Saintes: A Pleasant Town on a River

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The Roman amphitheatre is in very average condition — read: rather ruined — but thanks to Damen Allen Davison at the University of Köln, I have an unusual surprise for you here.

[ 11/20/99: for now just 1 raw photograph ]

The so‑called Arch of Germanicus is in much better shape, even if it's been moved around over the years.

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Sir Thomas Browne, one of the great prose writers of modern English (to whom we owe the coining of such words as "consideration" and "electricity", by the way) traveled thru Saintes in 1662, when the city's monuments were in somewhat better shape. Here is his account of that visit.