"Nīmes" a Nîmes Travel Page by Babzz

I hadn't even heard of Nīmes before I decided to fly there on a cheap flight with Ryanair (notorious for flying to out of the way airports!), but I was wonderfully surprised by the charming town I had discovered. It was a wonderful way to begin my vacation, and I stayed longer than I had originally intended.

"The city derives its name from Nemausus 'From The Source'. The contemporary symbol and shield of the city of Nīmes, a crocodile chained to a palm tree with the inscription 'COLNEM' or abbreviation of 'Colonia Nemausus', is a reference to the colony of Roman legions veterans in Caesar's Nile campaigns. At the end of fifteen years of soldiering, the veterans were given plots of land to cultivate on the plain of Nīmes.

Nīmes was located on the Via Domitia, a Roman road constructed in 118 BC, connecting Italy to Spain."

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/N%C3%AEmes

*Evidence of a hut village remains from the Bronze Age.

*Nīmes became a Roman colony around 50BC (as evidenced by the Roman architecture that remains to this date: amphitheatre, Maison Caree, etc.).

*The word 'denim' is believed to be derived from "serge de Nīmes," serge being a twill fabric with a similar weave to denim.