Day 5: June 25, 2025

Today is the day we travel back in history. We leave behind 20th centry France and find ourselves in the middle of the Roman Empire. On horseback with Emperor Augustus, we are trying to conquer the Gallic resistance in the north of France. This is a world filled with Roman temples, aqueducts, water canals and gladiators. We start off by visiting in Nîmes, possibly the most important Roman settlement of its time, the best preserved Roman ruins. At the "Arènes de Nîmes", the Roman Arena, we take an insightful guided tour that teaches us so much, not only about arena fights and the gladiators, but also about social and cultural life in Ancient Rome. Again, I tried to encourage them to take swords and pick a little fight, but the students did not seem convinced. You cannot say that as a tour director I am not trying my best to have them learn by applying the "learn by doing" principle, XD. After that we headed to Pont du Gard, an amazing 3-decked bridge that was part of a very complex water channelling system. Romans knew how to channel water in style, indeed! Some people in our group are brave enough to go swim in the Gardon river, or at least dip their feet in the very fresh waters. In the afternoon, we drive all the way to Les-Baux-de-Provence, amazing medieval village on a foothill that makes the delights of all, where we have lunch a enjoy a longer ...................................