Le Voyage à Nantes : the trail in the city

First enter the cathedral through the crypt from the entrance in the Cours Saint-Pierre, then walk inside the transept: you will see a gem of French sculpture, the tomb of François II, Michel Colombe’s masterpiece dating back to the early 16th century. Anne de Bretagne commissioned this tomb for her parents, François II, the last Duke of Brittany, and Marguerite de Foix. Made of white marble, it is composed of a high and massive base on top of which lay the two recumbent bodies of the royal couple. Their heads rest on cushions held up by angels, and at their feet sit a lion and a hare. The sides are decorated with full-scale statues in successive niches, along with “kneeling statues”. At each of the four corners, four imposing statues are the allegorical figures of the cardinal virtues. Given the scale and the height of the work, the average visitor cannot see the upper part of the tomb. The Journey to Nantes has put into place a light structure allowing for a privileged point of view of the two recumbent figures.

Fall under the spell of five centuries of medieval history… Last castle before the river reaches the sea,
this Breton monument with its outstanding buildings take you from the 15th to 17th centuries.
Building started under François 2nd, the last duke of Brittany, and then completed by his daughter, Anne of Brittany, twice queen of France. The castle houses a royal palace of elegant renaissance facades and ornate outward facing galleries or loggia. Large scale restauration gives way to a modern multimedia
exhibition in its museum, open to visitors on a castle tour. The courtyard, full circuit of the battlements,
the gardens around the moat, all lit-up at night make it an unforgettable experience for all the family.

> The book/gift shop
Historical and urban books (Published by “Château” amongst others), objects identified in Nantes, young section…

> Café-restaurant “les Oubliettes”
Set in the 14th century Old Keep and Conciergerie with a patio on the courtyard, a stop at the café-restaurant makes a welcome break without taking you away from the atmosphere of the castle.

Weighing 80 000 tonnes, towering at a height of 144 m (472 feet), and with a water reservoir of 90 000 litres, the Tour Bretagne was inaugurated in 1976. The 32nd floor offers a 360° panorama over the metropolis. Jean Jullien, a fêted artist in the international world of graphic design, was entrusted with organizing this space. Born in Nantes, he now works and lives in London. Directly inspired by popular culture from his childhood (from cartoons to video games) and still today, through exhibitions, books, marketing campaigns, as part of the many commissions he has received from all over the world, he offers a sensitive and lunar universe, emphasized by the “handmade” aspect of his work. Le Nid is the home of an enormous white bird, half-stork, half-heron, who sleepily watches over the city. Its reassuring presence invites spectators to come contemplate the view. Its large body also doubles as a bar. As if leaping out of a Jean Jullien drawing, gigantic eggshells transform into seats and tables. On the walls, the artist’s hand has immortalized the city’s emblematic spots on bright posters.

**Graslin
Works started this year: The goal is to emulate the work done in 2007 on the place Royale meaning more room for pedestrians. This follows the general trend of urban planning work already carried out.

**Théâtre Graslin
Pivotal to the town planning of the Graslin Quarter, it stands proud with 8 Corinthian columns supporting 8 muses beautifully lit-up at night.

The Loire estuary invaded the museum. The wetland vegetation colonizes the square Louis Bureau. The rocks tell that a mountain as high as the Alps was there before the estuary , then animals take the stage to tell us the richness of these wetlands and their extreme fragility. The museum is also art museum presenting some landscapes estuary from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries and watercolors of Denis Clavreul.

An impressive 400 meter-long walkway under the quayside, from the Victor-Schoelcher passage to the Anne-de-Bretagne bridge. This memorial pays homage to all those who have fought and are still fighting against slavery in all its forms throughout the world. All along the green esplanade are 2000 commemorative plaques noting ships leaving Nantes on slave trade expeditions and the main African and American trading posts, revealing the enormity of the abhorrent slave-trafficking. Under the quayside, a 90 meter-long underground passage evokes the captives in the ships’ holds, inciting us to think about fighting for the abolition of slavery and the modern form it takes today. Throughout this thought-provoking walk reached by a decorative staircase, a series of quotations, in every language, from times past and present and from all over; they depict humanity’s long combat against slavery. The tour ends in an area denoting the history of the slave trade across the Atlantic and its 11 million victims.

Jules Verne himself would have imagined a 12m high elephant going for a stroll along his hometown’s
quaysides! Board this strange beast and see all the machines in the hangars of the former
shipyards.
A team of mad builders have set up their workshop in the warehouse. Their imagination has run wild exploring the tree-tops, the savanna and the bottom of the deep blue sea, while their menagerie of machines roams free...
They used to build ships here, and now they make monumental mechanical animals for the young and old to enjoy.

You can even walk along the the prototype branch from the future Heron Tree or stand back and admire the creator’s work in progress. The gift shop and the Café de la Branche are really well placed nearby the quayside to have something to eat or drink while watching the elephant go by.

This giant Merry-Go-Round from nearly 25m high and 20m in diameter has been installed on the banks of the Loire. Visitors will become spectators to strange, scary-looking sea creatures that circle the giant machine on 3 floors, and will get to see it all from the depths to the surface of the ocean.

"Les Anneaux" follows this principle. Daniel Buren wanted to highlight the double perspective of the Ile de Nantes: the architectural perspective, drawn by the docks and the warehouses, and the natural perspective delineated by the Loire river. A series of 18 rings facing the river offers as many different cutouts of the landscape. At night, the enlightened rings - red, blue and green, three colours at the basis of so many others - become multiseeing tools...

For Manny, Angela Bulloch submits The Zebra Crossing – Regulations and General Directions : a work which creates a connection between the building and its immediate environment, the outside and the inside as well as the public and private spaces.

From the beginning, Angela Bulloch’s work consists in altering and turning upside-down existing systems, rules and structures. She enjoys remodelling the characteristics of time and space in a given area, by questioning its context or social reality.

Artwork of Estuaire 2009

Rolf Julius was both sculptor and musician. He discribed his work like this: " I create a musical space with my at. With my music, I create an art space. Art and music are the same thing. There is a meeting of minds with the spectator and listener, and from deep inside, something new comes about."

Art work of Estuaire 2009

Founded in 1995 by Joep Van Lisehout, AVL is a multidisciplinary company known for its contemporary art, design and architectural projects. Functional, simple, often imposing, their works often take the shape of furnitures, prefabricated houses, sculptures or renovation of architectural monuments. Based in the port of Rotterdam, a team of 20 people is in charge of the production of the pieces (from conceptualization to the construction). Giving priority to an independent and autonomous lifestyle for each and everyone, they often look into the conflict between individuality and collective, sexuality, power and utopia.

This piece was created for the 1% Artistic of the new School of Architecture of Nantes (Lacaton & Vassal).
Artwork of Estuaire 2009