On the border between Provence and Languedoc, the name of NÎMES is inescapably linked to two things - denim and Rome. The latter's influence is highly visible in some of the most extensive Roman remains in Europe, while the former ( de Nîmes ), equally visible on the backsides of the populace, was first manufactured in the city's textile mills, and exported to the southern USA in the nineteenth century to clothe slaves. It's worth a visit, in part for the ruins and, nowadays, for the city's new-found energy and direction, enlisting the services of a galaxy of architects and designers - including Norman Foster, Jean Nouvel and Philippe Starck - in a bid to wrest southern supremacy from neighbouring Montpellier.