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In 2011 and 2012 I was working as a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Nantes, France. Nantes is one of the biggest cities in France, in the northwest near the Atlantic coast. Until the French Revolution, it was part of Brittany, but it is now the capital of the Pays-de-la-Loire province and the Loire-Atlantique depatment. In Canada, where I'm from, it seems that most people have never heard of it. I didn't know anything about it either, except that it was where the Edict of Nantes was signed in the 16th century, temporarily granting religious freedom to French Protestants.

There are lots of interesting things to see and do in Nantes, and the city does advertise certain aspects, like the Jules Verne-inspired "Machines de l'Île", La Pommeraye shopping mall, La Cigale restaurant, the "Voyage à Nantes" art exhibits, the 18th- and 19th-century architecture...but for the most part, the things that the city promoted are not very interesting to me. They're too modern! I'm a medieval historian, so I was always looking for older stuff. Fortunately, there are plenty of old things to see, if you know where to look. Most of it is very poorly-advertised, and largely in ruins. The castle and the cathedral are really the only preserved medieval sites, for example.

So, here is a look at the lesser-known historical sites in Nantes and the surrounding area. I'll try to keep things roughly chronological, from the oldest to the newest. It will also be more of a personal account than strictly history - the interesting stories (well, interesting to me) about how and why I found certain sites.

I should also note that there are lots of pictures, but I'm not a very good photographer. My camera is actually a JVC video camera that also takes pictures (and which I rarely ever used for videos). The pictures are relatively low resolution and low quality, and are all in an annoying rectangular shape. I tried to make some panoramas with Hugin to compensate for that (such as the panorama of the old city, above). When I went back to Nantes for a conference in 2014, I had a proper digital camera, but not much time to spend taking better pictures.

Here is a list of posts so far:

Some Neolithic sites in the towns outside Nantes
The Roman wall of Nantes
The Chapelle Saint-Étienne and the Basilique St-Donatien et St-Rogatien
The Église St-Similien
The Église St-Jacques
The medieval wall(s) of Nantes
Some medieval sites around Nantes - Oudon, Champtoceaux, and Ancenis
The Château des ducs de Bretagne
The Couvent des Cordeliers
Some other medieval buildings
Nantes Cathedral
Nantes during the World Wars
The Atlantic slave trade in Nantes


Contact:
e-mail: ambishop@gmail.com
Twitter: @adammbishop