Paris(but not only)  Personal Tours

Did you know that the French name for the town of Genoa is "Gênes" and that it's probably its (bad) prononciation which was at the origin of the word "jeans" in English? You see, in Gênes, they were famous famous for a cloth called "jean". In France, the town of Nîmes tried to copy this cloth which came from Gênes ("de Gênes" or "d'genes") but they failed... instead they came up with a twill fabric which was coarser and therefore more resistant. Everybody wanted some of that new cloth from Nîmes ("de Nîmes" which in its turn gave the word "denim") so they exported it in their turn to many European cities, among which the town of... Genoa! The Genoese then had the idea to dye the cloth with indigo blue, then they exported it to the States where it was used to make resistant clothes... until May 20, 1873 when Jacob W. Davis and Levi Strauss patented a new kind of trousers made of denim reinforced with rivets. The rest is history!

FYI, I never wear blue jeans for work. I keep this kind of relaxed wear for when I'm at home.

Where jeans from Genes were finally better than denim from Nîmes...