A Hunger Stop

12:01 Saturday: Rick and I were hungry as we drove the French autoroute from Geneva to Argelès-sur-mer. My husband did a quick turn toward the next exit -- Nimes. The city, which goes back to Roman times, has been called the most Italian city outside of Italy. Archeological finds suggest people have lived on the land since 400 BCE.

We make the trip between the two places often taking anywhere from six (no stops) to eight hours (human and dog pee breaks, stretching and meals). Although the autoroute has really nice rest stops with a choice of restaurants and/or snack bars and unlike most of France where dogs are welcomed, Sherlock is canine non grata. 

We find going off route into different places provides a nice break with the added bonus of stumbling across interesting things. Nimes is no exception.

In Nimes center is a Roman coliseum. Although we love history, food was our goal so we bypassed any museums. We can always come back.

We spied a Lebanese restaurant with people sitting at all the tables outside. The Lebanese owner indicated that wasn't a problem. He set up a table a little away from the others. 

Our waitress, who was Japanese, taught us to say thank you in Japanese. She spoke wonderful French and good English. She even spoke good dog. Sherlock basked in her praise and appreciated the water she brought him.

The veggie plate was a 15 on a scale of 10 with ten being fantastic. Only my Syrian-born friend Marina and her husband make better tabuli and hummus.  

Walking back there was a display in the local park by the local fire department.

In less than two hours we'd experienced several cultures, current and going back in time, different languages and foods.

Our hunger stop, once again, had proven to give us so much more than just a full stomach.