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

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

Nantes is today a growing and modern city. The urbanistic developments of the city knew a start after the gloomy economic period of the seventies and the eighties which saw the disappearance of the old industry : shipyards, textile, heavy industry.

For example, the “Ile de Nantes” was totally reshaped and the machines de Nantes (see a previous article) and ecostart ups have now settled on this location.

The station of Nantes will be deeply reshaped for 2016 and will follow the criteria of all new high speed trains stations (like Bordeaux St Jean and Toulouse Matabiau). In Nantes, a new business district will be created alongside the station. A new mezzanine station will be created on the top of the railway tracks and a multimodal plateform will be created.

Other districts of Nantes have now strong evolution: the Bellevue district and the new Malakoff. The Malakoff district is a part of nantes between the Loire and the station dedicated to social housing. The city authorities felt the need to open up this district to the other parts of Nantes and the public transport acces will be strengthened.

the Eric tabarly bridge which will open up the Malakoff district

Lots of other projects are now ongoing in Nantes.

look at the website of nantes-Metropole

MiguelD. DESNERCK