Nantes hands out its best sights for free: a botanical garden full of Claude Ponti sculptures, a quarry turned tropical jungle, cathedral and castle ramparts at zero euros. Add a €1.80 river ferry, Talensac market picnics and first-Sunday free museums.
Seven hectares of free botanical garden opposite the train station, open 8:30–20:00 in summer (8:30–17:30 winter). Magnolias, greenhouses and Claude Ponti's giant wooden bird and sleeping-chick sculptures scattered on the lawns.
Free entry to the tallest Gothic nave in France (37.5m, higher than Notre-Dame de Paris) with the white marble tomb of François II, last duke of Brittany. Restored after the 1972 fire, open 10:00–18:00 daily.
The castle courtyard and the 500m rampart walkway are free all year (10:00–19:00 summer), only the history museum inside charges €9. You circle the moat gardens and look down over the slate roofs of the Bouffay.
A disused granite quarry above the Loire replanted as a subtropical ravine: 15m waterfall, tree ferns, bamboo and banana plants down a spiral path. Free, open until 20:30 in summer, 18:00 in winter.
Nantes' main covered market, Tuesday to Sunday 8:00–13:00. Oysters from Bourgneuf at around €6 a dozen, Breton butter, curé nantais cheese and a whole roast chicken with potatoes for about €12 — enough for two meals.
A small island in the Erdre laid out as a Japanese garden in 1987 — stone lanterns, carp pond, bamboo and waterside benches. Free entry, open 8:30 to dusk, and the quietest legal picnic spot in central Nantes.
The 1909 LU tower with its cupola is now a cultural centre where the hall, bookshop and bar cost nothing to enter; exhibitions are €3-5 and often free. Coffee €1.80, a glass of Muscadet around €3.50 at the bar.
Open-air canteen on the western tip of the island from May to September: long shared tables, a vegetable garden out front and a plat du jour at €12-14, roughly half what the quayside restaurants ask.
The river shuttle from Gare Maritime to Trentemoult runs every 20 minutes and costs one standard TAN ticket (€1.80, or free with a €5.90 day pass). Ten minutes later you land in a village of pink, ochre and blue fishermen's houses.
A free clifftop terrace 30m above the Loire on the old Sainte-Anne heights, with a long view over the shipyard cranes, the island and the Pont de Cheviré. Benches, shade and almost no visitors at midday.
Ingres, Georges de La Tour, Monet and a strong Kandinsky room in a rebuilt 1900 palace. The permanent collection is free on the first Sunday of the month from September to June, and free year-round for under-26s from the EU.
An 1866 English-style park along the Chézine stream with a manor house, rose garden, free open-air table tennis and boules pitches. Locals picnic on the slope below the manor; open 8:30 to dusk, entry free.