Nantes Knocks It Out Of The Park

Nantes may not have the name recognition of more popular French cities, but we really enjoyed our stay there. It has a large art museum, a lively downtown, and excellent thrift stores. But the nice parks throughout the city are what stole the show. We were pleasantly surprised with both the quality and quantity of these green spaces. Our spring visit coincided with a plethora of flowers and most days were spent exploring at least one of the various choices. Nantes strikes a great balance between natural and urban areas. 

With a population of about 325,000, Nantes is the sixth largest city in France. It’s big enough to have a large pedestrian-friendly downtown and a solid public transit system, but not so big that we couldn’t walk everywhere. Like pretty much every city in France, it has a lot of classic architecture and a thriving cafe scene.

Located about 30 miles (50 km) inland from the Atlantic Ocean, Nantes operates as a major shipping port. The Loire River runs through the southern part of the city and provides ocean access. In the middle of that river is a large island with modern buildings that has a completely different feel from its adjacent neighborhoods across the waterway. It’s like having two cities in one. Naturally, there’s a large park on the island too.

Parc de Procé

Procé’s Park was our favorite park and coincidentally the closest one to our apartment. It’s named after Marion de Procé, the original owner of much of the land. There’s a nice mix of shade and sun, plenty of gorgeous flowers, a duck pond, and lots of grassy areas for picnics. Traveling south out of the park is a wonderful shaded footpath that traces a creek most of the way into downtown. Heading north is a connection to the Parc de la Chézine via another river trail. This creates a massive green space that we loved exploring.

Parc de la Chézine

Larger and more wild than the Parc de Procé, the Park of the Chézine is filled with open fields of grasses and wildflowers. There are also plenty of trees surrounding these wide areas, making it a popular hangout for many of the local birds. There are countless trails crossing through the various sections that are great to get lost in. The edge of the park traces the Chézine River and the only paved trails curve along these lowlands. It further connects to another couple of parks, creating a massive chain of parkland. It’s much bigger than we could cover by foot in a day.

Jardin des Plantes

Directly across the street from the train station is the popular Botanical Garden. This park is much more manicured and regimented than the others. The grass is off limits, but it’s made up for by an abundance of benches. There are playgrounds, ponds, fountains, wrought iron greenhouses, art installations, and tons of beautiful plant life. The variety and meticulous care make it a really pleasant spot. It’s also one of the only parks I’ve visited where it’s not uncommon for visitors to be rolling their suitcases along the paths. Taking the most aesthetically pleasing route to or from the train station seems like a good idea to me.

Jardin Extraordinaire

Repurposed from an abandoned quarry along the Loire River, the Extraordinary Garden is a unique spot. It has sheer walls rising up 75 ft (25 m) from the water level. These rock faces create a unique microclimate that allows imported plant life to thrive where it might struggle otherwise. It’s just a brilliant idea for use of an old mining site. Unfortunately we didn’t get the full experience as our visit coincided with a large construction project that had closed about two-thirds of the park. 

Île de Nantes

The Island of Nantes sits on the south side of town in the middle of the Loire River. It’s home to one of the main tourist attractions; a giant mechanical elephant. The machine has some incredible detail including eyelids that blink, ears that flap, and full range of motion for the trunk. On warm days, the lumbering beast trudges around the island and sprays water from its trunk at gawkers. The kids in attendance absolutely loved it. If you want even more, they have an indoor showcase of other creatures like pterodactyls, worms, and spiders called Les Machines De L’Île. We did not explore this part as it was quite crowded and we were happy with our elephant experience.

We spent our time walking around the rest of the island instead. Despite being just across the river from the historic downtown area, it felt completely different. Filled with quirky architecture, street art, and graffiti, it’s like visiting a different modern city just steps from the old classic. That made it an interesting place to explore and provided some nice diversity.

Musée d’arts de Nantes

Outside of Paris and Lyon, the Nantes Art Museum is the largest French art museum we’ve visited. It has a nice variety of permanent exhibits throughout the first and second floors, with space for temporary exhibitions in the basement. There are grand staircases between floors that really add to the fanciness.

Basilique et Cathédrale

Right in the heart of downtown is the Basilica Saint Nicolas. Parts of the church date back to the 12th century, but it’s been built and rebuilt many times since then. The most notable feature today is the colossal bell tower that pokes out above the cityscape surrounding it.

There is a larger cathedral in Nantes, Saint Peter and Saint Paul’s Cathedral, but it’s closed for renovations after a large fire in 2020. The building is scheduled to open in the fall of 2025, so restoration is almost complete. It’s still impressive from the outside.

Passage Pommeraye

This historic shopping arcade is extremely charming. Modern shops have replaced the original sellers, but the whole place retains its antique feel. With lots of wrought iron, statues, and a large skylight, it’s a little piece of history. People have been updating their fashion here for almost 200 years and it attained the historical monument designation 50 years ago.

Where We Stayed

Our apartment was on the northwest side of town near the Parc de Procé, which turned out to be an excellent location. We spent multiple days each week enjoying the Parc de Procé and all of the connected parks. The apartment itself was on the top floor of an 8 floor building and provided great views of the landscape in multiple directions. It had several large windows with lots of natural light too. We really liked it, which helped contribute to our overall enjoyment of Nantes.

What We Spent

I felt like our apartment was a great deal at $1505 for our 4 week stay. We did buy some new shoes, but otherwise our spending was pretty standard. A lot of time spent in the wonderful parks is a great frugal activity. Our total spent in Nantes came out to $2634. Adding in regular monthly charges for things like insurance and MLB.tv brings our grand total to $2874, or just under $103/day. 

Both of us loved our time in Nantes. It felt like it would be an easy place to live. There were tons of planted flowers everywhere. Public transit was completely free on weekends. And of course all the parks were outstanding in their own way. During our 4 weeks we hunted for birds, hiked random trails, marveled at the flowers, and enjoyed lots of outdoor time. For people looking for a great blend of city and nature, Nantes is a home run.