Nantes, France, top 10 things to do (Wimup travel guide)

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Top 10EuropeFrance

Top 10 Things To Do in Nantes

Country

France

Best months

May · Jun · Sep

Population

328K

Language

French

Budget / day

$110–180

Quick answer

The best things to do in Nantes are Les Machines de l'île, the Château des ducs de Bretagne, the Passage Pommeraye and the Musée d'arts. Give the city two to three days, follow the green line painted on the pavement to link the sights on foot, and come between May and September, when the art trail is at full strength and the river terraces are open.

Nantes on Foot

▶ Video guide

Nantes was the ducal capital of Brittany, then France's leading slave port, then a shipbuilding city that lost its shipyards. It has spent two decades turning that industrial inheritance into a permanent art commission. A green line painted on the pavement links the ten entries below, and the walk is the argument.

The 10 best things to do in Nantes

Ride the elephant at Les Machines de l'île

Attraction· Parc des Chantiers, boulevard Léon Bureau, 44200 Nantes

Part workshop, part gallery, part fairground, built inside the warehouses of the closed shipyard by François Delarozière and Pierre Orefice. The Grand Éléphant stands 12 metres tall, carries 52 passengers and walks the length of the old slipway. Beside it the Carrousel des Mondes Marins turns three tiers of sea creatures.

Time3 hrs

CostTicketed

Best atMorning

TipBook the elephant slot online

Map ↗ Website

Read the city inside the Château des ducs de Bretagne

Castle & museum· 4 place Marc Elder, 44000 Nantes

From the street it is a fortress: seven towers, curtain walls and a 500 metre parapet. Cross the drawbridge and it becomes a palace, the Flamboyant Gothic residence in white tufa built by François II and finished under Anne of Brittany. The history museum inside runs 32 rooms, and its rooms on the Atlantic slave trade are an international reference.

Time3 hrs

CostFree courtyard

Best atOpening

TipWalk the ramparts before the museum

Map ↗ Website

Climb the Passage Pommeraye

Landmark· 20 passage Pommeraye, 44000 Nantes

A shopping arcade built in 1843 on a slope, which is what makes it unlike any other in France: three levels stacked around a monumental staircase under a glass roof, lined with statues and lamps. Listed as a historic monument in 1976 and still working as a shopping gallery. Free to walk through, and worth doing twice, once up and once down.

Time30 mins

CostFree

Best atLate morning

TipEnter low, from rue de la Fosse

Map

See the Kandinskys at the Musée d'arts de Nantes

Museum· 10 rue Georges Clemenceau, 44000 Nantes

Three buildings read as one: the 17th century Chapelle de l'Oratoire, the 19th century Palais, and the Cube, a contemporary wing by Stanton Williams that opened in 2017. More than a thousand works span the 13th to the 21st century, with La Tour, Ingres, Delacroix, Courbet and Monet, and a run of Kandinsky few French collections outside Paris can match.

Time2 hrs

CostTicketed

Best atAfternoon

TipStart in the Cube, end in the chapel

Map ↗ Website

Find Claude Ponti in the Jardin des Plantes

Garden· Rue Stanislas Baudry, 44000 Nantes

The botanical garden sits behind the railway station and is free every day, with a charge only for the glasshouses. What sets it apart is the commission: eight permanent works by the children's illustrator Claude Ponti are installed across the lawns, among them a bench built at giant scale. Children treat the garden as a playground and nobody stops them.

Time1 hr

CostFree · glasshouses ticketed

Best atSpring

TipFind Ponti's giant bench

Map ↗ Website

Stand on the Mémorial de l'abolition de l'esclavage

Memorial· Quai de la Fosse, 44000 Nantes

Nantes was the leading French slave port of the 18th century, and the expeditions were fitted out on this quay. The memorial opened here in 2012 and is one of the most significant public works anywhere on the slave trade and its abolition. The walk drops below the quay and runs along the water in low light. Free, and open air.

Time45 mins

CostFree

Best atLate afternoon

TipPair it with the castle's slave trade rooms

Map ↗ Website

Step inside the reopened cathedral

Church· Place Saint-Pierre, 44000 Nantes

Begun in 1434 and not finished until 1891, which is why the Gothic reads so consistently: each generation kept to the first plan. An arson attack in July 2020 took the roof over the west end and destroyed the great organ. After a restoration costing 32 million euros the building reopened on 27 September 2025. The white tufa interior is the reason to go in.

Time45 mins

CostFree

Best atMorning

TipLook up at the vaults over the nave

Map

Drink under the LU tower at Le Lieu Unique

Arts centre· 2 rue de la Biscuiterie, 44000 Nantes

The LU biscuit factory left Nantes its strangest landmark, a decorated tower on the canal, and the works behind it became the city's arts centre. Exhibitions, concerts and dance share the building with a bar, a bookshop that stocks what nobody else does, and a hammam. Entry to the building is free, and the bar is why Nantais come back midweek.

Time1 hr

CostFree entry · ticketed shows

Best atEvening

TipCheck the programme before you go

Map ↗ Website

Walk down into the Jardin Extraordinaire

Garden· Carrière Miséry, Bas-Chantenay, 44100 Nantes

The Miséry quarry cut granite out of the hillside for a century and then sat abandoned. Since 2019 it has been a 3.5 hectare garden of tree ferns, banana plants and outsized foliage, with a 25 metre waterfall dropping the height of the cliff and a staircase by François Delarozière. Enter from the top, so the quarry opens underneath you.

Time1 hr

CostFree

Best atLate afternoon

TipCome down from the Butte Sainte-Anne

Map ↗ Website

Cross to Trentemoult on the Navibus

Village· Navibus Loire N1, Gare Maritime, quai Ernest Renaud, 44100 Nantes

A former fishing village on the south bank at Rezé, where the houses are painted in flat blocks of colour and the lanes are too narrow for cars. The N1 river shuttle leaves from the Gare Maritime, takes six minutes and runs on an ordinary TAN ticket, so the cheapest boat trip in the city is also the best one. Quayside terraces face back at Nantes across the Loire.

Time2 hrs

CostTAN ticket

Best atSunset

TipEat on the quay before the boat back

Map ↗ Website

All 10, mapped

Nantes · 10 spots

AllLandmarksMuseumsFree

Nantes travel FAQ

How many days do you need in Nantes?+

Two to three. One covers the castle, the cathedral, the arcade and the art museum on foot; a second takes the island, Les Machines and the memorial; a third buys Trentemoult, the Jardin Extraordinaire and a train to Clisson or Saint-Nazaire.

What is the green line in Nantes?+

A line painted on the pavement that links the city's main sights and artworks in one continuous walk of about 12 kilometres. Follow it and you will not need a map, and in summer Le Voyage à Nantes reroutes it around the new commissions.

Is Nantes worth visiting?+

Yes, and for a reason other French cities cannot offer: it turned a dead shipyard into a permanent art commission rather than a museum quarter. The castle and the cathedral give you the history, Les Machines and the estuary trail give you the argument for coming now.

When is the best time to visit Nantes?+

May, June and September. Summer is warm and dry enough, and the Voyage à Nantes edition runs from early July to early September. November to February is mild but genuinely wet, with over 100mm of rain a month.

How do you get from Paris to Nantes?+

By TGV from Paris Montparnasse in about two hours, with roughly 23 departures a day. The station is a ten-minute walk or one tram stop from the castle, so there is no reason to fly or drive.

Where to eat

Best restaurants in Nantes

Six kitchens that show the range, from an 1895 brasserie to two Top Chef alumni working Loire produce.

All 6 restaurants →

Historic

Graslin

La Cigale

Brasserie · Seafood

Opened in 1895 opposite the Théâtre Graslin and listed as a historic monument, all painted ceramic and mirrors. Seafood platters, served late.

Map ↗ Website

Michelin

Île de Nantes

LuluRouget

Fine dining · Tasting menu

Ludovic Pouzelgues cooks surprise menus off the market at place Albert Camus, precise rather than showy. The address Nantais name first for a dinner.

Map ↗ Website

Bistro

Decré

Vacarme

Bistronomy · Weekly menu

Sarah Mainguy, of French television's Top Chef, runs a loud, relaxed bistro with a menu rewritten every week. Booking ahead is the only difficult part.

Map ↗ Website

Bistro

Feydeau

Sépia

Bistro · Eastern Mediterranean

Lucie Berthier Gembara cooks a designer bistro menu leaning on the eastern Mediterranean, with vegetables carrying the plate rather than garnishing it.

Map ↗ Website

Value

Saint-Léonard

L'Instinct Gourmand

Bistro · Slate menu

Two founders who met in Oxford run a label-free bistro on rue Saint-Léonard, with a slate rewritten daily. The best-value serious cooking here.

Map ↗ Website

Michelin

Erdre

Le Manoir de la Régate

Fine dining · Riverside

Mathieu Pérou cooks on the bank of the Erdre north of the centre, with fish out of the river in front of him and vegetables from a garden 500 metres away. Worth the taxi.

Map ↗ Website

Collections

Best museums in Nantes

Five more collections beyond the art museum, from a reptile house to a Gallo-Roman port.

All 5 museums →

Family

City centre

Muséum d'histoire naturelle

Museum · Ticketed

A 19th century natural history collection with a working vivarium. It is on the free-Sunday rota that several Nantes museums run.

Map ↗ Website

Literary

Sainte-Anne

Musée Jules Verne

Museum · Ticketed

Verne was born in Nantes in 1828, and the museum opened in 1978 for the 150th anniversary. Manuscripts and models, in a house above the Loire.

Map ↗ Website

Reopened

City centre

Musée Dobrée

Museum · Ticketed

Reopened in May 2024 after thirteen years shut, with 2,400 objects across 36 rooms drawn from a reserve of 130,000, in a neo-Gothic mansion.

Map

Contemporary

Île de Nantes

HAB Galerie

Gallery · Free

The Hangar à Bananes ripened fruit off the boats; now the western tip of the island shows painting, sculpture, video and installation at the scale the shed allows. Free.

Map

Archaeology

Rezé

Le Chronographe

Museum · Ticketed

Opened in 2017 over the Saint-Lupien dig in Rezé, where Ratiatum, the Gallo-Roman port that preceded Nantes, has been excavated.

Map ↗ Website

After dark

Best bars & cafes in Nantes

Four rooms to drink in, including a bar 32 floors up inside a giant heron.

All 4 bars & cafes →

View

Tour Bretagne

Le Nid

Bar · Panoramic

On the 32nd floor of the Tour Bretagne, Jean Jullien laid a giant white heron across the room. The bird is the joke; the view is why you ride the lift.

Map

Riverside

Erdre

Le Bateau Lavoir

Guinguette · Terrace

Delarozière and Orefice built this immobile boat on the Erdre, after the 19th century washing barges. Tapas on a very good terrace, April to October.

Map

Half-timbered

Bouffay

Le Café Cult'

Cafe & wine bar · All day

A half-timbered house on rue des Carmes that runs as a coffee and wine bar through the day and a restaurant at either end of it, with contemporary shows on the walls.

Map ↗ Website

Nightlife

Bouffay

Place du Pilori

Bar cluster · Free

Not a venue but the square everyone starts from, a minute off place du Bouffay. Pick a terrace, then follow the lanes wherever they get louder.

Map

Green Nantes

Best parks & gardens in Nantes

Five more parks, every one of them free, in a city that treats horticulture as public art.

All 5 parks & gardens →

Japanese

Erdre

Île de Versailles

Garden · Free

A Japanese garden laid out on a small island in the Erdre in 1987: rockeries, waterfalls, cherry trees and timber pavilions. Free, every day.

Map

Camellias

Procé

Parc de Procé

Park · Free

Twelve hectares of lawns and old trees west of the centre, free, and at its best in spring when the camellias and azaleas open. The manor at the top is the landmark.

Map ↗ Website

Roses

Beaujoire

Parc Floral de la Beaujoire

Rose garden · Free

The Paul Plantiveau rose garden opened in 1988 as France's first landscape-designed roseraie, and holds more than 700 varieties. Go in June.

Map ↗ Website

Cascades

Gaudinière

Parc de la Gaudinière

Park · Free

Twelve hilly hectares of cascades, ponds and century-old trees, planted with camellias and thousands of bulbs. Free, and cool in August.

Map ↗ Website

Glasshouses

Doulon

Parc du Grand Blottereau

Park · Free

Thirty-seven hectares in Doulon-Bottière laid out as a tour of world landscapes, from the Americas to Korea, with tropical glasshouses of useful plants at the centre.

Map

Where to base yourself

Best neighborhoods in Nantes

Five quarters with different reasons to stay, four of them walkable to the castle.

All 5 neighborhoods →

Nightlife

Centre

Bouffay

Medieval core

The medieval city: paved pedestrian lanes, half-timbered facades, and the densest run of bars and restaurants in Nantes. Loud at night.

Map

Elegant

Centre

Graslin

18th and 19th century

Built as a speculation and never lost its poise: the neoclassical theatre, the fountain on place Royale, La Cigale on the corner.

Map

Contemporary

Island

Île de Nantes

Former shipyards

The shipyard island, rebuilt over twenty years and still going: Les Machines, the Hangar à Bananes and the widest riverside walk in the city.

Map

Local

West

Chantenay

Village absorbed by the city

A working village the city grew around, with its own market street and the Butte Sainte-Anne above it looking down on the Loire.

Map

Quiet

North

Hauts-Pavés and Saint-Félix

Residential

Nineteenth century streets north of the centre, around the Talensac hall and the Erdre. Where Nantais actually live, ten minutes by tram.

Map

Out of the city

Best day trips from Nantes

Six trips that work in a day, four of them by direct train from Nantes.

All 6 day trips →

Train

30 min by train

Clisson

Medieval town · Vineyards

A direct train runs in half an hour. The Revolution left Clisson in ruins and it was rebuilt on an Italian model, with Muscadet vineyards at the edge.

Map

Train

30 min by train

Saint-Nazaire

Port · Ocean liners

The shipbuilding city at the mouth of the Loire, where the liners are still assembled. Escal'Atlantic reconstructs one inside a submarine base.

Map

Coast

80 km west

Guérande

Walled town · Salt marshes

A walled medieval town behind the Saint-Michel gate, ringed by the salt marshes that still produce fleur de sel. Walk the paludiers' paths.

Map

Coast

1 hr 40 by train

Pornic

Harbour · Côte de Jade

A castle above a working harbour, moules marinière on the quay, and the coast path north past the stilted fishing huts and the small shell beaches of the Côte de Jade.

Map

Island

Bus from Nantes

Noirmoutier

Island · Salt and oysters

The Aléop bus runs to the island direct from behind the station. Salt pans, oyster beds, and the causeway that the tide covers twice a day.

Map ↗ Website

Art

Nantes to Saint-Nazaire

Estuaire, the Loire art trail

Art trail · Free

Thirty-three permanent works stand along the 60 kilometres of estuary to Saint-Nazaire, left by the Estuaire editions. Do it by bike, car or river.

Map ↗ Website

What to bring home

Best markets & shopping in Nantes

Four places to shop, starting with a 1937 market hall of more than 150 traders.

All 4 markets & shopping →

Food

Hauts-Pavés

Marché de Talensac

Covered market · Free entry

The city's food market since 1937, with more than 150 traders under and around the hall. Open mornings Tuesday to Sunday, closed Mondays.

Map ↗ Website

Food

Gloriette

Marché de la Petite Hollande

Open-air market · Saturday

Around 300 traders across the Gloriette esplanade every Saturday morning. The biggest market in Nantes and the one to do on a weekend.

Map ↗ Website

Fashion

Graslin

Rue Crébillon

Shopping street

The spine of central shopping, from place Graslin to place Royale, feeding the Passage Pommeraye halfway down. Independents on the side streets.

Map

Vintage

Bouffay

Bouffay boutiques

Independent shops

The medieval lanes carry the vintage, design and jewellery shops. This is where to find rigolettes and berlingots made in the city itself.

Map

What's on

Festivals & annual events in Nantes (2026)

Time your trip around the dates the city plans its year around.

Jan–Feb

La Folle Journée

Five days of short classical concerts stacked back to back at the Cité des Congrès, on one theme.

Mar–Apr

Carnaval de Nantes

The spring carnival brings floats and marching bands through the centre over two weekends, ending with a night parade.

Jun

Hellfest

Europe's largest extreme metal festival takes over Clisson, half an hour south by train. The 2026 edition ran 18 to 21 June.

Jul–Sep

Le Voyage à Nantes

The summer edition of the art trail: new commissions in the streets, big exhibitions and a reworked green line. July to September.

Jul–Aug

Aux Heures d'Été

A free festival of world music spread across courtyards and squares through high summer, 7 July to 7 August in 2026.

Aug

Les Rendez-vous de l'Erdre

Jazz on and beside the river, with boats gathering for the weekend. It bills itself as the only free jazz festival in France.

Oct–Nov

Les Utopiales

The largest science fiction festival in Europe, filling the Cité des Congrès with writers, films and games.

Dec

Marché de Noël

Christmas chalets take place Royale and the streets around it for most of December, with a wheel and a lighting scheme.

Getting around

Nantes transport & airports

How to arrive, and how to cross a compact centre that is mostly flat.

NTE

Nantes Atlantique Airport

Eight kilometres south of the centre, roughly 20 minutes door to door. The shuttle runs to the centre and the station every 20 minutes in summer and every 30 in winter.

Map ↗ Website

TGV

Gare de Nantes

The TGV reaches Paris Montparnasse in about two hours, some 23 times a day, and TER lines fan out to Saint-Nazaire, Le Croisic, Pornic and Clisson. The station has two entrances.

Map

TAN

Tram and bus

Three tram lines cross at Commerce and cover almost everything in this guide, backed by busways and buses. One ticket is valid an hour across the network, boats included.

Map ↗ Website

Navibus river shuttle

The N1 crosses the Loire between the Gare Maritime and Trentemoult in six minutes, every 20 minutes and more often at peak, on an ordinary TAN ticket. A second service runs on the Erdre in season.

Map ↗ Website

Traditional food

Must-try dishes in Nantes, France

The classics to order before you leave.

Beurre blanc

The sauce Nantes gave France: shallots reduced in Muscadet and vinegar, then whisked full of butter.

Muscadet

The dry white of the vineyards southeast of the city, from a single grape.

Gâteau nantais

A pound cake soaked in rum and lemon under a white rum glaze, first made around 1820.

Curé nantais

A soft washed-rind cow's cheese first moulded in the 19th century, sold plain, with herbs, or with Muscadet.

Berlingot nantais

The striped boiled sweet was created here in the 19th century by Madame Couët, and the shape has not changed.

Rigolette nantaise

A berlingot with the hard centre replaced by fruit pulp. Confectioners in the old town still make them here.

Fouace nantaise

A six-branched brioche baked for the new wine, and shaped to be torn apart and shared rather than sliced.

Mâche nantaise

Lamb's lettuce grown in the sandy market gardens along the Loire, and why a Nantes salad tastes of hazelnut.

Nantes fact sheet

Nantes at a glance

The essentials worth knowing before you go.

Country

France

Region

Pays de la Loire

Department

Loire-Atlantique (44)

Population

327,734 · 706,798 in Nantes Métropole

River

Loire and Erdre

Language

French

Currency

Euro (EUR)

Time zone

CET (UTC+1)

Calling code

+33 2

Airports

Nantes Atlantique (NTE)

Power

Type E, 230V

Emergency

112

Ideal length

2–3 days

Getting around

Tram & walking

Tourism board

Official site

Interesting facts

Nantes was the leading French slave port of the 18th century. The city says so in public, on the quay memorial and in the castle's rooms.
The Edict of Nantes was signed here in 1598, granting Protestants the right to worship. It held until Louis XIV revoked it in 1685.
Jules Verne was born in Nantes in 1828, on the Île Feydeau, and the mechanical elephant on the island descends from what he wrote.
The Loire used to run through the middle of town. Several arms were filled in during the 1930s, which is why one boulevard is not a river.
Brittany still claims the city. Nantes was the ducal capital and sits in Pays de la Loire, a line much of the population has never accepted.

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