from our publisher  Miguel D. DESNERCK, special correspondent in Nantes: 

A serie of articles about the European Green Capital 2013, NANTES.

Nantes, the former capital of the Dukes of Brittany who left a wonderful medieval castle is a city with a past but two feet in the future. It’s a very intresting city to discover.

Nantes is located in the west of France,on three rivers, the great and famous Loire, the Erdre and the Sevre nantaise.

In the history of Nantes,  the Duchy of Brittany was united to the kingdom of France in 1532.Nantes kept the Parliament of Brittany for a few years before it was moved to Rennes. In 1598, King Henry IV of France signed the Edict of Nantes here, which granted Protestantsrights to their religion.

During the 18th century, prior to abolition of slavery, Nantes was the slave trade capital of France.At the french revolution, Nantes joined very quickly the revolutionnary side while the other surrounding regions were on the side of the contra-revolution and the “wars of Vendee” raged fiercely in the whole great west. The Loire was also the site of thousands of executions by drowning.^[16]

In the 19th century, Nantes became an industrial city, with textile industry, metallurgy and shipyards. In 1940, the city was occupied by German troops. The city was twice severely bombed by American forces, on 16 and 23 August 1943, before being liberated by the Americans in 1944.

Until the 1970s, Nantes’ harbour was located on the Île de Nantes, when it was moved to the extremity of the Loire River, at Saint-Nazaire.  Nantes had then a decline period to suffer. In 2001, a major redevelopment scheme was launched, the goal of which is to revitalise the island as the new city centre. Nantes was for more than 20 years ruled by socialist Jean-Marc Ayrault who became prime minister in may 2013.

In 2003, the French weekly L’Express voted Nantes to be the “greenest city” in France, while in both 2003 and 2004 it was voted the “best place to live” by the weekly Le Point. In August 2004, TIME designated Nantes as “the most livable city in all of Europe. It was, due to the efforts of the city, not a surprise that Nantes became the 2013 EUROPEAN GREEN CAPITAL  CITY after having won this prize awarded by the European Commission. The efforts made to make the city more green, develop public transport and redevelop the urbanistic scheme while payong attention to CO2 consumption and reducing of traffic paid. (see a further article on this issues).

In 2013, Nantes is fully busy with its revival and the urbanistic scheme of the city is being achieved. Both north and south of the city knew an important refurbishment.

The different public bodies in Nantes joined hands to allow the city to become a 21st century city. The city of Nantes, the Departement Loire Atlantique, Nantes Metropole (with the 23 cities and villages surrounding Nantes) and the region pays de Loire are part of the new development of the city. Also, there exists a collaboration between nantes and Saint-Nazaire to ensure a real development of the maritime Loire area and its industries from Nantes to the mouth of the Loire.

TO BE CONTINUED

Miguel D. DESNERCK