Nantes is a city in Loire-Atlantique on the Loire, 50 km (31 mi) from the Atlantic coast. The city is the sixth largest in France, with a population of 314,138 in Nantes proper and a metropolitan area of nearly 1 million inhabitants (2018). … See more

Prehistory and antiquity
The first inhabitants of what is now Nantes settled during the Bronze Age, later than in the surrounding regions (which have Neolithic monuments absent from Nantes). Its first inhabitants were apparently attracted by small … See more

Nantes had 314,138 inhabitants in 2018, the largest population in its history. Although it was the largest city in Brittany during the See more

Nantes' cityscape is primarily recent, with more buildings built during the 20th century than in any other era. The city has 127 buildings listed as monuments historiques, the 19th-ranked French city. Most of the old buildings were made of tuffeau stone (a … See more

Nantes is named after a tribe of Gaul, the Namnetes, who established a settlement between the end of the second century and the beginning … See more

Location
Nantes is in north-western France, near the Atlantic Ocean and 340 kilometres (210 miles) south-west of Paris. Bordeaux, the other major metropolis of western France, is 275 kilometres (171 miles) south. Nantes and … See more

For centuries, Nantes' economy was linked to the Loire and the Atlantic; the city had France's largest harbour in the 18th century. Food … See more