Gertrude Herdle Letter Brussels 8-25-1921

              Brussels, Belgium
August 25, 1921

Dearest Ones,

I am almost ashamed to write the above address, for there are only two days between it and Nîmes, where I wrote to you last [ ? no letter from Nîmes, but contained in this one].  We are covering distance in the proverbial American fashion. Miles are nothing to us when we want to get to a place.  At Nîmes Dexter decided that a day was more valuable to us in Belgium than in Southern France, so in order to save time, we had a motor-car to see the great things around Nîmes.   It was one hundred francs cheaper than a night-train to Paris, and the best way of seeing sights in the rain that visited us that day.

In Nîmes we found three great Roman ruins- the best preserved amphitheater, the Maison Carrée, Roman temple which was used as a stable and is now a classical museum, and the Gate of Augustus, which was one of the entrances to the city through the Roman wall.  The Temple of Diana set in a formal French park with Roman baths incorporated into a Louis XIV fountain was very interesting, for it still shows the secret passage which the oracles traveled on their way to their shrines.  Near it was a hill, a high, steep one, which we wearily climbed for a view of a fine old Roman tower.

The Roman amphitheater was a revelation to me, for it is a perfect building, on a colossal scale, and with all its interesting features preserved - the tiers of seats, the inner stairways and galleries that lead to them, the stage entrances, and the arena.  It is still used for plays and