Nantes, France

It has been an awesome stay in St. Malo for a number of reasons – staying put for another 5 days, a great spacious and comfy hotel, a beautiful location, great day trips and some time just to relax.
We woke up on time to have breakfast and walk the 20 minutes to the station and purchase tickets in time for a relaxed entry to the train. We had a high speed trip of 40 minutes to Rennes where we had a 2 hr wait till our connection to Nantes. We wondered about getting a cab to old town and then towing our bags back to the station, but Vern hates any potential for being late so we thought we would relax at the crepe place we had lunch at the other day. Unfortunately it was closed for a further 1/2hr so we found a small cafe just across the road which had great service and some delicious food. It was very reasonable and we enjoyed a baguette, coffees, giant macaron (half the price of our tiny ones the other day), a salmon terrine, and cake for under €20. As it transpired the 2hrs went really quickly and we got into Nantes at 1:40pm were our hotel was on the same plaza or square as the ‘south exit’ of the Gare (station).
Nantes is quite a good sized city – of around 900,000 and today was day 1 of 2 very hot days 36 and 38 degrees respectively. 2 pm seems to be when the heat reaches its peak and when we emerged from the air-conditioned train we were so relieved to see that we did not have to walk to far in the warmth. We are staying in the same hotel and grade of room here – so we made ourselves a cuppa, and looked at the local guide book to reconsider what we would do when. I had noted some points of interest, and as usual there were too many to fit in, especially in this 24hr turnaround. Being so hot makes things difficult too, as we had planned a hop on hop off to get a quick overview, but there is no way you want to sit on plastic seats, open air in 36 degrees – so that one was off, or out of the question until tomorrow morning first thing. In fact, it did limit our options but we braced ourselves and headed out to explore what we could.
There is a tourist guide available that you pay a set amount for which gives you free entry to a number of places, plus free bus, tram and train travel. We thought it would be good for a 24hr pass so we grabbed one at reception for €25 each.
Nantes is known for a number of things – historically as the birthplace of Queen Anne of Bretange, a rich port history (even though it is inland), and its famous child Jules Verne. It also promotes itself as a quirky arty town as well and has some interesting features around, including one of the best botanical gardens in France, and some large Jules Verne inspired ‘mechanical’ moving animals and a tall carousel with levels of sea creatures at the ‘Isle de Machines’.
The hotel is not only close to the central station, but well situated for town and some key points of interest. After a short 10 minute walk we passed the ‘Palace of the Dukes’ which now holds exhibitions and houses the ‘Nantes History Museum’. We were heading into the town centre to find out what times the hop on hop off bus ran till, but the heat was pretty intense with high humidity – around 60%, we were only managing by heading for any shady spot along the way and still sweating. We came up with a clever idea to duck into the Dukes Palace which would hopefully be cool in the cover of thick stone for a couple of hours and see how far we made it in the ‘heat’ at around 5pm, hoping to catch a bus then.
We had free entry which was good, and whilst we were not in the sting of the outside heat, it was not air-conditioned in all parts of the museum so it was still sweat material. It was however better so we slowly made our way around the exhibits which involved lots of stairs up 7 floors in total – nearly to the top of a turret/tower. The displays were good, and there were some informative movies as it took you through time. The downside was that it was all in French, including most of the labels by the displays so there was a fair bit of guess work going on. We had english audio guides but the numbers were not clearly marked on the walls or items (most unmarked) and they did not cover all areas. Also if you were not in the room of the item, it would not work, so you could not back track. One interesting exhibit was a 13th century boat remains and some huge – bigger than life size figures from the front of 17th and 18th century ships. We saw an original first copy of ’80 days around the World’ and I was fascinated by old compasses, sea faring equipment and maps dating earlier than the discovery of New Zealand.
It took some time to get through all the levels and I was over the heat and lack of comprehension by the time we exited into the still hot, but no longer searing courtyard. There was free water fountains there which was good, as we had sweated out the water we took with us, so could top up our bottles. We made our way via, shady parts of the street to the cathedral where the tour bus departs from, only to find the last bus left at 5pm which was 20 minutes prior. You think they would have a schedule and map on the web, but they didn’t – nor was it in the brochure. However it was stapled to a post at the departing point. Our first option was 10am in the morning, so we made that first on our schedule for tomorrow.
Whilst we were in the square we thought we might get some respite from the heat in the big stone cathedral for a bit so we went inside to find grand gothic style arches and the tombs of Anne of Bretange’s parents. There were beautiful statues on top, which Anne had commissioned – a lovely resting place, and something the Brittany people are very patriotic and proud of their royal heritage and own ethnic group – much like the Catalonians view themselves different from Spanish, and Welsh from British etc.
Our next point for the day was a look out tower where the top level also had a bar called ‘The Nest’ which a local artist had designed seats like open eggs and a big ‘stork-heron’ circling the floor. Our card gave us free entry to the viewing tower and a free drink. It was a warm walk, but not unbearable – just yukky sweaty with wet backs from our back packs and increasingly tired legs and feet wading through the thick warmth. There was a slight hill or rather rise that felt like a hill and about 50 steps which felt like 150 but we made it to the lift 42 floors for a view and a coffee as weren’t up to alcohol in the heat. It wasn’t air conditioned – or if it was it was not much, but at least the air was cooler up top and we had good views over the city.
It was around 7:30 by then so we descended and headed towards home in search of a place for dinner. It was a reasonable walk home, but its all part of getting ‘lost’ and exploring the narrow streets, seeing where people live and work and play. We eventually settled on a small Lebanese place on a small back street that looked popular. It was nice, with the best authentic tabouli and hummus I have had since Australia in the 80’s when I lived there. On our platter was also some delicious spicey potatoes and Vern and I were mighty hungry by this stage and ate every last scrap up. I had an Italian beer with mine, which was very good – and refreshing. When we left the cafe we walked around the corner and there were literally hundreds of restaurants (and thousands of diners) and about 6 blocks of eat streets. When we settled on the Lebo, there had only been sporadic ones here and here and quite a few shut, had we known there was such a selection we may have skipped that one and chosen something more local LOL. Never mind, it was not flash but it was good and cheap €25 all up including drinks. It was about 10pm by the time we got home and washed the dust and grime of the day off before collapsing with relief into our large bed in our air conditioned room.