A Little History...

Okay, so this blog is going to be a little bit about the history of Nimes and Boissiéres. I say a little because I don't really know that much about either at the moment, but here's what I do know.

The city of Nimes was originally called Nemausus after a spring that was discovered when the Romans first started a colony here. Nimes and the surrounding area was inhabited mainly by Roman soldiers, who were given plots of land after serving in Julius Caesar's army for 15 years in his campaigns of the Nile. And I believe that's also the reason that the city's major symbol is a crocodile chained to a palm tree, because there are crocs in the Nile and the climate here seems to support palm trees pretty well. If you walk around the city you can see lots of evidence of Nimes being a Roman city.

The Arènes, a giant amphitheatre, is probably the second-most well preserved after the amphitheatre in Rome. Two Feriàs (festivals with bullfights) are held in the Arènes every year, as well as some other smaller events. Another Roman monument is the Maison Carrée, or in English "Square House," which is actually a rectangle. It's still in amazing condition, and in the past it was used for government purposes more than anything, although the Romans originally built it as a temple. The other monuments I've already mentioned a little bit about. The Jardin de la Fontaine was built by the Romans, part of it was either destroyed or just dissapeard eventually, and it was added onto by the French in the late 18th century. I went to the Jardin today and took a ton of pictures, so be sure to check them out on the picture link. The Jardin also houses La Temple de Diane, another Roman temple that isn't in such good condition but still nice to look at. And at the top of the hill is the Tour Magne, which is the oldest monument of all. Also, although not in Nimes (and I haven't seen it yet), the city is famous for the gigantic aqueduct that used to carry water to the colony.

A couple other facts about Nimes. The city has had quite a controversial past. Nimes has always been a very Protestant city. At some point all Jews were kicked out of the city, and another point in history there was a small massacre of Catholics, including 5 bishops that were murdered in front of a church. But on a nicer note, Nimes is also the birthplace of the material serge that is used to make jeans! That's right, in the 19th century an immigrant to the United States with the last name Levy (which I guess later was changed to Levi), decided that serge would be the perfect material to make pants for cowboys! Possibly because the cowboys of the Camargue marshes wore similar pants? Anyways, "denim" is a mispronunciation of "de Nimes," or the material "from Nimes."

Okay, this is getting really long so I'll finish quickly. Boissiéres is a town of 560 people, and it was a town of about 230 people in the mid-17th century. That's not much growth in over three centuries if you ask me... Also, the town has a castle that I don't really know anything about other than nobody lives there now. I'll try to find out more about that.

Okay, I'm done. On a side note, I ate kangaroo in my school cafeteria on Tuesday. Not bad. Thanks for caring if you've gotten this far, and good night!