Nantes

Understand

"Des principaux de cité rebelée / Qui tiendront fort pour liberté rauoir / Detrencher masses infelice meslée, / Cris vrlemens a Nante; piteux voir." "From the principle ones of the city rebellion / Who will strive to cover their liberty / The males hacked to pieces, a futile conflict, / Cries, lamentation, at Nantes; piteous to see." - cheery prophesy of Nostradamus, Century V, Verse 33

The River Loire is navigable by shallow-draught boats for 140 km upstream. Nantes 50 km upstream is at the confluence with the small River Erdre, which has dumped its silt to form river islands and break the Loire into a leash of channels. The Namnetes were a Gaulish tribe; their name likely meant "river" or "stream". The Romans took control in the 1st century BC and stayed until the 5th century AD. In medieval times the town belonged to Brittany, whose dukes built up the castle and resisted the growing power of France, until a dynastic marriage of 1491 united the realms. In 1598 the town gave its name to the Edict of Nantes, which granted tolerance of Protestants or Huguenots; this ended religious wars in France but displeased many and horrified the pope. It was revoked in 1685, leading to a mass exodus of Huguenots and the blighting of French industry.

Nantes became a major port during the 15th century, and was the country's largest by 1700. It then grew rich from the Atlantic slave triangle, exporting manufactured goods to West Africa, thence slaves to the Caribbean, and back to Nantes l…

Get around

thumb | 300px | Cathédrale de Saint-Pierre-et-Saint-Paul

See

thumb | 300px | Place Graslin and Théâtre Graslin Jardin des Plantes is a bosky park just north of the railway station, bounded to the west by Rue Stanislas Baudry and east by Rue Frédéric Cailliaud. It's free to enter in daylight hours. By its northeast corner is the back entrance to Bouteillerie cemetery, with elaborate 19th-century ornaments, and First World War graves in regimented rows. Miroir d'eau is an ornamental pond south side of the castle with a pleasing reflection. Place Maréchal-Foch is the broad pleasant square just north of the cathedral, named for the French military commander of the First World War. The fellow teetering atop the column with his head still on is Louis XVI, one of the few such statues to survive Revolutionary zeal. Chapelle Notre-Dame-de-l'Immaculée-Conception is from 1470. It's in the block south of the Fine Arts Museum on Rue Malherbe. is an island in the River Erdre 1 km north of city centre, take Tram 2. The entire island is a Japanese garden and a pleasant place to relax. thumb | 300px | Belfry of Église Sainte-Croix Musée Thomas Dobrée at 18 Rue Voltaire holds the vast personal art collection of Dobrée (1810-1895). It's closed for reconstruction, probably until 2024. was built from 1669 in classical style, with a richly decorated interior. The elaborate belfry-cum-clocktower was added in 1860. is a city landmark for all the wrong reasons. It's a 144-m skyscraper built on a postwar gap site and completed in 1976, when its slabby m…