BY ANTOINE VIERNE
French World Cup Organising Committee.
PICTURES: FRANCE 98

Ten towns - ten stadiums. We are taking a look at Nantes. Henri Michel, a player and coach for the French national team, played for many years with FC Nantes, often referred to as "The Canaries" because of their yellow-green strip.

Nantes, old and new. The Cité des Congrès with the castle of the Dukes of Brittany.

he independent port of Nantes-Saint Nazaire is the largest port on the Atlantic seaboard and the fourth largest in France in terms of its traffic. The city of Nantes is also very efficient at organising fairs and conferences. With more than 450,000 visitors each year and more than 6,000 exhibitors, it ranks fourth in this sphere in France. In the April of each year, the International Fair of Nantes, notably, welcomes more than 150,000 visitors.

Excellent connections

      The principal metropolis of the West of France, Nantes is easy to reach, linked as it is to Paris by the TGV (High Speed Train) rail network. This offers 17 daily connections in both directions for a journey time of 2 hours; by the motorway network (approximately 3 hours 15 minutes between the two cities); and by the Nantes-Atlantique Airport airline network, providing 7 daily connections with Paris and 12 international connections (including London, Madrid, Geneva and Rome).

      In addition, Nantes possesses the longest tramway network in France (80 million passengers carried each year), 57 urban bus routes and more than 200 taxis. In terms of reception facilities, the conurbation of Nantes offers more than 100 hotels possessing more than 4000 bedrooms, in aggregate. Nor has its gastronomy been left behind, since Nantes boasts 24 rated restaurants. Apart from its seafood, the Nantes region is also famous for its wine growing (Muscadet and Gros-Plant). The cultural life in Nantes is vibrant: opera, theatre, cinema, festivals, monuments (including the prestigious "chateaux" of the Dukes of Brittany, referred to earlier), museums (including the museum of Jules Verne, a famous "Nantais")and other places of interest.

      Nantes, which was for a long time the capital of the Dukes of Brittany, is no longer an official or administrative part of Brittany, not has it been for some two centuries or so. However, the old town is unmistakably Breton, and surrounds the monumental "chateau" of the Dukes of Brittany. If the debate as to whether or not Nantes belongs to Brittany is still open, there is, on the other hand, no such uncertainty as to the maritime nature of the city.

A seaport

Since the XIIth century, Nantes has become the leading commercial port in France. The city makes its fortune from international trade, and more specifically its "triangular" trade with Africa and the West Indies. In the XIXth century, the industrialisation of the town was, at first, quite naturally associated with maritime commerce: shipbuilding, followed by the biscuit trade and the canning industry.

16 years in the service of "The Canaries": Henri Michel, a former member of the French national team and later its coach.

      Today, the Loire estuary, which takes in Nantes and Saint-Nazaire, is the fourth largest industrial site in France. Nantes, the seventh-ranking city in France is situated on the Loire estuary, 50 kilometres from the Atlantic Ocean, in the West of the country. It is the prefecture of the Loire "Department" and the "Pays de Loire" regional capital. The city numbers 252,000 inhabitants, while the Nantes conurbation numbers 500,000. Nantes is a young city, with 28% of its population, young people less than 20 years old.

      The development of Nantes' industrial site is founded on its principal spheres of excellence. In it are to be found the agri-foodstuffs industry, marine engineering and shipbuilding, but also mechanical and electrical engineering, the computer industry and the industry and trade in timber. With 17,000 service companies, Nantes and its conurbation is the second-ranking tertiary industry centre in France.

      A university city, Nantes numbers 43,000 students. "Grey matter" is without any doubt the city's primary capital for the next century. Its dynamism, and its openness to the wide world, consonant with its role as an international port, depends upon this student population, but also on the 2,000 or so researchers in the research units and great laboratories set up in the region, which put Nantes today at the leading edge of the high-technology industries.

No shortage of talent

As the regards the city's sporting life, in short, it is hugely dominated by the FC Nantes Atlantique football team, who have 7 times won the League championship in France and the French Cup once. The FCNA is one of the main nurseries of young talent, and a number of internationals in the present French team were trained in it. For the people of Nantes, football is part of the local culture.

For more information on the FC Nantes, visit the official site of the French Football League