Nantes is the city that reinvented itself most successfully in France — a former industrial port and the capital of the dukes of Brittany, it transformed from a declining industrial city in the 1980s into one of France's most creative and liveable cities. The Machines de l'Île (mechanical animals inhabiting the old shipyard island), the Château des Ducs de Bretagne, and the vibrant arts scene have made Nantes a model of urban regeneration. It is also the birthplace of Jules Verne, whose spirit of adventurous imagination seems to have influenced the city's self-reinvention.
The Machines de l'Île (Machines of the Island) is the most extraordinary public art project in France — a group of enormous mechanical animals inhabiting the former shipyard island (Île de Nantes). The Giant Mechanical Elephant (12 metres tall, 45 tonnes, walks through the streets carrying 50 passengers) is the most extraordinary public sculpture/vehicle in the world. Built by François Delarozière and Pierre Orefice since 2007. Book tickets in advance for the elephant ride.
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuideNantes is the gateway to Brittany — the galette-saucisse (buckwheat crepe with pork sausage and mustard) and the traditional sweet crepe (with salted Breton butter and crème fraîche) are the most Nantais lunch options. At any crêperie in the medieval Bouffay quarter or at the Nantes market on the Place du Bouffay.
The Île de Nantes (the island in the Loire on which the shipyards stood) is the most interesting urban regeneration project in France — new architecture (Jean Nouvel, Baumschlager Eberle), the HAB Galerie (contemporary art), the transformation of the former LU biscuit factory (the tower is Nantes's most recognizable skyline element), and the Nantes waterfront promenade.
Nantes is at the confluence of three rivers (Loire, Sèvre Nantaise, Erdre) and the Atlantic is 50 km away — the seafood is exceptional. Oysters from Bourgneuf Bay, Loire River pike (brochet) with beurre blanc (the Nantais white butter sauce, invented in the Loire region) and a glass of Muscadet (the crisp Loire Valley white wine grown around Nantes) make the definitive Nantes dinner. At La Cigale (the 1895 Art Nouveau brasserie, one of the finest interiors in France) or at any Loire seafood restaurant.
The Passage Pommeraye (1843 shopping arcade, one of the finest 19th-century arcades in France) and the rue Crébillon area have wine bars and restaurants open late. The Passage is most beautiful at night when the three-tiered glass arcade is lit.
The Château des Ducs de Bretagne (built 1434–1524) is the most important castle in western France — the seat of the Dukes of Brittany (Nantes was the capital of the independent Duchy of Brittany until 1532). Anne de Bretagne (twice queen of France, the last ruler of independent Brittany) was born and married here. The Nantes History Museum within the château documents the city's often difficult history (the Edict of Nantes, the slave trade, the Industrial Revolution) with extraordinary honesty.
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuideThe Bouffay market area for Breton cheeses (from the Loire-Atlantique farms), charcuterie from the Vendée, and the curé nantais cheese (the finest local cheese, soft and pungent) with a Muscadet glass. At the market or at any of the wine-bar-cum-restaurants in the Bouffay.
The Jules Verne Museum (in a belle époque villa on the Butte Sainte-Anne hill above the Loire) documents the life of the science fiction pioneer (1828–1905 — born in Nantes, lived in Amiens, but the city claims him). The museum has manuscripts, illustrated editions and the models that inspired Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, Journey to the Centre of the Earth and Around the World in 80 Days.
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuideThe Cathedral of Saints Peter and Paul (begun 1434, completed 1891 — spanning Gothic and Renaissance) has two of the finest works of art in the Loire Valley: the tomb of Francis II, Duke of Brittany (by Michel Colombe, 1507 — the finest French Renaissance funerary monument) and the abstract stained glass (1979) by Jean Mougin and others.
The Loire Valley food tradition: confit de canard from the Vendée ducks, rillettes nantaises (slow-cooked pork spread — the finest rillettes in France), and the pike in beurre blanc (the sauce invented in Nantes by a cook who forgot to add eggs). With a bottle of the finest Muscadet sur lie from the Sèvre-et-Maine appellation.
The Muscadet appellation (the largest white wine AOC in France, covering 8,000 hectares around Nantes) produces the finest crisp, saline white wine for oysters and Loire seafood. The drive along the Sèvre Nantaise river valley (south of Nantes, 30 min) through the vineyards at vintage time (September–October) is beautiful.
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuideSeveral Muscadet producers receive visitors — Marc Olivier Ollivier (La Pépière) or Domaine Luneau-Papin for the finest Muscadet tasting. The sur lie method (wine aged on its yeasts for 12+ months) gives Muscadet its complexity — taste the difference between a young bottled Muscadet and a 3-year sur lie aged version.
Oysters from Bourgneuf Bay (25 min south) with a chilled Muscadet sur lie — the perfect Loire food pairing. At any of the Sèvre Nantaise riverside restaurants.
Return to Nantes and visit the Jardin des Plantes (one of the finest botanical gardens in France, with the most extraordinary variety of camellias in Europe) and the Erdre River (the "most beautiful river in France" according to Francis I). The Erdre waterfront north of the city has riverside walks and cafés.
The final dinner at La Cigale (the 1895 Belle Époque brasserie in the place du Commerce — the most beautiful restaurant room in Nantes, all ceramic tiles, Art Nouveau woodwork and belle époque mirrors) or the finest contemporary bistro of the moment. The Nantais plateau de fruits de mer (seafood platter with oysters, clams, whelks, shrimp and langoustine) is the ultimate Loire Atlantic farewell.
One last stroll through the 1843 three-tiered shopping arcade with its gas-lamp-style lighting, the ornamental balustrades and the Art Nouveau shop fronts. The finest 19th-century commercial architecture in the Loire Valley.