Further development is also planned on the north bank along an axis linking the train station and the Loire. The city developed a rich cultural life, advertising itself as a creative place near the ocean. [235] Local vegetables and fish are widely available in the city's eighteen markets, including the Talensac covered market (Nantes' largest and best-known). Other etchings of quotes by figures like Nelson Mandela and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. appear on the slanted frosted glass wall which lined the memorial wall opposite the pillars which open to the river. The local timezone is named Europe / Paris with an UTC offset of one hour. [32] The wall in Nantes, enclosing 16 hectares (40 acres), was one of the largest in Gaul. All rights reserved © Concept & Creation by Jacques Pernet for JACQ™. Old buildings on the former Feydeau Island and the neighbouring embankments often lean because they were built on damp soil. A private walkway takes you straight onto the beach and into the water. The current mayor of Nantes is Johanna Rolland (Socialist Party), who was elected on 4 April 2014. [129] Nantes and Rennes are in Upper Brittany (the Romance-speaking part of the region), and Lower Brittany in the west is traditionally Breton-speaking and more Celtic in culture. [82][83][84] The death of Steve Maia Caniço in June 2019 has led to accusations of police brutality and cover-ups. [65] Businessmen took advantage of local vegetable production and Breton fishing to develop a canning industry during the 1820s,[66] but canning was eclipsed by sugar imported from Réunion in the 1840s and 1850s. The mountains, stretching from the end of the Breton peninsula to the outskirts of the sedimentary Paris Basin, are composed of several parallel ridges of Ordovician and Cadomian rocks. A municipal belfry clock (originally on a tower of Bouffay Castle, a prison demolished after the French Revolution) was added to the church in 1860. [13], Its first recorded name was by the Greek writer Ptolemy, who referred to the settlement as Κονδηούινκον (Kondēoúinkon) and Κονδιούινκον (Kondioúinkon)[A]—which might be read as Κονδηούικον (Kondēoúikon)—in his treatise, Geography. [citation needed], In addition to the university, Nantes has a number of colleges and other institutes of higher education. The latter has 520,000 passengers annually and succeeds the Roquio service, which operated on the Loire from 1887 to the 1970s. This architecture has been called "Nantais baroque". [198] Although many of the 18th-century buildings have a neoclassical design, they are adorned with sculpted rococo faces and balconies. [128], Nantes and the Loire-Atlantique département were part of the historic province of Brittany, and the city and Rennes were its traditional capitals. The city has two tram-train lines: Nantes-Clisson (southern) and Nantes-Châteaubriant (northern). Notre-Dame-de-Bon-Port, near the Loire, is an example of 19th-century neoclassicism. Rivals in the area included the Pictones, who controlled the area south of the Loire in the city of Ratiatum (present-day Rezé) until the end of the second century AD. Pays de la Loire officials favour a union of Brittany with the Pays de la Loire, but Breton politicians oppose the incorporation of their region into a Greater West region. [202][203], Nantes has several museums. The city has one synagogue, built in 1852. [92], The Loire is about 1,000 kilometres (620 miles) long and its estuary, beginning in Nantes, is 60 kilometres (37 miles) in length. [58][59], The French Revolution initially received some support in Nantes, a bourgeois city rooted in private enterprise. [172] Since 2000 Nantes has developed a business district, Euronantes, with 500,000 square metres (5,400,000 square feet) of office space and 10,000 jobs. It has a large collection of exotic plants, including a 200-year-old Magnolia grandiflora and the national collection of camellia. [204] The Historical Museum of Nantes, in the castle, is dedicated to local history and houses the municipal collections. Allied raids killed 1,732 people and destroyed 2,000 buildings in Nantes, leaving a further 6,000 buildings unusable. Its population is projected to reach one million by 2030, based on the fertility rate. Under Ayrault's administration, Nantes used its quality of life to attract service firms. [221] Permanent sculptures include Daniel Buren's Anneaux (a series of 18 rings along the Loire reminiscent of Atlantic slave trade shackles) and works by François Morellet and Dan Graham. They chose Nantes, the largest town in Brittany (with a population of over 10,000), as their main residence and made it the home of their council, their treasury and their chancery. [72] Forty-eight civilians were executed in Nantes in 1941 in retaliation for the assassination of German officer Karl Hotz. Place Royale was completed in 1790, and the large fountain added in 1865. Nantes (/ n ɒ̃ t /, also US: / n ɑː n t (s)/, French: (); Gallo: Naunnt or Nantt; Breton: Naoned) is a city in Loire-Atlantique on the Loire, 50 km (31 mi) from the Atlantic coast.The city is the sixth-largest in France, with a population of 309,346 in Nantes and a metropolitan area of nearly 973,000 inhabitants (2017). According to an act passed in 2014, beginning in 2020 the metropolitan council will be elected by the citizens of Nantes Métropole. Other popular folk songs include "Le pont de Nantes" (recorded by Guy Béart in 1967 and Nana Mouskouri in 1978), "Jean-François de Nantes" (a sea shanty) and the bawdy "De Nantes à Montaigu". [112] The area was extended towards the Parc de Procé during the 19th century. On 18 July 1789, locals seized the Castle of the Dukes of Brittany in an imitation of the storming of the Bastille. [89][90] The Loire is also the northern limit of grape culture. This was lower than in nearby Rennes (64,000), and Nantes is the ninth-largest commune in France in its percentage of students. Nantes also inspired Stendhal (in his 1838 Mémoires d'un touriste); Gustave Flaubert (in his 1881 Par les champs et par les grèves, where he describes his journey through Brittany); Henry James, in his 1884 A Little Tour in France; André Pieyre de Mandiargues in Le Musée noir (1946), and Paul-Louis Rossi in Nantes (1987). [258], The average amount of time people spend commuting with public transit in Nantes & Saint-Nazaire, for example to and from work, on a weekday is 40 min. [138] Opponents, primarily Pays de la Loire officials, say that their region could not exist economically without Nantes. It has a historical centre with old monuments, administrative buildings and small shops, surrounded by 19th-century faubourgs surrounded by newer suburban houses and public housing. 10 détours incontournables sur la côte atlantique Par France.fr , publié le 30 novembre 2011, 15:30, dernière mise à jour le 8 octobre 2018, 10:29 [249], Nantes Atlantique Airport in Bouguenais, 8 kilometres (5.0 miles) south-east of the city centre, serves about 80 destinations in Europe (primarily in France, Spain, Italy, the United Kingdom and Greece) and connects airports in Africa, the Caribbean and Canada. [81] Masked rioters have repeatedly ransacked shops, offices and public transport infrastructure. The Montforts, seeking emancipation from the suzerainty of the French kings, reinforced Breton institutions. Audencia, a private management school, is ranked as one of the world's best by the Financial Times and The Economist. Their primary countries of origin were Algeria (13.9 percent), Morocco (11.4 percent) and Tunisia (5.8 percent). Annual attendance is about 150,000. They include the Chamber of Accounts of Brittany (now the préfecture, 1763–1783); the Graslin Theatre (1788); Place Foch, with its column and statue of Louis XVI (1790), and the stock exchange (1790–1815). Podium des meilleures villes villes avec au moins 80 notations; 1: Aix-les-Bains: 8,51: 2: Since its formation in 1943, the club has won eight Championnat titles and three Coupes de France. [255] The city has an extensive public-transport network consisting of trams, buses and river shuttles. Posez pied à terre sur le Bassin d’Arcachon le temps d’une bourriche d’huîtres et d’une initiation au wakeboard. [207] The Machines of the Isle of Nantes, opened in 2007 in the converted shipyards, has automatons, prototypes inspired by deep-sea creatures and a 12-metre-tall (39 ft), walking elephant. [197], After the Renaissance, Nantes developed west of its medieval core along new embankments. These industries helped maintain port activity and facilitated agriculture, sugar imports, fertilizer production, machinery and metallurgy, which employed 12,000 people in Nantes and its surrounding area in 1914. [91] The city is near the geographical centre of the land hemisphere, identified in 1945 by Samuel Boggs as near the main railway station (around 47°13′N 1°32′W / 47.217°N 1.533°W / 47.217; -1.533). Saint-Nazaire surpassed Nantes in port traffic for the first time in 1868. It’s built on a base of natural stone and covered with wood frontage slats. [191] The Saint-Étienne chapel, in the Saint-Donatien cemetery outside the city centre, dates to 510 and was originally part of a Roman necropolis. [161], The population of Nantes is younger than the national average, with 44.7 percent under age 29 (France 36.5 percent). [163] However, it has waned since the 1970s because of the rise of atheism and secularism. [229] Fellow surrealist Julien Gracq wrote The Shape of a City, published in 1985, about the city. [24], The first inhabitants of what is now Nantes settled during the Bronze Age, later than in the surrounding regions (which have Neolithic monuments absent from Nantes). [238] The university had about 30,000 students during the 2013–2014 academic year, and the metropolitan area had a total student population of 53,000. 7.1% of public transit riders, ride for more than 2 hours every day. [220] They left several permanent works of art in Nantes and inspired the Voyage à Nantes, a series of contemporary-art exhibitions across the city which has been held every summer since 2012. [158] Population growth continued through the 19th century; although other European cities experienced increased growth due to industrialisation, in Nantes growth remained at its 18th-century pace. La Trocardière, an indoor 4,238-seat stadium, is in Rezé. The museum includes works by Tintoretto, Brueghel, Rubens, Georges de La Tour, Ingres, Monet, Picasso, Kandinsky and Anish Kapoor. Embankments were overcrowded with railways, roads and tramways. Large thoroughfares replaced the channels, altering the urban landscape. The origin of the name "Namnetes" is uncertain, but is thought to come from the Gaulish root *nant- (river or stream,[11] from the pre-Celtic root *nanto, valley)[12] or from Amnites, another tribal name possibly meaning "men of the river". Notre association aide les collectivités locales à attirer le tourisme, les talents et les investisseurs,. En tant que réseau, nous faisons en sorte que les besoins des villes de l’Arc Atlantique soient entendus et pris en compte. [218] Former Royal de Luxe machine designer François Delarozière created the Machines of the Isle of Nantes and its large walking elephant in 2007. [171], Nantes experienced deindustrialisation after port activity in Saint-Nazaire largely ceased, culminating in the 1987 closure of the shipyards. In 2013 this category had 24,949 people in Nantes, or 8.5 percent of the total population. The stadium, which also hosted matches during the 1998 FIFA World Cup and the 2007 Rugby World Cup, has 37,473 seats. [98] The end of the ridge, the Butte Sainte-Anne, is a natural landmark 38 metres (125 feet) above sea level; its foothills are at an elevation of 15 metres (49 feet). [210], Le Zénith Nantes Métropole, an indoor arena in Saint-Herblain, has a capacity of 9,000 and is France's largest concert venue outside Paris. [116], The city adopted an ecological framework in 2007 to reduce greenhouse gases and promote energy transition. Au sein du village club à La Baule, tous les vacanciers peuvent vivre un séjour qui leur ressemble. En centre-ville, la plage longue de 8 kilomètres est le théâtre de nombreuses activités ludiques et animations nocturnes ! [133] Region Brittany was created around Rennes, similar in size to Nantes; the Loire-Atlantique département formed a new region with four other départements, mainly portions of the old provinces of Anjou, Maine and Poitou. Current time in Ville-ès-Martin is now 12:42 PM (Sunday). [53] Plantations in the colonies needed labour to produce sugar, rum, tobacco, indigo dye, coffee and cocoa, and Nantes shipowners began trading African slaves in 1706. [87], The city is at a natural crossroads between the ocean in the west, the centre of France (towards Orléans) in the east, Brittany in the north and Vendée (on the way to Bordeaux) in the south. The large, Gothic cathedral replaced an earlier Romanesque church. Its construction took 457 years, from 1434 to 1891. [212] It hosts concerts, congresses and exhibitions, and is the primary venue of the Pays de la Loire National Orchestra. The city centre has a medieval core (corresponding to the former walled town) and 18th-century extensions running west and east. Nantes belongs historically and culturally to Brittany, a former duchy and province, and its omission from the modern administrative region of Brittany is controversial. Feydeau and Gloriette Islands in the old town were attached to the north bank, and the other islands in the Loire were formed into the Isle of Nantes. Many buildings were built or rebuilt (including the cathedral and the castle), and the University of Nantes, the first in Brittany, was founded in 1460. The French Revolution resulted in an economic decline, but Nantes developed robust industries after 1850 (chiefly in shipbuilding and food processing). The main Protestant church belongs to the United Protestant Church of France, but the city also has a number of newer Evangelical and Baptist churches. [217], The Royal de Luxe street theatre company moved to Nantes in 1989, and has produced a number of shows in the city. [64] The 19th-century slave trade may have been as extensive as that of the previous century, with about 400,000 slaves deported to the colonies. The average distance people usually ride in a single trip with public transit is 5 km, while 2% travel for over 12 km in a single direction. Nantes was identified during classical antiquity as a port on the Loire. The first council was elected in 1565 with Nantes' first mayor, Geoffroy Drouet. Two barges under construction on right. Its statues represent the city of Nantes, the Loire and its main tributaries. During Napoleon's rule the coat of arms returned, with bees (a symbol of his empire) added to the chief. Nantes was at the point where the river current and the tides cancelled each other out, resulting in siltation and the formation of the original islands. Collections include a golden reliquary made for Anne of Brittany's heart, medieval statues and timber frames, coins, weapons, jewellery, manuscripts and archaeological finds.