Just 2 hours down the road from Cannes, in the heart of Provence, is Nimes. (Photo). Nimes has the best preserved of the 70 Roman amphitheatres in the world – built in the 1st century AD it is 20th in size, but still big enough to have regularly hosted dreadful and bloody spectacles over nearly 400 years until the 5th century AD.
Nimes is also famously known for its textiles – and its heavy duty blue serge found its way into the hands of Levi Strauss in California in 1848. He used it to outfit gold-rushers, and a legend was born “de Nimes” – DENIM!