Friday, November 23, 2018. The forecast promises a rainy, cold, windy day, with storms, lightning and thunder. Not exactly a day for sightseeing. But I’m on a mission for the head Francophile: Nantes. As they say, messengers on a mission only get a little wet, and dry off fast. And like I quoted in my earlier piece on Normandy, standing on Omaha Beach, the motto of the First Infantry Division: “No mission too difficult, no sacrifice too great: Duty first!” Vive la France!
Karen and I set out from Port-de-Roche, where we’re staying, about 60 km north of Nantes.
How to Get to Nantes
Since you don’t live in Brittany and you’re coming from somewhere else, here are a few ways to get there.
Flights to Nantes
Until 2019, Transavia and easyJet operated direct flights to Nantes, but the Covid pandemic put an end to those routes. I promise to update this article whenever they come back, but until then, if you’re flying straight to Nantes, you’ll likely need a connecting flight.
If that’s the route you choose, I recommend checking out The Francophile’s Toolkit, where you’ll find a number of recommended sites for booking flights.
Train to Nantes
Another way to get to Nantes is to fly directly to Paris and take a train from there. Since Nantes is a major city, there are plenty of trains running there, and I recommend booking tickets through one of these sites:
Rental Car
A great way to get to Nantes is by car, but only if you’re planning on heading out of the city (otherwise you’ll have to deal with driving and parking downtown, and it’s not worth the headache).
If you’re planning to make Nantes your base for day trips, you’ll be happy to know that the Atlantic coast is only about 60 km away, the châteaux of the Loire Valley are a bit farther, and Angers is still within reach for a day trip. For a trip like that, it’s worth renting a car, and ideally picking it up and dropping it off at the airport, since it will still come in handy in Nantes, in the areas farther from the city center.
Where to Stay in Nantes
Nantes, as I mentioned, is a great place to stay, both for exploring the city itself and for using it as a base for trips around Brittany. I’ve handpicked some recommended hotels and apartments for you, which you can find in these articles:
- Hotels in Nantes: My Recommendations and Those of Other Francophiles
- Apartments in Nantes: Recommended Vacation Rentals in the City Center
Attractions in Nantes
If you’re looking for attractions in and around Nantes, I recommend checking out GetYourGuide, which has quite a few interesting options. Here are some of the most popular activities and attractions:
Puy du Fou
This attraction isn’t actually in Nantes, but if you’re visiting the city, you simply have to go there (there are shuttles to and from Nantes). It’s a theme park entirely devoted to the history of France, with absolutely stunning shows (as you saw in the video above). I’d recommend it not just for kids but for adults too.
You can find more information about the park and buy tickets here.
Recommended Restaurants in Nantes
There are countless restaurants in Nantes, and I’d guess most of them are excellent. The French take food seriously. Even an ethnic restaurant here serves food on a different level. Here are a few recommended spots:
A restaurant specializing in souris d’agneau, a slow-cooked lamb shank dish (if anyone knows a good English name for it, I’m all ears). They also serve quite a few types of fresh fish.
I haven’t tried it myself, since I filled up on croissants, but the place has gotten excellent reviews. I’d love to hear from anyone who’s tried it.
If you’re tired of French food and are looking for a Japanese restaurant instead, you’ll be glad to hear this is one of the best restaurants in Nantes.
An excellent steakhouse serving different types of steaks. Also a great choice for families.
Getting Around Nantes
Before we move on, a tip I’ve already mentioned: even if you rented a car, I wouldn’t recommend using it in the city, at least not downtown. Parking is scarce, and traffic is heavy. There’s an excellent tram system, here’s the line map. True, it’s not the Paris metro, but Nantes isn’t Paris, so it’s more than enough.
You can easily spot the white-and-green tram cars:
We’ve covered hotels and restaurants, and we’ll get to desserts too, don’t worry, they’re not at the very end!
The Nantes Pass: A Great Way to Explore the City and Save Money
Before we move on to walking routes, I want to recommend buying the Nantes Pass, which gives you the following:
- Free public transportation
- Free admission to all the main attractions and museums in the city, including the Dukes’ Palace.
- Free bike rental for those who want to explore the city on two wheels.
- Discounts at some shops.
If you’re planning to stay in Nantes for several days and discover everything the city has to offer, this pass will be well worth it.
Walking route through Nantes
Assuming you’re staying in the city center, or coming in from a hotel a bit farther out (always cheaper and just as good), here are the points of interest on the route I suggest:
Stop 1: Jardin des Plantes
Getting there: on Waze, type in the site’s name, or the address: Rue Stanislas Baudry.
By tram: line 1, SNCF Nord stop
In the fall and winter, the garden isn’t at its best, but it still has a different kind of beauty. The autumn colors are a bit melancholy and very calming. The garden has signs describing the different plant species, there are waterfowl, and there are statues. It’s worth setting aside about half an hour for this.
Photos I took:
Stop 2: Musée d’arts de Nantes
Getting there: a short, easy walk from the north exit of the park:
The museum holds a permanent collection of great painters, mostly French but not only. You could spend two hours here, or two days, or two weeks. This time, I came specifically to see one special oil painting:
A bit of history: contrary to what we learned, or at least what I learned, as if the French Revolution was simply a general uprising of the French people against the king and the aristocracy, one that began with the storming of the Bastille and ended with the execution of countless noblemen and noblewomen (“if there’s no bread, let them eat cake”), the reality was far more tangled.
I tried to simplify things for this article, and I gave up. It turns out that beyond the simple divide between nobles and commoners, there were Girondins, Brissotins, sans-culottes, Jacobins, Montagnards, Cordeliers, Hébertists, Indulgents, Muscadins, all fighting and killing each other, and I’ve surely left out a few other groups. Each one, in its turn, once it took power, declared all the others enemies of France and sent them to the guillotine.
It reminds me of an old joke about a night editor at a newspaper, swamped with news of a flood in China, a plague in India, riots in Scotland and a strike in Haifa, who turned to a colleague in despair and asked, “What headline do we run for tomorrow’s paper?” His colleague answered, “The world’s a mess”…
Well, France was a mess, and Nantes didn’t escape it either. Here, in our own city, Jean-Baptiste Carrier made an infamous name for himself. He was sent by the Convention nationale, the revolutionary government, and arrived in Nantes in October 1793. The guillotines ran at full capacity, but even that wasn’t enough to empty the prisons of suspected counter-revolutionaries fast enough to keep up with the new ones arriving. First in, first out, of course.
Carrier’s eyes fell on the Loire river. In that instant, he understood exactly what it was for. Special barges were built, with trapdoors in their hulls. Bound prisoners were taken out to the middle of the river and drowned, by the hundreds. The “Drownings of Nantes,” the Noyades de Nantes, entered the ugly history of this beautiful city.
Carrier particularly despised people of the church, who refused to accept the will of the people as superior to the will of God. His special hobby was binding a priest and a nun together, naked, and throwing them into the Loire, so that in death they would become “one flesh,” as the Bible puts it. Carrier called this a “republican marriage.”
This was the scene painted by Joseph Aubert in a massive canvas, and that’s what I wanted to see. Legitimate pornography, no? Except that the city of Nantes, despite its openness about the darker chapters of its history, like having been a major European center of the slave trade, apparently decided this painting went a bit too far. So it was exiled to the Loire Valley, and is now shown at the Musée d’art et d’histoire de Cholet. I’ll get there eventually and report back on whether it’s really kept there.
Stop 3: Nantes Cathedral (Cathédrale Saint-Pierre-et-Saint-Paul)
I know. We’re all a bit tired of cathedrals. But you’ll be walking right past it on your way to the Château des Ducs de Bretagne, so at least take a look from outside. I took my photo on a gloomy day, from inside the car, at a bad angle, so here’s a Wikipedia photo instead.
Francophile’s note: Don’t listen to Danny. You have to go inside this cathedral, one of the most beautiful in France, and see the magnificent tomb of Francis II, Duke of Brittany, and his wife. You can read the story behind this tomb in the article Anne of Brittany: the duchess who became queen of France twice.
Stop 4: Château des Ducs de Bretagne
Again, an easy walk to get there. The château is dazzling in its beauty and quite impressive in scale. It’s still surrounded today by a water-filled moat.
I’d suggest entering through the south gate, at 4 Place Marc Elder, since it’s close to the city’s history museum, which has some interesting exhibits from the city’s glorious, and less glorious, past. I think it’s well worth the visit.
Stop 5: La Tour LU
If you entered through the south gate of the château, you probably noticed, just behind you to the southeast, a strange, colorful tower. This is one of two towers that once graced a biscuit factory. Both were badly damaged in World War II; one was destroyed completely, while the other, the one you see today, was restored in 1997. I understand there’s artistic programming going on inside, but I’ve never gone in myself. They have a website listing upcoming events.
Stop 6: Église Sainte-Croix
Located just west of the château. You don’t need to go inside here either, but it’s worth getting close enough to see the trumpeters on the tower.
Stop 7: The fountain at Place Royale
Still an easy walk. A fountain with some interesting allegorical details:
The marble figure at the top represents the city of Nantes, depicted as Amphitrite, wife of Poseidon, highlighting that Nantes is a port city facing the ocean, even though it actually sits on the Loire, not directly on the coast. All the other figures are bronze. The Loire itself is represented by a seated woman facing the same direction as the figure of Nantes. She pours water from two amphorae, which likely represent the two branches of the river that wrap around the island at the city’s center. The Loire’s tributaries are represented by four statues, two men and two women: the Erdre, the Sèvre, the Cher, and the Loiret. Other statues represent traditional trades and industries of the city.
When I was here, there was a beautiful Christmas market set up around the fountain.
Stop 8: Passage Pommeraye
A shopping arcade, in the style of the Galeries Lafayette. Very grand. Not really my thing.
If you absolutely need a mall, I’ve got one for you at the end of this article.
Stop 9: the pâtisserie of Vincent Guerlais
I promised you something sweet? Here it is. Meet Vincent Guerlais, pâtissier and chocolatier. The most dangerous man in Nantes today.
His flagship product, by the way, is a cookie called “Petit-Beurre,” only made up of a whole lot of good things. Very good things.
Address: 11 Rue Franklin, 44000 Nantes.
Stop 10: the statue of General Cambronne
The statue of General Pierre Cambronne (1770-1842), the one famous for his “Merde!” You can read about him in this article.
I’m always glad to come back here. A man after my own heart. Address: 3 Cours Cambronne
A Walking Route Through Nantes’ Suburbs
The next three sites, after the Merde sculpture, fall outside the map I gave you at the start of this article. So here’s a separate map for them, starting at Merde and ending at the elephant.
I know, a long walk through a monotonous landscape is a great chance for meditation. And if it’s raining too, it’ll be downright perfect. So, off we go. It’s only 2 kilometers. But you can also take the tram. Get off at Général south of the Loire, and board tram line 1 heading west. For site no. 11, get off at the stop marked on the map below. Continue on to site no. 12. Then head back east to the stop where line 1 crosses line 3 (Commerce), and get off for site no. 13.
Here it is:
Site No. 11: Memorial to the Abolition of Slavery in France
It’s not that France had many slaves of its own, but French ports in general, and the port of Nantes in particular, were departure points for slave-trading ships. To Nantes’s credit, the city does not shy away from this dark chapter of its history.
Unfortunately the memorial was closed for renovations when I visited. There’s no point in me pulling things from the internet, see for yourself. If any of you visit, I’d love to hear your impressions.
And now, on to visit an old lady who once played two British gals!
Site No. 12: The Gunship That Appeared in the Movie “Dunkirk”
Allow me to introduce:
Madame Maillé-Brézé. Born in Lorraine in 1953. Retired in 1988 and now lives on the bank of the Loire. Her address: Quai de la Fosse, BP 68721, 44187 NANTES. She’s happy to receive guests. For a fee, of course.
Here she is:
She’s a destroyer of the French navy, named after Admiral Jean Armand de Maillé-Brézé (1612-1646). Between us, this lady’s combat record as a young vessel was a bit shaky. The most she ever did was land troops in Algiers so they could fight the OAS insurgents there. She did later receive orders to shell the rebel stronghold at Bab-el-Oued, and a deep blush rose to her youthful cheeks (this must have been in 1962, when she was all of twelve years old), which only made her more charming. Sadly, the order was canceled before a single shell was fired. That was the end of this young lady’s combat career.
She went on paddling around in the water for another 26 years, and then her tired old hull was turned into a floating museum.
You know the saying “old soldiers never die” (there’s a second half too: they just fade away)? Turns out that applies to her as well. In 2016, at the ripe old age of 63, she was recalled into service, and this time, oh, this time, her guns finally rained down hellfire.
It turns out that director Christopher Nolan (b. 1970), while planning the movie “Dunkirk,” needed two warships to stand in for the British destroyers HMS Vanquisher and HMS Vivacious, which had sailed to the beaches of Dunkirk to cover the evacuation of the British Expeditionary Force, which had been pushed back there and faced annihilation.
I’m guessing the British navy no longer had any such relics lying around, so Nolan had to turn to the French. They, no doubt, rubbed their hands with glee. The French military hadn’t forgotten how the British had barred French soldiers from boarding the evacuation ships at Dunkirk until their own men were cleared off first. But honor comes at a price, and the French quoted a hefty sum for renting out two destroyers.
But Nolan wasn’t about to be fooled. He needed two ships, each one painted with giant numbers: D36 and D54, matching the names I mentioned above. But every destroyer, as you know, has two sides. So he hired Madame Maillé-Brézé, painted D36 on her right side, D54 on her left, and called it a day in France. The French were outraged. They cried foul, threatened to make it public, and indeed did, on the site inviting us all to come visit Madame Maillé-Brézé.
Either way, it didn’t hurt the movie one bit. Excellent film, by the way. Brilliant direction, especially the editing of the scenes.
Site No. 13: The Elephant of Nantes
Actually, it’s not just the elephant, there are other bizarre mechanical creatures too, but the elephant is the most impressive, at least to me.
This is a sort of amusement park called Les Machines de l’île, located on Boulevard Léon Bureau.
The elephant is truly enormous, standing about 12 meters tall. It carries around fifty people on its back, takes a turn around the adjacent square, blows smoke from its trunk, trumpets, and in summer sprays water over the delighted crowd.
It’s worth checking the official site for its operating hours.
The main problem is that while adults enjoy it just as much as kids, their excuse for climbing aboard this wonderful creature is, well, their children. We didn’t have any kids with us. I worried I might get mistaken for some kind of pervert if I pushed my way on with my unruly old self. I suggested to Karen that we check at the ticket booth whether we could rent a kid for an hour or two, but like all my good ideas, that one was shot down too, so I just watched from the sidelines.
There’s more here than just the elephant.
And Finally, a Recommended Mall in Nantes and a Recipe for Stuffed Eggplant
I promised you one better than the one near the passage. I recommend the one in Saint-Herblain, a suburb of Nantes, not far from the airport.
ATLANTIS
ATLANTIS Pôle commercial Atlantis
44807 SAINT HERBLAIN CEDEX
Plenty of parking, an excellent Italian restaurant, to the left of the escalators. I keep going back there again and again. The house wine, on tap, is cheap and really good.
Well, friends, that’s it for this time.
Thanks for reading,
I’m off to stuff some eggplants:
A winning recipe:
Cut each eggplant in half lengthwise. Brush the cut side with olive oil. Into a hot oven, 180 degrees, for half an hour or until browned. Then scoop out most of the flesh. Chop up what you scooped out (sounds awful, I know, but I just mean the eggplant). Sauté with chopped onion. Season to taste. I used a lot of curry, turmeric, and sweet paprika, but any seasoning works. Fill the eggplant “boats.” You can pile the filling up high. Return to the oven at low heat for half an hour to an hour. Take out, sprinkle grated cheese on top, and put back under the broiler.
Luckily they left me a few for the next day, otherwise I’d have nothing to show you:
That’s it. With a heavy heart I sign off, since I’ve got work to do.
Dan Ashkenazi
Related reading