Bonjour!

We are in Nantes – you pronounce it like “Nornt”, with a French nasal sound.

Here we will spend our first two nights in France and we are excited.

But first, we had a train journey to embark on.  We caught the EuroStar from London to Lille in France (1.5 hours) and then changed to the TGV Fast Train to Nantes (5 hours).

The view of the French countryside from the train was very green.

A long day travelling.  Our hotel in Nantes was a welcome sight and thankfully a comfy bed.

Nantes is the 6th largest city in France and located on the Loire River.  Everywhere in France is old and has a long interesting history.  Australia seems so shiny and new.  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.  Not something to be proud of 😦

The Opera House is an impressive building in one of the squares next to our hotel.  People like to sit on the steps of large buildings in France.  We saw that everywhere.

Another town square – this square was popular for drinks and coffee in the afternnoon and was quite busy from around 4.00pm.

Every European town has a Basilica.  This one is the Basilique Saint-Nicolas sporting the Gothic Revival architecture common to this area.  Another popular step-sitting site.

Piano Accordion buskers are popular here 🙂  A chance for me to go on tour??

On our wanderings, we came across a trendy arcade with upmarket shops.  The main staircase in the arcade was packed with art students, sketching pads, pencils and ink on their laps as they sat or stood around the edge of the balconies, sketching the architecture.  The elaborateness of staircases were irresistable.

A shop devoted entirely to sardines.  This shelf was only a small section.  There were tinned sardines that were dated, just like a wine vintage, and designer tins that were collectable – how interesting!

Creperie

A food discovery – Creperies are popular in France.  We had no idea what we were getting but jumped right in.  There were galettes and crepes of all combinations, mostly ham, cheese, mushroom and tomato.

They tasted delicious, especially the one with the egg in the middle which was a galette, a pancake made with buckwheat flour.

Followed by a cup of tea and a macaroon 🙂

Parks are scattered throughout the city but I loved the square trimmed trees in this one.  It’s early spring so the trees are just beginning to shoot their new leaves.

Château des ducs de Bretagne (Castle of the Dukes of Brittany)

As well as a Basilica, every town has a castle.  We spent an hour walking through the castle buildings built around a very large courtyard and also walked the 500-metre round walk on the fortified ramparts where we could also see fabulous views of the town.  It has been restored and is home to the Nantes History Museum.  The castle is located on the right bank of the Loire River right in the main city area.  The grounds surrounding the castle in the moat were beautiful and there were many people sitting on the grass and walking through there.  The statue of the lady on the right is Anne, a daughter of one of the owners long ago, who was a long term resident of the castle, I think around the 1700s.

Breakfast

In Europe, sweet pastries are a very popular option for breakfast.  That’s OK sometimes, but we do like to eat fairly healthily, especially at the start of the day.  After that, well……..  We were pleased to find the Sugar Blue Cafe not far from our hotel where we could get something that resembled what we would have at home.

See those little red berries?  They are currants, a popular berry in France.  I had only seen currants dried before 🙂  They were not sweet but full of Vitamin C so that appealed to my nerdy side.

Our breakfast bowls were served with frommage blanc (a sweet creamy cottage cheese) rather than yoghurt but, hey, it was better than a sweet pastry!

Nantes – such a beautiful city to visit.

Jeff and Catherine xx