There’s a waft of Nantes hanging on the warm evening air and, I have to confess, it’s coming from me. We are in the French city on the river Loire, where cool crisp muscadet and delicate ciders go down easily at pavement cafes in shady squares. Cobbled streets wind enchantingly through quarters stuffed full of enticing shops, marvellous museums hold treasures, and there is art everywhere including, currently, on my wrist. Scented with butter, magnolia and salt, and sampled in the tourist office, Nantes: le Parfum was created by Bertrand Duchafour as part of the 2021 edition of the city’s annual art extravaganza, Le Voyage à Nantes.
The fun of sniffing out the essence of the city makes me wonder why more places don’t do it, although (jokes about the whiff of certain Irish rivers aside) few places have the eclectic charm of this former part of Brittany to inspire. The sixth-largest city in France, Nantes manages to balance grand with walkable, historic with forward thinking, and classical with quirky. It has also transformed darker pasts into salient stories for today’s travellers.
Once, Nantes was the centre of French military shipbuilding and, before that, a major slave port. After the shipyards closed in 1987, much of the Île de Nantes, the island at the heart of the city, became an industrial wasteland, its once-strategic position at branching arms of the river no longer so relevant. Enter Jean-Marc Ayrault, socialist mayor of Nantes from 1989 (and later French prime minister) who, together with cultural impresario Jean Blaise, set about transforming the city through free outdoor public art.
The results should be food for thought for anyone with a run-down or otherwise sad city on their hands. Objections to pedestrianisation were overruled, and it is now happily embraced. So too were the opinions of naysayers, who cited art as a waste of public money. “When money is well spent,” Blaise has said, “culture is never too expensive.”
It helps that the curation is good, and the ideas are all-embracing. In Nantes, public art can come in the guise of the design of children’s play parks, hotel rooms, and sporting and recreational facilities, including a somewhat surreal set of table-tennis tables and a creatively shaped football pitch.
It is all overseen by Le Voyage à Nantes, which encompasses the annual summer festival, as well as cultural and tourism responsibilities. Everywhere you look, something wonderful enriches your view. A pair of birds perch in oversized spectacles outside an optician’s, and a statue perches on a balcony, reading a book above the bibliotheque. Both are the results of a collaboration with the local art college.
Elsewhere, a series of drinking water fountains carry an intriguingly feminist message. Back in the 1800s, Nantes-born sculptor Charles-Auguste Lebourg created the ornate cast-iron water fountains that are such a feature of Parisian streets. Also found in Nantes, they were dreamed up by eccentric aristocrat and philanthropist Sir Richard Wallace.
In the original Wallace fountains, four draped female figures hold a dome aloft. Fast forward to 2024, and artist and author Cyril Pedrosa’s L’Évasion made four new “Wallace” fountains, in which the four female figures collaborate to escape. Exploring the city, we discover a fountain where the women are climbing the dome, helping their less nimble sisters up. In another, they are finally fleeing the scene.
A selection of successful projects each year is made permanent in the city: in parks, on the streets, in squares and in the beautiful botanic gardens. A 20km green line, painted on pavements and up and down city steps connects your route, and although it is a little faded in places, it is a brilliantly clever way to trace your path through the sights and sites.
Walking along the riverbank, small etched glass plaques appear in the pavement bearing the names of ships. Saints’ names and those of the aristocracy recur. There is an overwhelming number, 1,710 in total. All were slave ships: the port of Nantes was, during the 18th century, responsible for 43 per cent of the French slave trade.
We go down a series of steps and into a space under the docks. Here, the unmissable Memorial to the Abolition of Slavery by Julian Bonder and Krzysztof Wodiczko combines almost ideal architecture with testimony and text to create an experience that is powerfully, lingeringly moving.
One of the city’s most famous sons is Jules Verne, author of the Voyages Extraordinaires (Extraordinary Journeys) novels and stories, which include Journey to the Centre of the Earth, Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea and Around the World in Eighty Days. His legacy is celebrated in a statue above the city, but most fascinatingly at Les Machines de l‘Île de Nantes.
Located in, and around the former shipyard warehouses, this is a steampunk-style paradise which, while delighting hordes of happy children, is also a joy for inventive adults. A three-storey high elephant goes on regular walkabout (book your tickets in advance), or you can ride on the marvellous carousel, where you twirl on beings from the seabed to the ocean surface, its creatures including crustaceans, seahorses and flying fish. From €9 (lesmachines-nantes.fr).
Back in the atmospheric old town, the city’s contrasts continue. Sheep graze in the meadows by the moat of the gorgeous former castle of the dukes of Brittany, and modern architecture and wild gardens sit beside medieval buildings. Many of the infill sites are the result of Allied bombing towards the end of the second World War. There is a strong Breton influence, and the bilingual street names on blue signs are a reminder of the close connections between Breton and the Irish language.
[ Into the valley: riding through the Loire rain to CarcassonneOpens in new window ]
I walk to the Botanical Gardens, en route for the Musée D’Arts, where the exhibits range from old masters to the marvellously modern, hung in neoclassical halls. More public art nestles among the plants at the gardens, including Jean Jullien’s line-drawn sculptures striding the lawns, and flowing across a pond. I spot something dark and shiny and head for a small hedge to investigate further. It turns out that sometimes a pile of compost is simply a pile of compost but, in the best possible sense of the words, you never know in Nantes.
From Nantes to Saint-Nazaire
The art trail in Nantes extends along the Loire, all the way to Saint-Nazaire, some 60km east. Go by boat to discover all 33 works, including a half-sunk house, an oddly bent boat, and – believe it or not – an oversized “digestive system”. The boat trip takes approximately an hour and a half, and costs €27.50 one way, free with a seven-day Nantes pass.
The site of a heavily defended dry dock and submarine base in German-occupied France, Saint-Nazaire was heavily bombed, and its port rammed with an explosive-packed destroyer during the war. Because of this, only fragments of its historic architecture remain, including La Havane, where multicoloured houses from the 1900s line streets named by former merchants and sea captains for far-flung destinations.
In the surviving part of the military base you can tour a former French naval service submarine, and explore a recreation of a classic transatlantic liner from the glory days of luxury sea travel, from €15.
Back outside (and we won’t give away your surprising mode of departure), we stop to take in the oddly uncanny sight of a vast contemporary cruise ship being built in the still-thriving docks, before heading to Gamin. At this Michelin Guide restaurant, Bastien and Charlotte Guillochon have taken the simple but brilliant step of leading with vegetables, and the results are phenomenal. Unlike a “regular” restaurant, where veg plays second fiddle, you choose your starring vegetable and find it complemented instead.
Light-filled and fun, and presided over by the owners’ dog, Lila; lunch at Gamin would make you want to stay overnight so that you can go back for more. We walk it off along the promenade, where little fishing huts jut out from wooden walkways. Look out for signs, as some are occasionally to rent, at approximately €50 per tide (about eight hours). You don’t have to fish to enjoy time here, as it’s also an ideal spot to wait for inspiration to strike, although sleepovers aren’t allowed.
Saint-Nazaire is a fascinating place to spend the day, and as its charm catches up with us, we want to linger longer. There is a lovely coastal walking and cycle path, and a fun vibe that is instantly relaxing. Inland, Brière is a huge natural park, while on the shore, the beaches are gorgeous. The resort of Saint-Marc-sur-Mer is where Jacques Tati filmed the 1950s classic Mr Hulot’s Holiday – and you can still stay at “his” Hotel de la Plage, hotel-delaplage.fr.
2025 is the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Saint-Nazaire, with events and exhibitions to mark the occasion. Or go in the last weekend of July for Les Escales, the sprawling music festival on the Île du Petit Maroc and at the port – where Róisín Murphy headlines on July 27th (festival-les-escales.com; saint-nazaire-tourisme.uk)
Gemma Tipton was a guest of Le Voyage à Nantes.
Getting there
Ryanair has daily flights from Dublin, with the summer schedule increasing to twice daily from March 31st. Aer Lingus fly from Dublin from May to September. Flight time is one hour and 40 minutes.
Getting Around
Nantes is very walkable, and the Voyage à Nantes Green Line connects tourist sights and artworks over 20km. With good cycle paths, a one-day pass for the Naolib bike sharing system costs €2, with the first half-hour free (velo.naolib.fr). There is an excellent tram system – pick up a Nantes Pass for unlimited access to public transport, including the airport shuttle, and admission to 50 visitor attractions, from €27 for 24 hours (reservation.levoyageanantes.fr).
When to Go
Things quieten from the end of October, with reduced schedules at Les Machines de L’île until March 21st. Estuary Cruises to Saint-Nazaire restart on April 25th. While many artworks remain in situ, the main Le Voyage à Nantes summer event runs from June 28th to August 31st (levoyageanantes.fr/en).
Where to Eat
La Cigale on Place Graslin is a gorgeous art nouveau spot with classic French cuisine. Delicatessaine on rue Soudéac has great coffee and an amazing array of sweet treats, including the rather niche “compost cookie”.
Café du Musée d’Arts de Nantes is great for inventive food and excellent wine at lunchtime. Gautier Debotté on Rue de la Fosse is an old-style chocolate shop to dream of. L’Univers Café on Rue Jean Jacques Rousseau is credited with being the first place in Europe where jazz was played.
Where to Stay
We stayed at the four-star Hotel La Pérouse in the heart of town, a cool boutique-style spot, with all manner of details to excite architects, from €118 per night (hotel-laperouse.fr). Le Voyage à Nantes has commissioned artists to create rooms, which range from a micro-studio perched between two city buildings, to wild rooms in a historic chateau, to a little house on top of a copy of an old smoke stack on the banks of the Loire. From €88 per night for an unforgettable adventure (reservation.levoyageanantes.fr).
