Nimes the Mediterranean cultivates chiefly the art of the good to live. In the slightest sunbeam (to us it shines 300 days a year), terraces and conversations liven up, the city exults. And, markets in arenae, gardens of the fountain with discreet of the mansions, whatever is the weather, the conviviality lives.

Nimes in the Roman influences has a lot of memory. Memory sculptured for all eternity in the elegant majesty of its Roman monuments, always present in the city, which laugh at fashions and at nostalgias. Rome is here at her, for a long time, and for a long time even, of Nemausa the original source at the square house, the arenae in the famous bridge of the Gard Who today, through a big exhibition, redraws the exceptional adventure of the aqueduct gardois. This past there, engraved in the architecture, did not take a wrinkle and fixed once for all a style which continued in the course of the centuries with the same coherence, the same authenticity.The gardens of the Fountain, the mansions scattered in the historic perimeter or the big contemporary arrangements, which the ship of light of the Square of Art, Lord's work Norman Foster, draw gently and in depth the alterations of time.

Nimes carmarguaise, quoted from confluences near the delta of the Rhone, in the edge of it of the sea, there where the games of mirrors of the sky and the swamps irrigate the imagination of the people. It is not only a playground, dedicated to the breeding of horses and bulls. And it is better that a still protected natural sanctuary or one of the big European refuges of migratory birds. The Camargue is in the intimacy of Nimes, at the same moment éden secret ...


Féria for more than half a century, is one of the biggest holidays of Europe, and it is not a fate. The bullfighting imported by Spain bloomed here in coherence, in echo in these races cowboy boots which continue to make vibrate the villages of the delta, and Nimes, twice a year.

Nimes in the cultures cévenoles, it is the raw beauty of the high lands, a mosaic of valleys and villages folded up on their grey silence slate, territory at the same moment secret and proud, where Nimes drew treasures of energy and humanity. Earth of the reformation, which left its mark and promoted Nimes the Mecca of the Protestantism, but also earth of tailings(spinnings) of silk and appearances(mines), earth of resistance during the second world war and fight labor. The back cévenol country is a majestic and rebel site which forged many lines of singular character of Nimes. His modesty, its pride, among others, and also this attachment for a rural civilization somewhere else disappeared. Cevennes remain a country of adventures, and intact feelings, there just a step from the city which comes to light by reins, in the course of slow wanderings.

Nimes the Provençal with the privilege of the border post: still in Languedoc, Nimes is already in Provence. Provence of colors and flavors(perfumes), Provence of the savoir-vivre and the delicacies, that of the olive tree and its precious oil, the one who juggles with the fragrant spices of the scrubland, the garlic, the anchovy or the cod beaten there brandade, and delights with a wine of its soil of the costières of Nimes. Provence which evokes just like that of light, the heat, the summer. Then, we are going to take refuge in the shade of an arbour, around a colored table. To the menu some miracles gleaned at random stalls of the Halle power plants, greedy cathedral of the city.

Anchoïade and tapenade, brandade of cod and olives of the vintage wine (picholines ), the small frying of red mullets of Grau-du-Roi, a handle of tellines of the beaches of the Camargue, some chops of lamb of Nimes in the live charcoal, the pélardon of Cevennes for only cheese and tray of fresh fruits of Saint Gilles's orchards, the whole sprayed naturally with Costières of Nimes.

Finally, Nimes in the Mediterranean passions became what today what was Rome in the past. It is the ancient size(greatness), the brilliance of the previous history, the time(period) when Nemausus, city of thermal baths and culture, appears of monuments refined to sit its prestige in the narbonnaise province. Today, the cityof Antonins has the heart in Spain, towards Seville and of the Guadalquivir, the delta of which sends back suddenly to the camargue.

True affinities, weaved little by little around the alive traditions, the bull in head, popular holidays where the Flamenco, henceforth rooted, is not any more simple exoticism. It is here question of art of living, conviviality, deep attachment in a territory, a popular culture.

Nimes is halfway Italy and halfway Spain and not only halfway the geographical point of view. Indeed, its history, its architecture, its traditions, its language, converge cape in the South, Mediterranean more than ever