France Guide
Languedoc
Jardin de la Fontaine
Opening time: March & Oct 9.30am–1pm & 2–6pm; April, May & Sept 9.30am–6.30pm; June– Aug 9.30am–7pm; Nov– Feb 9.30am–1pm & 2–4.30pm
Price: €2.70 for the tower
Perhaps the most refreshing thing you can do in Nîmes is head east of the centre to the Jardin de la Fontaine, France's first public garden, created in 1750. Behind the formal entrance, where fountains, nymphs and formal trees enclose the Temple de Diana, steps climb the steep wooded slope, adorned with grottoes and nooks and artful streams, to the Tour Magne. The 32-metre tower, left over from Augustus' city walls, gives terrific views over the surrounding country – as far, it is claimed, as the Pic du Canigou on the edge of the Pyrenees. At the foot of the slope flows the gloriously green and shady Canal de la Fontaine, built to supplement the rather unsteady supply of water from the fontaine, the Nemausus spring, whose presence in a dry, limestone landscape gave Nîmes its existence.