Nantes Travel Guide
Nantes is France 6th biggest city with around 310 000 inhabitants. The city is located in the west part of France and is the seat of the Loire-Atlantique department and the Pays de la Loire region. Historically and culturally Nantes belongs to Brittany, a former duchy and province, and its omission from the modern administrative region of Brittany is controversial.
This history of the city is long and quite interesting. It was the seat of a bishopric at the end of the Roman era before it was conquered by the Bretons in 851. During the 17th century, after the establishment of the French colonial empire, Nantes became the largest port in France and was responsible for nearly half of the 18th-century French Atlantic slave trade. The French Revolution resulted in an economic decline.
Table of Contents
Mapping the day
Getting there
Getting to Nantes is pretty easy. You can simply take a train from Paris. There is a TGV that runs from Paris-Montparnasse to Nantes stopping by Le Mans and Angers. It will take around 2h30.
Or you can just drive there. France has a good highway network (but also quite expensive with numerous tolls)
Moving Around
Nantes has an extensive public transport system made of buses and trams that can be free on weekends. The easiest way to get around the city is using Trams.
But if you’d rather walk around, you can as well. Most of the landmarks and attraction can be walked to.
When to Visit
You can visit the city all year round, but the weather might not be that nice.
As most of the cities in France, the best time to visit is Mai, June and then September. It is always better to avoid the summer Holidays (July, August).
Where to Stay
We found that little Airbnb with an amazing location :
What to Eat
The top specialities are :
- Les Rigolettes nantaises: old-fashioned candy composed of a crunchy shell filled with a fruit marmalade, historically with pineapple, blackcurrant, lemon, raspberry or mandarin.
- Le petit beurre: Butter cookies
- Le curé Nantais: the cheese of St Julien-de-Concelles
- Muscadet (AOC): the white of the Nantes vineyard
- Nantes lamb’s lettuce: The Pays de la Loire region alone produces 83% of the French lamb’s lettuce.
Things to do
Botanical Garden
Our favourite spot in the city! The Nantes Botanic Garden covers 7 hectares of green space in the centre of town. It’s home to more than 10,000 species and more than 5000 flowers are planted each season. Its greenhouses have a surface area of 800 square metres. It’s been presented with the “Remarkable Garden” award and is among the four leading botanical gardens in France.
Château des ducs de Bretagne
Explore the castle of the Dukes of Brittany, the flagship monument of the city of Nantes. Located in the historical heart of the city, this fortress has a 15th century rampart and several buildings built from the 14th to the 18th century.
You can freely walk inside and do its ramparts walk. Within the castle is a museum.
Le Lieu unique
This place is more something to watch from the castle than to visit. The lieu unique is a center for contemporary culture. Opened at the beginning of the 21st century, it is housed in a former biscuit factory at the center of the city.
Cathedral of St. Peter and St. Paul of Nantes
Visit the cathedral of Nantes. It took over 500 years to build it and it is about the same size as Notre-Dame-de-Paris. Its white stone façade is surrounded by two massive towers, on top of which are terraces overlooking the city. With its wall you can visit the crypt and the tombs.
île de Versailles
Stroll around the artificial island of 1.7 hectares, created in 1831 and originally occupied by tanners and shipwrights, was transformed into a Japanese garden in 1983. The composition of rockeries and waterfalls is articulated around 3 buildings inspired by the traditional Japanese habitat. Among them, the Maison de l’Erdre, which is surrounded by a Zen Garden, serves as a setting for exhibitions devoted to the river and its aquatic environment.
Place Royale
Pop by one of the main squares of the city. The Royal square is a beautiful place to walk. From there you will be able to walk in one of the main pedestrian areas of Nantes, the Rue Crébillon
Passage Pommeraye
Take a shot at the Passage Pommeraye is a small shopping mall named after its property developer, Louis Pommeraye. The Passage Pommeraye is a passage between two streets, the rue Santeuil and rue de la Fosse, with one 9.40 m higher than the other.
Les Machines de l'Île
Have fun at the Machines of the Isle of Nantes, an artistic, touristic and cultural project located in the old shipyards of the city. Find The Great Elephant a 12m tall machine moving around and throwing water at children playing around.
Along with it, you will find a Carousel, a Heron Tree and the machine gallery.
Itinerary
Nantes is also a city that could be visited in one day, so we would recommend this order:
- Château des ducs de Bretagne
- Le Lieu unique
- Cathedral of St. Peter and St. Paul of Nantes
- île de Versailles
- Place Royale
- Passage Pommeraye
- Les Machines de l’Île
- Botanical Garden
À vaillant coeur rien d’impossible. -Jacques Cœur
1 thought on “The Genuine Nantes Travel Guide – 1 Day”
Nice article, it helped us a lot to explore. I am an entrepreneur by profession and a traveler by heart. Your article made our stay exciting.