Lees in France

In May people descend on Nîmes to participate and be a spectator of Roman Week. I come from 5 years of Latin from an exceptional teacher, Mrs. Vicki Jones. When I found out about this event I was determined to go, even if alone. In the end it was me, the kids, my friend Anne,  and her daughter Ella (Julia’s mom and big sister). Randy was off biking Alpe d’huez with Jeff.

We had tickets to a reenactment between Julius Caesar and Vercingetorix. However this particular reenactment took liberty and meshed two different eras and historical references to make the show we saw today. This reenactment was based on the visit of Emperor Hadrian to Nîmes in 122 AD.

For me it was more about watching a Roman reenactment in a real Roman Arena. The arena was built almost 2000 years ago and is still considered to be the best preserved Roman amphitheater of all. Like the majority of structures we have been to this year it too was partially under external reconstruction. The hallways, arches and bleachers were intact. Thankfully we had more modern seats than the fellow people of Gaul.

The show included a cast of over 500 from France, Germany, Italy, Croatia, and horses from a nearby village. There were about 12,000 spectators, including a Philadelphia Eagles fan based on his hat.  

The show consisted of Roman games, archery, warfare, peasant market day, bread throwing to the spectators, horse fanfare, marching of legions, warfare tactics, and dialogue (French and Latin) that we could not understand very well. Luckily, Anne translated the French every once in a while during key aspects.

Each legion was uniquely decorated based on historical documents. My favorite shield was blue. My favorite people to watch were the ones with animal skins covering their heads and backs. 

The girls enjoyed watching the horses. Zach enjoyed watching individual actors during battle. Once he saw two guys fighting. One of them had just been hurt and was falling over. The opposing guy stuck out his index finger and barely touched the injured guy to make him fall over, cracking Zach up with a smile. I enjoyed watching the archers. Once home I was looking through photos I found actors kissing after the final scene, luckily they were on the same legion, the yellow shield company,…hilarious.

A bald eagle was released both at the beginning of the show and at the conclusion. The eagle was so majestic in flight. During the closing flight the eagle decided to be a spectator instead of returning to its handler. It proudly joined the bleacher section for about a minute before the handler and security were able to retrieve it. 

Getting out of the parking lot 5 floors under was its own battle. I was driving an older manual van without a lot of pickup. (Jill and Fred this story all works out in the end.) The ramps in the garage parking lot were very steep and packed with cars leaving. Upon realizing the van was not going to be able to stop and climb the ramps with cars so closely behind us, Anne came to the rescue. She hopped out and had the line of cars behind me reverse and wait until we were in the clear. (A lady tried to tell Anne to tell me to punch the gas. Anne informed her that it was not the driver but the car.) I waited for the cars in front of us to be completely out of the way. I made it up 5 ramps without stopping! Then…the ticket line to get out was back into the last ramp. Many words left my mouth! Again Anne hopped out and talked to the person behind me. This guy understood and he too was having to do the same. Finally, I made it up the last ramp.  I just could not wait for Anne to “Bo and Luke Duke” it into the van, so she ran alongside me up the ramp.