Tour Magne & Jardins de la Fontaine
Climb the 140 steps of the Tour Magne — a 32-metre Roman watchtower perched on Mont Cavalier, the highest point in Nîmes — and you get a 360-degree sweep from the Cévennes mountains to the Camargue flatlands. The walk up through the Jardins de la Fontaine is half the pleasure.
The gardens: France's first public park
Laid out in the 1740s around a sacred Roman spring, the Jardins de la Fontaine were arguably the first public park in France — a Baroque confection of stone balustrades, canal-fed pools and clipped plane trees. The Nymphaeum (Temple of Diana) at the garden's heart is a romantically ruined Roman sanctuary draped in ivy.
The gardens are free to enter and locals use them daily — you'll see pétanque players, joggers and families picnicking on the lawns. They are at their most beautiful in April when wisteria drapes the stone balustrades, and again in October when the plane trees turn gold.
The Tour Magne: best view in Nîmes
The Tour Magne was originally part of Augustus' city walls, built around 15 BC, and it still stands 32 metres tall despite losing its top section centuries ago. The spiral staircase is narrow and steep but the payoff at the top is genuine: on a clear day you can see the Alpilles range beyond Arles to the east.
Time your ascent for late afternoon — the low sun illuminates the Roman arena and the Maison Carrée simultaneously, making for a photograph that instantly explains why Nîmes is called the 'French Rome'.
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