Nantes Attractions, France

Old Town
No visit to Nantes would be complete without a walk through the old 18th and 19th C. quarters. The Place Royale, Rue Crébillon (photo - left), Place Graslin and Cours Cambronne will give the visitor a good impression of old Nantes. Farther east is the imposing Château Ducal, surrounded by a moat, part of which is laid out as a park. The original castle was built in the 10th C., and after being rebuilt in 1466 was again enlarged in the 16th C. The Edict of Nantes was signed here.
Near the gate leading into the inner courtyard is a beautiful Late Gothic well (12th C.).
From the south curtain wall, at the Petit Gouvernement, there is a fine view of the Château, with the cathedral beyond it.

Musée des Beaux Arts
In Nantes, northeast of the cathedral, in Rue Gambetta, is the Musée des Beaux-Arts, one of the finest provincial museums in France, with a collection of pictures ranging in date from the 13th C. to the present day. Also in Rue Gambetta is the Jardin des Plantes, a beautiful botanical garden.

St Pierre et St Paul (photo - right)
In Nantes, to the north of the Château, in Place St-Pierre, is the cathedral, which occupies the site of two earlier churches (sixth C. and 939). Building began in 1434 with the facade, continued in the 17th C. and was completed between 1840 and 1891. The three-aisled interior is very impressive. In the south transept is the tomb of the last Duke of Brittany, Francis II (d. 1488) and his wife Marguerite of Foix, a masterpiece of richly decorated Renaissance art (by Michel Colombe, 1502-1507, commissioned by Duchess Anne (Anne de Bretagne). The tomb is empty, as is the golden shrine which once contained Anne's heart. In the north transept is the tomb (also empty) of General Lamoricière (1805-1865), by Paul Dubois (1879).

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