Most Roman temples survive as a jumble of columns and a lot of imagination. The Maison Carrée in Nîmes is the exception: a complete temple, standing on its podium with its roof and columns intact, two thousand years after it was built for the grandsons of Augustus. It owes its survival to being constantly reused, as a meeting hall, a stable, a church and a museum. Thomas Jefferson admired it so much that he based the Virginia State Capitol on it, and in 2023 UNESCO finally listed it in its own right.
Nîmes is a city of about one hundred and fifty thousand in the south of France, at the foot of the garrigue hills between the Cévennes and the Camargue. The Romans called it Nemausus, and it was one of the great cities of Gaul. The arena is the best preserved in France and still hosts bullfights and concerts during the ferias, when the city fills with music, crowds and smoke from grills. Opposite the temple stands the Carré d'Art, a glass and steel building by Norman Foster, a deliberately modern conversation with the old stones. And the word denim, for those wearing it under their riding gear, comes from serge de Nîmes.
Riding into the centre is honest work: traffic, one-way systems, pedestrian zones and limited parking. Better to park on the edge of the old town and walk. Once out of the city, though, the riding becomes very good. The garrigue to the north is criss-crossed with small roads through vineyards and scrubland, and further north the Cévennes offer some of the most entertaining mountain roads in France. To the south, the flat Camargue is all wind, horses and flamingos. Summer is hot and the mistral can blow hard down the Rhône valley, so take care on exposed roads.
Fuel, food and all services are easy to find in Nîmes. The local cuisine reflects its Provençal and Languedoc roots: brandade de morue, a creamy salt cod purée, is the city's signature dish, along with olives from the Gard and wines from the Costières de Nîmes. A coffee on the square facing the temple, watching the evening light turn the stone gold, is a good way to end the day. Look closely at the carved capitals and frieze: Roman craftsmen made them, and they are still sharp.