A day trip to Nantes

We decided to take a day trip to Nantes today.  We left the campsite around 11.30am and decided we would drive across the causeway that was the only access to Noirmoutier island until 1971 when the bridge was built.  The causeway is called Passage du Gois and is only passable for about 90 minutes each side of low tide.  Lots of people had driven onto it to collect cockles and mussels etc. So-called pêche-a-pied.   

We got to Nantes around 1.20pm and had a nice lunch at a café called L’Europe.  My second andouillette of the holiday!  We had a walk around the town and saw a very old shopping centre, the Passage Pommeraye, built in 1843, one of the world’s first.  Next we saw couple of churches – St Nicolas and Sainte-Croix and then went to the Chateau des Ducs de Bretagne (Castle of the Dukes of Brittany).  It has a fascinating museum of the history of Nantes, showing how its relationship with the river Loire has changed and how industries have come and gone over the years.  There is also a good walk around the ramparts that we did, which gave some good views over the modern city.   

After leaving the castle we visited the Cathedrale St. Pierre, the main cathedral in Nantes that had undergone almost total rebuilding since world war II damage (and a fire that destroyed the new roof in 1971).   

Following that we visited the Jardin des plantes (Botanical Gardens) and walked back towards the car stopping for a savoury galette on the way.  We drive back to the campsite on Noirmoutier and had a quick beer before retiring for the night.