Arena of Nîmes

An amphitheater you experience the way Romans did, from the top tier down. Built around 100 AD, only about twenty years after the Colosseum, Nîmes keeps its full oval of two-story arcades, and it still fills for concerts and the bullfights of the Feria de Nîmes, so the stairways and vaulted corridors are used, not just preserved. Make a day of the city: the Maison Carrée, one of the best-preserved Roman temples anywhere, is a short walk away, and the Pont du Gard aqueduct that brought the city its water is an easy side trip.