Introduction

Located in Occitanie, at the gateway to Provence, once a great city of the Roman Empire known as Nemausus, two-thousand-year-old Nîmes offers a remarkable historical, cultural, and architectural heritage.

A city of stone and light

A city of stone and light, its ancient monuments (the Arena, the Maison Carrée, and the Tour Magne) and its shaded lanes carry visitors across the centuries, those of an ancient past that has never truly left the Midi.

The crocodile and the palm tree

Nîmes bears a singular emblem: the crocodile chained to the palm, featured on the ancient dupondius coin struck to commemorate Octavian’s victory over Mark Antony and Cleopatra at the naval Battle of Actium, in 31 BC. Defeated Egypt is personified by the crocodile, while the palm represents victory, an emblem that Francis I made official in 1535, replacing the palm with the palm tree, which has remained the face of Nîmes ever since.

Credits

Les Mots de Lisa