through them, we may earn a commission at no extra cost to you.

We woke up on day nine ready to explore Nîmes properly, after falling for it the night before just walking from the train station to our Airbnb. The first order of business was coffee at a place called The Coffee, a few doors from where we were staying, and then we set out toward the thing I'd been looking forward to since we started planning this leg of the trip.

Dani grinning as they walk into The Coffee, a minimalist Japanese-style coffee shop on a Nîmes pedestrian street, the menu board and sandwich sign flanking the open door
First stop every morning — Dani heading into The Coffee.

The Arènes de Nîmes

The Arènes de Nîmes was built only about twenty years after the Colosseum in Rome, modeled after it, and it's one of the best-preserved Roman amphitheatres in the world. Unlike the Colosseum, which is a shell of what it once was, the arena in Nîmes is still a working venue — they host concerts, shows, and historical reenactments of the kind of entertainment you would have seen in Roman times. Walking in and seeing the sand-covered floor still intact, in an arena that still has all its seating tiers, feels more real in some ways than the Colosseum in Rome — although the modern handrails and exit signs bolted onto two-thousand-year-old stone do take away a bit of the ancient feeling.

We'd bought a three-day monument pass that covers the arena, the Maison Carrée, and the Tour Magne, and this was our first stop. The pass came with a free audio guide at the entrance, which made the self-guided tour easy to follow — through the seating rows, up to the top level, around into the areas where organizers and VIPs like gladiator owners would have watched, and then down onto the main arena floor itself.

Arlo sitting on a wooden bench in the Arènes de Nîmes looking out at the sandy arena floor, with tiers of stone seating curving up behind him
Arlo's view from the front row — the sand is still there, the way it was in Roman times.

The sand was the detail from the audio guide that stuck with Remi. They kept the arena floor covered in sand to soak up blood from the animals and people fighting, and it's still covered in sand now. Walking out onto the floor and looking up at thousands of empty seats around you is one of those moments where the scale of what the Romans built lands in a way that photos don't fully convey.

Dani and Remi facing each other in fighting stances on the sand floor of the Arènes de Nîmes, the curved stone tiers rising behind them
The whole family grinning in a selfie taken from below inside the arena's stone corridors, arches and stonework above
Arlo holding a small red camera up to the stone wall on the arena steps, concentrating hard on getting his shot

Dani and Remi testing their gladiator moves on the arena floor, a family selfie in the stone corridors, and Arlo working on his photography career from the upper steps.

The kids handled the stairs well — there are a lot of them, and they're steep and uneven in the older sections — and Arlo managed most of the loop on his own feet, which at two is always a question mark. Remi was especially into the corridors underneath the seating, the tunnels where animals and fighters would have waited, and looking for the next number on the audio guide kept her interest.

Remi and Arlo standing together in front of an arched wooden door set into the arena's stone wall, both smiling
One of the original arched doorways in the lower corridors — kid-sized, by coincidence.

The three-monument pass for Nîmes covers the Arènes, Maison Carrée, and Tour Magne. It's cheaper than buying individual tickets and valid for three days, so you can spread the visits out. Audio guides are included with the arena ticket and available in several languages — we picked ours up at the entrance gate inside.

Souvenir bows and a crocodile fountain

As a special treat for handling all the stairs and history on a hot day (mostly) without complaining, we let each kid pick a souvenir from the gift shop. This is a rare event on this trip, mostly because we're living out of backpacks and every new object has to physically fit somewhere. They each picked a toy bow-and-arrow, which Remi promised would fit in her bag. We'll see how that holds up over the next few weeks of trains and airports.

Remi and Arlo posing with their new toy bow-and-arrows in front of a crocodile fountain in a Nîmes square, both grinning and striking warrior poses
Warriors of Nîmes, armed and dangerous, in front of the crocodile fountain near the arena.

Vietnamese food and the Maison Carrée

We had an incredible Vietnamese lunch at BoBun, a small restaurant right near the arena that we stumbled into without any research. I keep being surprised by how good the Vietnamese food is across the south of France — the portions were big, the broth was right, and the kids ate without complaint, which is the highest endorsement any restaurant gets on this trip.

After lunch and a popsicle detour (mandatory in this heat), we visited our second monument on the pass: the Maison Carrée. It's an ancient Roman temple, also on the UNESCO heritage list, and one of the best-preserved Roman temples anywhere. Remi was more interested in her popsicle than the Corinthian columns, which felt about right for a nine-day-old streak of historical monuments.

Remi walking past the Maison Carrée eating a rainbow popsicle, the columned facade of the Roman temple filling the background
The whole family sitting together on the wide stone steps of the Maison Carrée, the tall Corinthian columns and pediment towering above them
Alissa, Dani, and Remi in a selfie on a narrow Nîmes street, honey-colored stone buildings and blue sky behind them

Popsicle priorities in front of the Maison Carrée, a family photo on the temple steps, and the kind of alley that makes Nîmes feel like a movie set.

Dinner in the square, sunset in the alleys

We've been loving the Nîmes city center — clean stone alleys, wide pedestrian squares, and a walkable layout that makes it easy to get everywhere with a stroller and two tired kids. After the monuments we headed back toward our Airbnb neighborhood for dinner at Heista, a small plates restaurant recommended by our host. Restaurants here open for dinner around 7pm and most people eat late compared to what we're used to back home. We also haven't seen many other kids at restaurants in the evenings, so either French families don't eat out much with little ones or we haven't found the right spots yet.

Dani sitting at a bistro table with Remi and Arlo in a Nîmes square at dusk, an Aperol spritz and juice on the table, a stone fountain and cafe patios in the background
Dani and Remi walking through a narrow Nîmes alley toward a pink and blue sunset sky, silhouetted against the light at the far end

Pre-dinner drinks in the square, and the walk home through the alleys at sunset — the light in Nîmes is something else.

The Pont du Gard, the hard way

Day ten was our big day trip to the Pont du Gard, a first-century Roman aqueduct bridge about 30 kilometers outside the city. The bridge once carried water from highland springs all the way to Nîmes through a channel running across the top, and it's one of those UNESCO sites I'd had on our list since before we booked the flights. I saved it specifically because it combined Roman history with nature — a river, swimming, and rocks to climb, which is the formula that keeps a historical site kid-friendly and lets us all relax a bit.

What I didn't research well enough was how to get there. We took the train to a stop called Pont du Gard, which made sense at the time, only to realize after we arrived that the station is still about 30 kilometers from the actual monument. The town shares the name but isn't anywhere close. With limited trains running back, we decided to take the Uber fare hit and just get there as fast as possible, with a plan to figure out the public bus for the return trip.

The train station called "Pont du Gard" is in the town of Remoulins, not at the monument itself. From Nîmes, the Edgard bus line B21 runs directly to the Pont du Gard site for about €2 per person. On the way back, the bus stop is near the main entrance and drops you at the Nîmes bus station. Check the schedule in advance — departures are limited, especially on weekends.

The Pont du Gard aqueduct rising in three tiers of honey-colored stone arches against a blue sky, seen from the rocky ground below
Three tiers of arches, built in the first century AD without mortar — the scale doesn't fully register until you're standing underneath.

The Pont du Gard is one of those places that earns its reputation the moment you see it. Three tiers of arches, nearly 50 meters high, built without mortar — the stones are fitted together by weight and precision alone, and they've been standing for nearly two thousand years. We crossed the bridge on the lower walkway, which runs alongside the first tier of arches, and even at noon it was cool and shady enough that the kids perked up after a hot walk from the entrance.

The walkway across the lower level of the Pont du Gard, the massive stone arches rising overhead with visitors walking along the path, green hills in the background
Crossing under the first tier — cool, shady, and a lot bigger than any photo suggests.

Swimming under a 2,000-year-old aqueduct

On the far side of the bridge there's a rocky beach along the Gardon river, and this was the part I'd been counting on to make the trip work with the kids. The water was cold — refreshingly, breathtakingly cold — and Remi was straight in, because Remi is always straight in. Dani went in for a swim as well, and after some convincing from Dani, I got in too and swam about a hundred meters out to the base of the bridge to see it from directly underneath. Looking up at those arches from the water, with the sun hitting the stone, was one of my favorite moments of the whole trip so far.

Arlo, for his part, was too busy with rocks, dirt, and his toy trucks to show any interest in the water, which tracks. He's our land kid.

Dani standing waist-deep in the clear blue-green Gardon river with arms spread wide, the full span of the Pont du Gard aqueduct rising behind her
Remi and Arlo posing together on a stone wall with the Pont du Gard's three tiers of arches stretching across the background
Dani and Remi taking a selfie from below with the massive stone arches of the Pont du Gard filling the sky behind them
The Pont du Gard from a distance, all three tiers visible, with rocky outcrops and green trees framing the aqueduct and the river below

Dani in the Gardon, the kids in front of the aqueduct, a selfie from underneath, and the full three-tier view from across the river.

We took our time getting back across, with Remi climbing over rocks and exploring every side path she could find. We got gelato near the entrance while the information desk helped us sort out the bus back to Nîmes, which turned out to be a direct route for €2 a person — easy, cheap, and the way we should have come in the first place. The whole day trip cost us more in Uber fare than it needed to, but the swimming and the view from underneath the bridge made it one of the best days of the trip regardless.

More from France