Get in
You can access Nimes via Autoroute A9 or A54. The SNCF connects Nimes to Montpellier and Avignon. The airport Nimes-Garons is 20km outside the city.
See
The Office de Tourisme prints a 50 page English booklet entitled "Bienvenue" each year, which isn't available off the shelf, unless you specifically ask for it. It contains lists of Hotels, Camp Sites, Restaurants and bars. They also print a Travel Guide with descriptions of the sights to see in Nimes.
Culture Spaces operate the Arenes de Nimes, Maison Carrée and the Tour Magne and offer a combined ticket.
Superb Roman Amphitheatre (04-66-76-77) in Place des Arènes, built 100 AD to seat 24,000 spectators. Open daily from 9 am till 12.30 pm and 2 pm till 6 pm.
La Maison Carrée de Nimes (The Square House) is a temple built in the first century. It shows a 3D film of heroes of Nimes.
Jardin de la Fontaine, home of Nimes, other important Roman monuments, beautuful statues, temple of Diane is to the left through the main entrance. Free entrance. The grounds close at sunset, in summer open till 10 pm.
Do
Musée du vieux Nimes ( 04 66 36 00 64 )
Cathédrale de Siant Castor, in place aux Herbes.
City's most appealing museum.
Musée archéologique, Blvd 13 Amiral Courbet.
columns, mosaics, sculptures, etc.
Musée des Beaux-arts
Rue de la cité Foulc 20-22
Flemish, Italian, French works as well as Roman Mosaic.
Eat
The Grill Courtpaille grill traditional French food, and operate on the Parc Hotelier Ville Active.
Drink
Late night bars along Ave Victor Hugo.
Lulu is a popular gay bar at 10 Impasse Carutarie,
open Tuesday till Saturday from 11 pm.
Sleep
A beautiful and expensive hotel is The Imperator.
The FUAJ youth hostel has very friendly and informative local staff.
The Holiday Inn , Mercure , Ibis , Kyriad , Nimotel , Balladins and the Hotel Formule 1 are all located in the retail park Parc Hotelier Ville Active, about 30 minutes walk from the town centre (and over the main road from Carrefour hypermarket).
Nîmes (Provençal Occitan: Nimes in both classical and Mistralian norms) is a city and commune of southern France. It is the préfecture (capital) of the Gard département. Nîmes has a rich history, dating back to the Roman Empire, and is a popular tourist destination.
History
The city derives its name from the Latin name, Nemausus, meaning 'from the source'(?). The contemporary symbol and shield of the city of Nîmes includes a crocodile chained to a palm tree with the inscription 'COLNEM', an abbreviation of 'Colonia Nemausus', meaning the 'colony' or 'settlement' of Nemausus. Veterans of the Roman legions that had served Julius Caesar in his Nile campaigns, at the end of fifteen years of soldiering, were given plots of land to cultivate on the plain of Nîmes.
Nîmes was located on the Via Domitia, a Roman road constructed in 118 BC, connecting Italy to Spain.
Prehistory
The site on the built-up area of Nîmes has become established in the course of centuries is part of the edge of the alluvial plain of the Vistrenque River which butts up against low hills: to the northeast, the Mt. Duplan; to the southwest, Montaury; to the west, Mt. Cavalier and the knoll of Canteduc.
From 4000 to 2000 BC
The site known as Serre Paradis belongs to the New Stone Age (Neolithic). This deposit reveals the presence of semi-nomadic cultivators in the period 4000 to 3500 BC on the future emplacement of Nîmes. The population of the site increased during the thousand-year period of the Bronze Age.
The menhir of Courbessac (or La Poudriere) stands in a field, near the airstrip. This limestone monolith of over 2 metres in height dates to about 2500 BC, and must be considered the oldest monument of Nîmes.
From 1800 to 1 BC
The Bronze Age has left us traces of a village of huts and branches.
From 600 BC to 49 BC
The Warrior of Grezan is considered to be the most ancient indigenous sculpture in southern Gaul. The hill named Mt. Cavalier was the site of the early oppidum: city which gave birth to the city. In the 3rd to 2nd century BC a surrounding wall was built, closed at the summit by a dry-stone tower, which was later incorporated into the masonry of The Tour Magne. The Wars of Gaul and the fall of Marseille (49 BC) allowed Nîmes to regain its autonomy under Rome.
The Gallo-Roman Period
It was about 50 BC that Nîmes became a Roman colony, as witness the earliest coins which bear the abbreviation NEM. COL, "Colony of Nemausus". Some years later a sanctuary and other constructions connected with the fountain were raised on the site. Nîmes was already under Roman influence, though it was Augustus who made the city the capital of Narbonne province, and gave it all its glory.
Augustus gave the town a ring of ramparts six kilometres long, reinforced by fourteen towers, with gates of which two remain today, the Porte Auguste and the Porte de France. The city had an estimated population of 60,000. He had the Forum built and perhaps also the aqueduct. Nothing remains of certain monuments, the existence of which is known from inscriptions or architectural fragments found in the course of excavations. It is known that the town had a civil basilica, a curia, a gymnasium and perhaps a circus. The amphitheatre dates from the end of the 2nd century AD. The family of Roman Emperor Antoninus Pius was originated in Nemausus.
This prosperity was to stay with the town until the end of the 3rd century. Already there was risk of invasion and the decadence of Rome allowed the "barbarian hordes" to be even more audacious. Visigoths, Burgunds and Ostrogoths came one after the other to pillage the riches of the Empire.
From the 4th to 13th century
After the Gallo-Roman period, in the days of invasion and decadence, the Christian Church, already established in Gaul since the 1st century AD, appeared be the last refuge open to civilization. Remarkably organized and directed by men of great worth, it took bit by bit a preponderant place in the march of time.
After the barbarian invasions the population had to face incursions by Moors from Spain (AD 710). This occupation, strange to say, was beneficial for the Nîmes region. It came to an end in 754 under Pepin the Short. The town, ruined by so many troubles and invasions was now only a shadow of the opulent Gallo-Roman city. The local powers installed themselves in the amphitheatre.
Carolingian rule brought relative peace with it, but feudal times in the 12th century brought local troubles which lasted until the days of St. Louis. During this period Nîmes was jointly administered by a lay power resident in the old amphitheatre, where lived the Viguier and the Knights of the Arena, and the religious power based in the Bishop's place complex, around the cathedral, its chapter and the Bishop's house; meanwhile the city was represented by four Consuls who sat in the Maison Carrée.
Despite incessant feudal squabbling, Nîmes saw a certain progress both in commerce and industry as well as in stockbreeding and associated activities.
After the last effort by Raymond VII of Toulouse, St. Louis managed to base Royal power in the region which became Languedoc. Nîmes thus entered finally into the hands of the King of France.
The Time of Invasions
During the 14th and 15th centuries the Rhone Valley underwent an uninterrupted series of invasions which ruined the economy and brought about famine. Customs were forgotten, there were religious troubles and epidemics, all of which affected the city. Nîmes, which was one of the Protestant strongholds, felt the full force of repression and fratricidal confrontments which continued until the middle of the 17th century, adding to the misery of periodic outbreaks of plague.
From the 17th Century to the Revolution
In the middle of the 17th century Nîmes experienced a period of prosperity. Population growth caused the town to expand, and slum housing to be replaced. Also to this period dates the reconstruction of Notre-Dame-Saint-Castor, the Bishop's palace and numerous mansions (Hotels). This 'renaissance' strengthened the manufacturing and industrial vocation of the city, the population rising from 21000 to 50000 inhabitants.
Also in this period the Fountain gardens were laid out, the areas surrounding the Maison Carrée and the Amphitheatre were cleared, whilst the entire population benefited from the atmosphere of prosperity.
From the Revolution to the present day
Following the European economic crisis which hit Nîmes with full force, the Revolutionary period awoke slumbering demons of political and religious antagonism. The White Terror added to natural calamities and economic recession, produced murder, pillage and arson until 1815. Order was however restored in the course of the 19th century, and Nîmes became the metropolis of Bas-Languedoc, diversifying its industry towards new kinds of activity. At the same time the surrounding countryside adapted to market needs and shared in the general increase of wealth.
Nîmes is already prepared to face the oncoming century and, having withstood the burden of two world wars, on the eve of the third millennium, is perhaps on the threshold of a new Golden Age.
Demographics
Nîmes population by year:
Sights
Nîmes may have been one of the richest and finest Roman cities of Gaul. Several important remains of the Roman Empire can still be seen in and around Nîmes:
Later monuments include:
There is modern architecture at Nîmes too: Norman Foster conceived the Carré d'art (1986), a museum of modern art and mediatheque; Jean Nouvel the Nemausus, a post-modern residential ensemble, and Kisho Kurokawa a building in the form of a hemicycle to reflect the Amphitheatre.
Tree-shaded boulevards trace the foundations of its former city walls.
Miscellaneous
Nîmes is historically known for its pants. Denim, the fabric of blue jeans, derives its name from this city (Serge de Nîmes).
The asteroid 51 Nemausa was named after Nîmes, where it was discovered in 1858.
Championnat National soccer team Nîmes Olympique are based in Nîmes.
Rugby team is RC Nîmes.
People born in Nîmes
Mayors
Twin towns
Nîmes twinned with:
External links
