Some hotels simply occupy a city. Others become part of its story. L'Imperator is firmly in the latter camp. Opened in the 1920s and enjoying one of Nîmes' finest addresses beside the leafy Jardin de la Fontaine, this grand hotel has long been the unofficial living room of the city. Ernest Hemingway drank here, Pablo Picasso stayed here, Ava Gardner charmed the staff and generations of artists, writers and bullfighters have wandered through its doors. Following an extensive r