Scenes in Nantes

Photographs and Commentary by Graham Frater

Modern Nantes has preserved little of its earlier architecture or its shipbuilding industry, though it remains an active commercial river port at a place where the Loire is wide and impressive.  Riverside businesses cater to sailors, emphasizing alcohol and sex, probably much as they did in the 18th Century, though the buildings and advertising are modern.  The first four photographs are of parts of the city that John Paul Jones might well have seen.
 
 

A seventeenth-century city gate.
 

A chateau near the center of the city.
 

Another view of the chateau.
 

The tomb of Frances II in the Cathedral of S. Pierre in Nantes.
 

A modern bronze of Anne of Bretagne in Nantes.
 

This waterfront museum shows the riverside as it appears in 2004.