At the end of November, the Gard Food Bank noticed that several of its trucks were on fire. A major blow to the Marché gare. Midi Libre – MIKAËL ANISSET
Farmers' anger bursts into the open at the beginning of the year. In Nîmes, the motorway is occupied at the Nîmes West interchange. Midi Libre – MIKAËL ANISSET
The Nîmes Festival broke records for paid admissions during the summer of 2024 with concert events such as Dua Lipa's. Midi Libre – MIKAËL ANISSET
In March, deadly floods brought mourning to the Gard. Six people lost their lives, including two children. Midi Libre – MIKAËL ANISSET
Juste avant son ouverture fin novembre, le poste de police de Pissevin est incendié. Des suspects ont été interpellés. Midi Libre – MIKAËL ANISSET
Une année 2024 riche en événements déclinée avec les lettres de l'alphabet. Retour sur les moments forts choisis par la rédaction nîmoise de Midi Libre.
A comme agression :On November 23, at 1 a.m., two individuals attacked the manager of the gay-friendly bar Le Pride, as well as his friends. Several witnesses mentioned clearly homophobic remarks. The case caused a stir, but for the time being, the prosecutor has not retained the aggravating circumstance of homophobia.
B for Food Bank: On the night of November 27 to 28, six refrigerated trucks from the Gard Food Bank at the Marché Gare were set on fire. The damage was estimated at €500,000. Since then, a large chain of solidarity has allowed the association to regain the upper hand to provide assistance to the most deprived. The Food Bank has also found a new building at the Marché Gare to transfer its activity as part of the redevelopment of the sector.
C for anger: Gard farmers have expressed their anger several times in 2024, with the strongest action being the blocking of the A9 motorway near Nîmes West for several days at the end of January. Despite the on-site visit by the then Minister of Agriculture Marc Fesneau, other operations this autumn, the most recent of which was on 27 November, the hot issues are not moving forward (tax exemption on aid for uprooting, unfair competition linked to standards, measures to get through the crisis). Political instability and the Mercosur agreements have caused tensions to rise again.
D for ten thousand:This is the surface area in square meters of the future h2 congress center that will be delivered in November 2025, a major flagship project of the Fournier municipality in the Porte de France sector. Another project, that of the future conservatory that will be installed at Carmes, was presented this fall in the presence of the architect Rudy Ricciotti who will use all his talent to provide a new setting for students in 2030.
E like Edeis: Edeis won the call for tenders for the management of the historic monuments of Nîmes (arenas, Maison Carrée, Tour Magne) with the rehabilitation of the Maison Saurel, a future cultural and catering venue (since November 1). Edeis, which, in another register, manages the airport with new destinations available (Bastia, Ajaccio, Milan) even if you will have to wait to go to Geneva or Verona despite the announcements made by the company L'Odyssey.
F like festivals:New attendance records at the Nîmes festival! During the 21 evenings at the arenas, which began on May 31 with (no less) Mr. Eric Clapton and continued with a double concert by Dua Lipa, 190,000 people made the trip to the arenas, a new increase of 8.5% compared to last year. The other Nîmes music festivals also performed, including the summer tango and the autumn jazz, whose attendance is also up.
G for Georges-Bruguier: On February 8, shootings took place near the Georges-Bruguier school, on Chemin-Bas d'Avignon. Schools confined, students terrified (especially those present on a bus at the time of the shooting)… the trauma is immense. The teachers assert, in the process, their right to withdraw.
H comme Halles :It was supposed to be an anniversary year, with the celebration of the 140th anniversary of this historic place in Nîmes. It was, but perhaps not as the municipality would have liked. While major works have been announced by the City to completely renovate a site that is in great need of it, there are major uncertainties about the future of the stallholders and their ability to return to the building once the work is completed. Saying that they are not listened to by the public authorities, they took a stand, dressed all in black, that they consider too muzzled during the small party planned for November 10th. Creating some tensions between elected officials and traders. A project worth almost €13 million which should, as a reminder, begin in 2030.
I like floods: Sunday, March 10, 2024, the Gard is once again in mourning after deadly floods. The toll is particularly heavy with six people losing their lives. The emotion is immense in Saint-Anastasie after the death of a father and two children swept away by the waters of the Gardon. In Gagnières and Goudargues, other victims of these raging floods recalled the vulnerability of the population in the face of these rainy and stormy episodes.
J for leg: stupor on the evening of February 13. For the launch concert of the Dionysos 30th anniversary tour, singer Mathias Malzieu falls and breaks his leg in the first song. His sung “I broke my leg” will remain in the annals. The tour is not cancelled and Dionysos is coming back in the fall. Hats off.
K for Keolis: the new public transport delegate arrived on July 1st after winning the tender to manage the Tango network for the Agglo. After several months of activity, the first tensions with employees worried about the quality of the service provided are beginning to appear.
L for Libération: In this year 2024, Nîmes celebrated the 80th anniversary of its Liberation. In addition to a ceremony, a conference organized by our title allowed us to remember what life was like in 1944, under German occupation. With months marked by fighting and massacres, before the arrival of the Allies. The terrible episode of the hangings of Nîmes, where fifteen hostages were hanged in public on March 2, 1944, remains etched in memories. The city will be completely liberated on August 25, even if it will be necessary to wait until August 30 for the population to attend the parade of De Lattre de Tassigny's troops. On September 3 and 4, festivities will celebrate the regained freedom. In the process, the boulevard Maréchal-Pétain was renamed “de la Libération”.
200% Deposit Bonus up to €3,000 180% First Deposit Bonus up to $20,000M for multisports: inaugurated on November 6, the new Halle des sports was a success from the moment it opened. The 8,200 m2 multisports venue in the south of Nîmes was named after the Nîmes gymnast Ludivine Furnon. Eighteen associations, for eleven disciplines, have taken possession of the place including a fencing room, tatamis, state-of-the-art gymnastics equipment, in the heart of a building whose exterior architecture pays homage to the “rich history of Nîmes textiles” and whose design has been worked on to reduce its environmental impact as much as possible.
N like Nîmes Olympique: Nîmes Olympique, which was still playing in the elite of French football four years ago, can only hope at the end of the year to stay in… National. The uncertainty over the future of the club, Rani Assaf's desire to remain or not as president of the club, the renovation of the Costières stadium that the town hall is working on, do not really reassure. Within a club that must deal with an increasingly absent president Assaf and at odds with the municipality and the supporters, Adil Hermach arrived on Monday April 8 at the head of the Crocos first team. A great story for the child of Pissevin, who succeeded Frédéric Bompard with the heavy mission of ensuring the maintenance in National. This, while there were only six matches left to play and Nîmes was pitifully languishing in 14th place synonymous with relegation. A maintenance finally officially acquired by the mental and the collective, on May 10 against Sochaux (4-2). The rest ? If Hermach has been doing what he can since the start of the new season, the mood at Les Antonins is more than gloomy. Nîmes finished 2024 in 13th position, two points from the first relegation spot…
O for Olympique: for so long we have been dreaming of these Olympic Games in Paris. One thing is certain, we were not disappointed. Moments of emotion, sadness, intense joy, screams, tears. And above all, moments that will be remembered, like the very first medal won by the French team, which is to be put to the credit of a Gardoise, Shirine Boukli. Originally from Aramon, the judoka pocketed the bronze. A first medal that paved the way for other exploits with local resonances: the silver of Jean-Charles Valladont and Baptiste Addis in team archery and of course the bronze medal of Félix Lebrun individually and with his brother, Alexis, in team. The brothers, who are members of the Nîmes-Montpellier table tennis alliance, were then able to admire Flora Vautier also adorning herself with bronze at the Paralympic Games.
P for Perrier:Perrier has had a very complicated year. First, there were the revelations at the end of January by the newspaper Les Echos about Nestlé Waters, which until 2021 used banned ultraviolet treatments and activated carbon filters to maintain the “food safety” of its water. Later, the National Agency for Food and Environmental Health Safety at Work revealed the presence of chemical and fecal contaminants in natural mineral water sources, including Perrier's. The Gard prefect also ordered the destruction of pallets in April after heavy rain. A parliamentary mission is looking into the matter. According to Le Monde and Radio France, the prefect will decide in the first half of 2025 on the renewal of the operating permit for Vergèze spring water.
Q for districts: The New National Urban Renewal Program, started in 2017, continued in 2024 and even intensified in the Pissevin district with the demolition of the Castor and Pollux buildings, work on the Puccini viaduct, not to mention the Avogadro tower in Valdegour, which has gradually been erased from the landscape. In Pissevin alone, more than €270 million has been mobilized thanks to the State, the Agglo, the City, the Department and the Region. An urban renovation that also concerns Chemin-Bas d’Avignon, Clos d’Orville and Mas de Mingue.
R for RN: five out of six deputies for the RN in the Gard and one for the candidate of the right-wing Ciottiste, an ally of Marine Le Pen’s party. After the dissolution, the extreme right made a raid in July in the Gard, also consolidating its good scores in the department during the European elections of June 2024.
S like Soulages:Among the exhibitions at the Contemporaine de Nîmes, the one bringing together the works of Pierre Soulages and Jeanne Vicérial was acclaimed by the public. Launched with great fanfare in April with a festive weekend, the new contemporary art triennial brought together just over 176,000 visitors in the spring and boosted attendance at the city’s museums throughout the summer with the extension of several projects, including the Baya and Neïla Czermak Ichti exhibition at the Musée des Beaux-Arts.
T for THT: Opposition to the very high voltage line project (400,000 volts) between Jonquières Saint-Vincent and Fos-sur-mer has gone up several notches this year. Local elected officials deplore a lack of consultation, ornithologists a harmful impact on wildlife and farmers also reject this project. The inhabitants are up in arms and are organising their response, such as the Association for the Safeguarding of Terre d’Argence and the Crau collective.
A public inquiry for the opening of a new consultation should open in 2025. RTE, the electricity network manager, plans to start work in 2027 for commissioning at the end of 2028. Another solution is also particularly available in the Gard: burying lines. The prefect of the Paca region mentioned this possibility in the columns of Midi Libre.
U for UTS: the Ultimate Tennis Showdown, with its own rules, has chosen to stop in Nîmes on April 4 and 5, 2025 with tennis stars in the arenas (Humbert, Monfils, Ruud, Rublev, Fritz, Rune), an announcement made on October 8. The Nîmes stage is called Bastide médical which, with the City, is not for nothing in this adventure.
V for vandalism:On the night of August 20-21, the Pissevin police station, which was due to open, was set on fire, causing a stir in the neighborhood, which had not been spared by crime. The investigation established that the fire was caused by the massive spreading of fuel through the chimney of an adjoining butcher's shop that was under construction. In November, six people, aged between 15 and 28, were arrested. While the six people are known for drug-related offences, the Nîmes Prosecutor, Cécile Gensac, stated that, for the time being, “nothing has established with certainty a link between the destruction by fire and drug trafficking”. Finally, of these six arrests, only the 15-year-old and the 28-year-old adult are being prosecuted for destruction by dangerous means. The minor was sentenced in early December to three years in prison, two of which were suspended with probation. His lawyer, Camille Alliez, has appealed the sentence. The adult will be tried on January 10. He faces up to ten years in prison.
W for Winner: 18 years later, Franck Proust has finally won. At the end of an interminable procedure, the president of Nîmes Métropole was exonerated by a highly anticipated ruling, handed down on Thursday, September 12 by the Montpellier Court of Appeal, in the so-called Senim case, the mixed economy company responsible for urban development in Nîmes and its surrounding area. Franck Proust had been suspected of having facilitated real estate transactions, between 2004 and 2006, with the Nîmes real estate operator Jean-Luc Colonna d’Istria, in return for the use of a country premises in 2001. The court estimated “It is necessary to note that in any event these facts were not such as to characterize an offence of influence peddling”. The end of a very long judicial episode which today allows the politician to look to tomorrow. And to the 2026 municipal elections ?
X for xenophobia: the international context and the last election campaigns have caused racist and anti-Semitic acts (which have tripled in schools) and xenophobic remarks to surge in France, and not just on social media. They can be heard in the street, on the sports fields of Gard. What the Nîmes editorial team of Midi Libre can sometimes observe and deplore when reading certain hateful comments during publications.
Y for eyes:they were filled with tears during the 2024 Nîmes ferias for the farewells of Ponce and Mendoza. The first, in front of 11,000 spectators, gleaned, facing one of Juan Pedro Domecq's bulls, a last trophy (an ear) on May 17th for this opening of the Pentecost feria.
The second, 28 years after his first paseo in the Nîmes arenas, also cut off an ear on September 15th for the last race of the Vendanges feria. Great moments of emotion for two illustrious personalities of bullfighting.
Z like zero: the political year has been very eventful with three governments: those of Gabriel Attal, Michel Barnier and more recently François Bayrou. And this observation: no elected official from Gard or a personality from the department has won a ministry or a secretariat of state. A zero point! Only the elected official from Nîmes Yvan Lachaud was invited to Matignon…but for a meeting with party leaders before the announcement of the new government.
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