fév 28-29: Longer on Nantes

I had a fantastic time in Nantes. My hotel room was bright and cheery and had no lingering mildew smell (bonus!), and it was centrally-located. I hit up the tourist office on the afternoon I arrived and was glad I did, because I learned that Thursday nights at the Musée de Beaux Arts are free! It had an interesting collection ranging from the 14th to 20th centuries and reminded me a bit of the Clark in Williamston in its architecture. One thing I liked in particular that they did was the juxtaposition of modern pieces that commented in some way on their counterparts in the room. I saw this at the Louvre in March too, but that was a temporary exhibition. It was also just nice to be in a museum again.

The following day I had another fantastic museum experience at the museum of Nantes history that's located in the Chateau des Ducs de Bretagne. It's new as of 2005 and does a thorough job of following Nantes' history from Roman times through the building of the Chateau and Nantes' rise to power in Brittany, the city's importance in the Triangular Trade (and lingering moral questions about such), center of industry and shipping (especially food industry of cookies and canning, there were peas from the 1880s!), and finally through the industries' fall and modern, youthful revitalization. All of that plus it was appealingly designed.


These two pieces of Lefèvre-Utile, or LU, cookie advertising are from the Paris Expostion of 1900. The LU set-up at the expo also featured a tower with a 6 meter-wide biscuit box. I love that the couple here is on a tandem bike and that he's offering her a refreshing cookie on their ride.




Another one of the most interesting things was the graffiti left at the Chateau over the years of its use as a prision. During the Revolution, priests who wouldn't sign on to the State's new system of running religion were imprisioned here and left lots of crosses carved in the wall.

The Chateau itself was also an architectural sight to be seen with its 15th and 17th-century bits contrasting greatly.



It was even more interesting at night with the public art light show installation.

While I was taking these photos, a young woman walked up to me and asked if they came out well. Apparently she often sees folks doing just what I was on her way home from work. We had a friendly, long conversation on everything from the price of food to lack of attendants at French gas stations today. It turned out that she works in a bakery which I went to the following day. The owner is a Meilleur Ouvrier de France, a designation of craftsmanship not to be sneezed at. The baked goods were increidble, and the shop's decor struck just the right note between homey and classy. Aline very, very kindly bought me everything I got and gave me her address and phone number should I ever be there again.

I left for Tours on the morning of March 1 to stay one night and rent a bike for Loire valley adventures!