This is a formidable fortress protected by deep and wide moats and defended by six towers where Britanny pyramidical machicolations appeared. Inside is the government palace where many official feasts were held. The graceful Tour de la Couronne d'or ..

The galleries of the city’s fine arts museum are laid out around a bright patio, and provide a journey through the history of painting from the 13C to the present day. Of particular note are three 19C works by Ingres, Courbet and the Kaïd by Delacr..

Opened in 1799, the city’s natural history museum was moved to the former mint (Hôtel de la Monnaie) in 1875. Its sizeable collections cover the fields of zoology, local fauna, osteology, palaeontology, prehistory, earth sciences, mineralogy, ethnogr..

Here in the heart of the former boiler-making workshops of the Chantiers de la Loire shipyards, you will come across a world straight out of the imagination of Jules Verne: gigantic machines such as the giant Heron Tree and the Marine Worlds Carrouse..

This was a marsh iland that was reclaimed in the early 18C for traders who made their fortune in the ebony. The buildings are elegantly decorated with balconies and grotesque figures. This architectural ensemble sometimes seem to defy the laws of bal..

A Nantes notary spent his life and his fortune completing this gallery in 1843. Fluted columns, openworked balustrades and cherubs carrying torches make this a dreamlike, if somewhat kitsch construction that fascinated the Surrealists and was chosen ..

An austere façade precedes the interior of tufa that gives it such durability and well-define lines. In the right arm of the transept, the tomb of François II , that cathedral's masterpiece, was sculpted by Michel Colombe in 1507 upon the reques..

This is a quartier named after the financier who built it in the 19C. The buildings were all transformed. Aside from the lovely Place Graslin and the shops of Rue Crébillon, you will find the fabulouse Passage Pommeraye.

The neo-Romanesque style palace was built in the 19C by a Nantes shipowner, Thomas Dobrée (1810-1895). The museum contains a modern presentation showing Romanesque and Gothic sculptures from Nantes and the Loire Valley, together with furniture, paint..

The Archaeological Museum contains collections of Greek and Etruscan pottery and Egyptology displays, as well as covering the period from prehistoric civilisations in the region to the arrival of the Vikings. Temporary exhibitions are often particula..

This lovely garden was created in 1805 and redesigned from 1830 to 1850. The countryside landscape contains several fountains and wooden sculptures and is home to 11,000 species of trees and flowers, and 800 m2 of greenhouses (humid equatorial and de..

This 19C house contains several souvenirs of the life of the Nantes writer. There are autographs, furniture, objects, portraits and posters connected to the work he published with Hetzel. An excellent introduction for anyone intending to visit his ho..

From this rocky platform that has been turned into a terrace, you get a good view of the port and the island of Nantes with its new buildings (using the map here).

A classical façade that is topped by the most beautiful belfry in town, with its trumpeting angels at the summit. Inside, the choir has a palm vault that contrasts with the round vault of the nave of this 17C church.

A stroll down the streets of this quartier will allow you to explore a number of half-timbered houses from the 15th and 16C in Rues de la Juiverie, Sainte-Croix, de la Boucherie or Bossuet... This maze of little streets gathered around the church of ..

This square was built by architect Crucy (who also made the old stock exchange, now a FNAC) and has a fountain in the middle which since 1865 has symbolised the city of Nantes.

As the Nantais say, you will «Crébilloner» by window shopping down this street.

This hugely enjoyable museum has been designed as a seven-stage journey through the history of Nantes. From the time of François II to the present day, it provides an insight into the life of the estuary and sailors on the Loire, moving westwards to ..

The old house of the chapter (15C) forms a part of the cathedral sacristy. You will find the other side on another square via a vaulted passage.

At the heart of the Graslin quartier, this square is home to the Grand Théâtre, with its Corinthian style, built in 1783, as well as the brasserie La Cigale, on the corner of Cours Cambronne, and has 1900 décor with lovely mosaics.