Where to Stay in Nîmes, Occitanie

What is Nîmes known for?

Nîmes is known for the most complete Roman buildings in France. The Maison Carrée, a temple that outshines any surviving in Rome, stands near the Amphitheater of Nîmes, whose double tier of arches still frames the old town. Water gave the city its name.

The spring of Nemausus fed the Roman colony, the Tour Magne watches from the hill above, and the Musée de la Romanité keeps the finds close by.

What are the main landmarks in Nîmes?

Nîmes keeps its landmarks from the Roman colony. The Maison Carrée and the Amphitheater of Nîmes anchor the old town, while the Tour Magne and the temple of Diana crown the hill above the Jardins de la Fontaine. Glass answers stone across the square.

The Carré d'art faces the Maison Carrée, the Musée de la Romanité holds the ancient finds, and the Église Saint-Paul and the Musée des beaux-arts round out the centre.

What is the history of Nîmes?

Nîmes began as Nemausus, a settlement named for the spring god of a Celtic people before Rome absorbed it. Water shaped the site before Rome did. Veterans of Rome's eastern campaigns were settled here, and the colony they raised gave the city its Maison Carrée, its amphitheatre, and the Tour Magne set high on the hill to guard the wall.

Rome left in stone. Long after the empire faded, the arena was fortified and lived in as a walled town, and the temple that became known as the temple of Diana crumbled slowly beside the sacred spring. The old faith gave way to the new.

Churches such as the Église Saint-Paul rose in the medieval and later town, while the textile trade that made the cloth called denim, from serge de Nîmes, drove the merchant houses of Vieux Nîmes. The Roman ground endured beneath it all. In modern times the Jardins de la Fontaine framed the spring and the temple of Diana, the Carré d'art rose facing the Maison Carrée, and the Musée de la Romanité was raised beside the arena to hold two thousand years of the city's past.

Where is Nîmes?

Nîmes lies in southern France, on a low plain between the Mediterranean Sea and the foothills of the Cévennes. The city is the prefecture of the Gard department in Occitanie, and dry limestone hills rise at its northern edge above the Jardins de la Fontaine. The garrigue reaches to the door.

From the height of the Tour Magne the plain runs south toward the sea, with the Cévennes standing back to the north.

What is the climate of Nîmes?

Nîmes has a Mediterranean climate of hot dry summers and mild wet winters. The sun holds long over the plain, and the dry garrigue scrub that surrounds the city browns under the summer heat between the Cévennes and the sea. Autumn can turn fierce.

Heavy rains sweep off the Cévennes in the shorter days, and the mistral clears the sky between storms across the Gard.

How do you get to Nîmes?

Nîmes sits on the main rail line along the Mediterranean corridor of southern France. Fast trains run to the city from Paris, Marseille, and Montpellier, and a station on the high-speed bypass links it to the wider network. The old centre is walkable.

A regional airport serves the Gard nearby, and roads climb north toward the Cévennes and south to the sea.