Historic Nantes

9 April 2009By Zhu 14 Comments

View Of Nantes

Nantes was pretty lucky during World War II: unlike a lot of French cities, it wasn’t totally destroyed by bombings. The city still has a rich heritage, dating right back to the Gallo-Roman period.

The medieval area is the Bouffay, with the Castle of the Duchy of Brittany and the many old buildings surrounding it. The 18th Century was the golden era for the city (slave trade…), and a lot was built during this time, notably Place Royale and Place Graslin. Later in history, Nantes was also an industrial city in the era of the first naval shipyards: the LU Tower is a reminder of that time.

Château Des Ducs De Bretagne

Cathédrale De Nantes

Basilique Saint-Nicolas

From Inside The Castle

Passage Pommeraye

Inside The Castle

LU Tower (Former Cookies Factory)

Along The Erdre

Along The Loire

14 Comments »

Celine said:

Looks like a beautiful place to live.

# 30 April 2009 at 3:36 pm

Zhu (author) said:

@Bill Miller – Nantes is old, quite old. I will have to do researches but I know it goes as far back as the 15th century.

@Agnes – It’s a nice city to visit, that’s right!

@Bluefish – Well, it’s a different kind of pretty. But because I grew up there, I found Ottawa fascinating by comparison when I came to North America.

@RennyBA – Sorry, no Norway for us right now… we just came to visit my family in France! But I’d love to come to visit Europe more some day.

@bumanguesa – Merci beaucoup!