Ducs et Éléphants…: Nantes [25×04]

Ducs et Éléphants…: Nantes [25×04]

[SOUND OF MECHANICAL
ELEPHANT TRUMPETING] ♫ Title Music ♫ It’s February 2025 and I’m going to 
end this weekend riding a 45 ton, 12m tall wood and steel elephant 
through a long abandoned shipyard in the historic ducal capital of 
Brittany, it’s quite the weekend. ♫ Title Music ♫ 50Km inland from the Atlantic Coast, a major 
inland port on the Loire River and today the sixth largest city in France, Nantes was 
historically one of the most important cities in Brittany, but – controversially 
– today is the administrative seat of both the Pays de la Loire region and the 
Loire-Atlantique department and not Brittany. The earliest signs of habitation in the area that 
is today Nantes date back to just the Bronze Age, significantly later than the surrounding 
regions which have Neolithic monuments. The small Iron and Tin deposits in 
the regions subsoil attracted traders, with resources from the area travelling as far 
as Ireland. Though it took nearly 1,000 years of trading before local industry 
started to appear around 900BCE. There is little information on the area 
between those early Bronze age finds and the arrival of the Romans during the reign 
of Tiberius at the start of the 1st century. Nantes remained allied to the Roman 
empire up until it’s collapse in the 5th century at which point it 
changed hands between the Franks and Visigoths and kept as a 
stronghold against the Bretons. Under Charlemagne the town became the capital 
of the Breton March, a buffer zone protecting his empire from invasion by the Bretons, and 
whilst it was successful during his reign, following Charlemagne’s death the 
Bretons invaded and seized Nantes in 850. Over the following 100 years the town changed 
hands between the Bretons and Vikings a couple of times before the Norse were finally expelled 
from the town in 937 by Alan II, Duke of Brittany. During the 14th century there was 
a war of succession in Brittany which eventually ended with the ascent of 
the house of Montford to the ducal throne. The new rulers chose Nantes, by then the largest 
town in Brittany, as their main residence carrying out further works to strengthen the, by then 
over 100 year old, Château des ducs de Bretagne. Port traffic became increasingly important 
for the city with a growing foreign trade business exporting salt, wine, fabrics and hemp. The 15th century represented the pinnacle 
of the first Golden Age of Nantes with many of the buildings including the 
castle and cathedral being built or rebuilt and the founding of the 
University of Nantes in 1460. In 1491 Anne the Duchess of 
Brittany, the ruler of the country, married Charles VIII of France and that 
started the unification of the duchy of Brittany into France. It was finally 
ratified by François I of France in 1532. In return for surrendering its independence to 
France, Brittany retained it’s privileges with most of it’s institutions being maintained, 
though the unification favoured the city of Rennes over Nantes with most institutions 
being relocated to the northern city. During the mid-17th century, the siltation of the 
local salt pans and a fall in wine exports forced the city to look to new activities with the 
local shipowners moving from export to import, bringing Sugar in from the French West Indies, and 
by 1700 the city was the largest port in France. With the growth in manufactured goods 
from the imports, and sugar refineries and cotton mills springing up across Nantes 
in the 18th Century, the city found itself being constrained by its walls, and their 
removal allowed Nantes to expand, with the construction of many neoclassical squares and 
public buildings across the expanded city centre. On the 18th July 1789 during the French 
Revolution locals seized the Castle of the Dukes of Brittany in an imitation of the 
storming of the Bastille four days earlier, but being a predominantly conservative 
catholic area the bulk of the population opposed the abolition of the monarchy 
and the submission of the clergy so a rebellion began in 1793 leading to 
the Battle of Nantes on 29th June. After the Battle of Nantes the National 
Convention decided to purge the city of it’s anti-revolutionary elements and through 
a revolutionary tribunal, notorious for it’s cruelty and ruthlessness, that ran from October 
1793 to February 1794 around 12,000 people including women and children were arrested of 
which somewhere between 8,000-11,000 either died of typhus or were executed by the guillotine, 
shooting or being drowned in the Loire. The revolution was disastrous 
for the economy of Nantes with trade falling from 237,716 tons in 
1790 to just 43,242 tons by 1807. Nantes was overtaken by both Le 
Havre and Marseille becoming more important ports and Nantes lagged behind. A local elite, nostalgic for the pre-revolutionary 
golden age, which was suspicious of political and technological progress during the first 
half of the 19th century held the city back, and it wasn’t until 1851 that the city was 
finally connected to the French railway network with a line to Paris opening 
by the Tours—Saint-Nazaire Railway. From the second half of the century the 
city began to rapidly industrialise, becoming a major industrial base for 
food processing and shipbuilding. Land reclamation programmes in the early 20th century filled in many of the river 
channels flowing through the city creating Embankments and merging the smaller islands in 
the Loire into the much larger Île de Nantes. Land reclamation had only just been 
completed when the city was hit by the air raids of the Second World War. The 
city was captured by the Nazi’s on 18th June 1940 and remained under their control until 
they abandoned the city on 12th August 1944 shortly before the arrival of the French 
Forces of the Interior and the US Army. During those four years of occupation the city 
was often the target of British and then American bombing raids targeting the industrial facilities 
of the city that the Nazi’s had requisitioned for their war effort. The largest raids came in 
September 1943 when most of the Industrial facilities of Nantes, along with portions of the 
city centre were wiped out by American bombs. Following the war the city was at the 
centre of the protests and strikes that gripped post-war France culminating 
in the May 68 protests that lead to civil unrest occurring throughout the country 
for nearly two months in May and June 1968. Despite the efforts of trade unions and 
protestors the city was badly hit by the waves of deindustrialization and stagnation that 
followed the 1970s global recessions with many of its factories and shipyards closing. The last 
ship built in Nantes was floated into the Loire in 1986. In the decades that followed the economy 
of the city shifting to become service-oriented. Since the mid-1980s the city has set about 
rejuvenating itself with works in the heart of the old town, the restoration 
of many of the historic buildings, and the reinstating of the city’s tramway 
in 1985 becoming the first French city to reintroduce trams after the system culls 
in the 1950s and 60s in favour of the car. The city has become a cultural centre in the 
country running multiple annual festivals, renovating and rebuilding many museums, 
turning the former shipyards into creative hubs including the Machines de 
l’île as well as addressing it’s darker past with the creation of the 
Memorial to the abolition of slavery. One of those rebuilt museums is the Musée 
d’Histoire de Nantes or Nantes History Museum which opened in the restored and rejuvenated 
Château des ducs de Bretagne in 2007. Construction on the castle first began 
some time in the 13th century to provide a defensive base for Nantes, but it 
wasn’t until Francis II in the 15th Century that the castle became 
the main Breton ducal residence. In 1466 François wrote that his castle was 
in decline and in great need of repair and decided to rebuild it entirely, calling upon 
the best architects in the duchy to assist. Works begin that year and continued in 
fits and starts through various owners and battles before reaching its final 
completion in the mid-16th Century. During the 17th century the castle 
lost its political role and it was instead turned into barracks for 
retired soldiers and invalids, as well as being used as a prison 
for distinguished prisoners. Over the centuries the castle was visited by 
most French Kings who passed through Brittany, but the last visitor was Louis XIV who 
stayed in 1661. Just 9 years later a fire destroyed the Grand Gouvernement. The 
king had it rebuilt in 17th century style, not particularly matching 
it’s surrounding buildings. In 1800 a rotten ceiling in the Spanish 
Tower collapsed onto the powder reserves that were stored there causing them 
to explode destroying the tower and once again taking out the Grand 
Gouvernement. The damage also weakened the walls of the rest of the castle meaning that it 
could no longer function as an effective prison. The castle remained under the control of 
the French Army until the First World War, but during that time the historical and 
architectural importance of the chateau was highlighted, and it was listed 
as a Monument Historique in 1840. The castle passed into the 
hands of the city in 1915, but due to the war effectively remained 
in the army’s control up until 1920. In the period between the 
wars the castle was opened up to the public with a folk art museum 
being installed in part of the building. During the Nazi occupation the castle came under 
the control of the German Army, but despite this the castle was spared in the bombing raids 
of 1943 suffering only a few broken windows. After the war two new museums – the 
Regional Popular Art Museum and the Decorative Art Museum were opened in 
the buildings, but over the following decades the buildings rapid dilapidation was 
only arrested by small scale repair works. By the end of the 20th century several areas were 
closed for safety reasons, but with the growing cultural importance of the city a decade long 
campaign of complete restoration was undertaken, starting in 1997, which involved the 
whole site being closed for three years. With its reopening in 2007 the castle, it’s courtyard and ramparts became as much a 
part of the exhibition as the museum that was opened inside the main buildings of the 
château telling the history of the city. With the removal of the city walls in the 
18th century Nantes expanded with many new squares and grand buildings constructed, 
perhaps the most spectacular is the Place Royale which was designed in 1786 and 
built in 1790. The fountain was added in 1865. Heavily damaged in the second world war it took 
until 1961 for it to be fully restored, at which point it became a roundabout dedicated to cars up 
until the late 2000’s when works to pedestrianise the centre of the city turned it back to as close 
as it would have looked when it was first built. [SOUND OF RUNNING WATER IN FOUNTAIN] Just behind the square is one of the city’s two 
basilicas, these are in addition to its cathedral. Up on a hill to the East of the city Centre is 
the Basilica of Saint Donatien and Saint Rogatien, dedicated to brother Donatien 
and Rogatien who were the first Christians in Nantes and martyred in 
the city at the end of the 3rd century, but down here in the city centre it’s 
the Basilica of Saint Nicolas of Nantes. The current church dates from the 
early part of the 19th century as a new grand church was built on 
the site of much older buildings. The first small church was built 
between the 11th and 12th centuries, and this church was then expanded a number of 
times from the middle of the 15th century onwards. By the middle of the 17th century the 
bell tower was in danger of collapse and fundraising to restore it required 
the sale of some of the churches treasures including many precious 
books. Fundraising and works were slow and it took over 100 years before 
renovation works were completed in 1772. With works barely complete the parish decided that 
the church needed to be completely reconstructed with plans starting in 1773 and a decision on 
the future design made by 1789, but it took more than 50 years before works on the current 
building finally started in 1844, taking 25 years to complete – albeit the last 15 years mostly 
focused on the construction of the bell tower. The current church was consecrated
in 1869 and was elevated to a minor basilica 
in 1882 by Pope Leo XIII. During the allied bombing on 16th September 1943 the church, along with much of the 
surrounding area, was badly damaged. Reconstruction work on the basilica 
began in 1953 and lasted until 1974, though further works took place in 
the early 21st century to undo the damaged caused to the stonework by the 
industrial pollution of the 20th century Behind the church is one of the 
few remaining remnants of the old city fortifications with the base 
of the Porte Sauvetout still visible. A short distance away and you reach 
the city’s cathedral – La Cathédrale Saint-Pierre-et-Saint-Paul de Nantes, 
constructed over 457 years from 1434 to 1891. The cathedral suffered a devastating 
arson attack in 2020 which caused significant damage. At the time of visiting in February 
2025 works were still ongoing to restore the interior of the building, with works planned 
to be completed by the end of September 2025. Just behind the cathedral is the 
most intact part of the former city walls still standing with the Porte Saint-Pierre. The gatehouse itself dates back to 
the 15th century, through some of the foundations are from the Gallo-Roman period, 
around the 3rd century, and the remains of the walls that stretch out beside the gate 
date from between the 9th and 13th centuries. Surviving the destruction of the rest 
of the city walls the gatehouse went on to serve as the home of the city 
museum from the 1920s until the 1960s before they were transferred 
down the hill to the château. Just behind the gate is the Place Maréchal-Foch 
one of the most important squares in the city, built in the 18th century. In 
the centre of the square is a column topped with a statue of Louis 
XVI, one of only five statues to the last king of France visible in public 
spaces in the whole of the country. Whilst the main focus of the city after 
the removal of the walls was the creation of grand squares and buildings, there 
was also a focus on green spaces with the construction of the Jardin de Plantes de 
Nantes taking place in the early 19th Century. There’s been a botanical garden in one form or 
another in the city since 1687 when the Master of the Apothecaries was given the use of a plot of 
land to the west of the city. [SOUND OF FALLING WATER
OVER THE GROTTO] Helped by examples of tropical plants brought back by sailors 
from their journeys around the globe to the port at Nantes by 1719 the garden 
had become a “Royal garden of Plants”, a sub-branch of the Jardin du Roi in Paris. A royal ordinance issued by Louis XV 
in 1726 obliged captains of the ships of Nantes to “bring seeds and plants 
form the Colonies of foreign countries, for the garden of Medicinal 
Plants established in Nantes” Plans for an expansion of the garden were put on 
hold with the outbreak of the French Revolution, but the city would soon benefit from a decree 
of the National Convention in June 1793 that created a botanical garden of at least four 
acres in each Department in the country. Works took some considerable time, 
with financial difficulties playing heavily on the delivery of the project and 
control of the garden having to be passed from the Department to the City before the 
garden finally opened to the public in 1829 The garden has continued to develop and 
expand over it’s near 200-year existence with glasshouses, and orangeries added by 1900 
and themed gardens regularly added and amended. The last expansion of the garden took place in the late 2010s when pedestrianisation of 
surrounding streets allowed for the gardens to expand by a further 320 square meters to bring
them up to their current size of 7,328 hectares Land reclamation on the Erdre river has also led, eventually, to the creation of the city’s 
Japanese gardens on the Île de Versailles. A small marsh until 1831 the island 
was created from spoil recovered from the digging of the Nantes to Brest 
canal to create a 1.7 hectare island and the most downstream island on the Erdre river. The island was purchased in 1840 at which 
point it was divided up into plots and resold to various owners who set up multiple 
businesses on the island including laundries, carpentries, forges, tanneries and ship building. With the much larges shipyards on 
the Loire taking away business the island fell into disuse and was 
partially abandoned by the 1950s Over the following years the city slowly 
started to acquire the different plots of the island as they became available with the 
final acquisition taking place in 1986 after which development work began to create a single 
unified Japanese garden across most of the island. At the heart of the garden is 
the Maison de l’Erde a Japanese inspired structure that surrounds a zen 
garden and used as an exhibition space. The landscape created includes rockeries 
with waterfalls and other water features crossed by stepping stones, and heavily 
planted with Bamboo, Bald Cypresses, Rhododendrons, Camellias and
Japanese Cherry Trees Those shipyards on the Loire were 
part of the story of the success of Nantes that saw it grow to the 
largest port in France by 1700, however shortly afterwards the port 
became involved in the very lucrative, but very evil, triangular slave trade where ships 
left Nantes for West Africa, picked up slaves and shipped them over to the West Indies before the 
ships returned with sugar and other exotic goods. From 1707 to 1793 Nantes was responsible 
for 42 percent of the French slave trade with around 400,000 slaves sold by Nantes 
merchants – and that figure doesn’t take into account those people who died before they 
reached the slaving ports in West Africa. With the French Revolution the slave trade was 
abolished, but in the first decades of the 19th century the trade re-established itself with 
Nantes being the last French port to conduct the now illegal Atlantic trade, continuing until 
about 1827. In that short period the trade was even more brutal than before with another 
estimated 400,000 slaves sold into the colonies. Opened in 2012 the Mémorial de l’abolition 
de l’esclavage or Memorial to the Abolition of Slavery is a monument to the 
horrific trade and the city’s role in it. Built into the embankment below a 7,000 square metre 
promenade, almost at the same level as the Loire river, the exhibition area is designed to 
look like the area between decks of a slave ship. It charts the history of the movement to 
abolish slavery across the globe and the near 200-year long campaign it took before the last 
country, Mauritania, finally abolished slavery in 1981 – even if the trade still persists 
in modern forms today across the globe. From the monument it’s a short walk over the Anne 
of Brittany Bridge and onto the Île de Nantes, the near 5Km long and 1Km wide island created in 
stages in the 19th and 20th centuries as the arms of the Loire were filled in and the smaller 
islands were slowly merged into one large island. Home to some of the largest industrial 
areas of the city the west of the island was left almost derelict following 
the closure of the shipyards in 1987. 20 years after the closure of the last shipyard 
and the space reopened as Les Machines de l’Île an exhibition and entertainment space that was 
developed by the city along with theatre company La Machine, a street theatre company founded in 
1999 that specialises in mechanical art projects from 50-foot mechanical spiders to perhaps their 
most famous creation – Le Grand éléphant a 12m high, 8m long 48.4 ton Wooden and Steel Elephant 
capable of carrying 50 passengers that walks around the site multiple times a day capable of 
blowing water from it’s trunk and even trumpeting. But that’s not the only attraction 
that has been built at the site as a menagerie of mechanical animals 
in the Galerie des Machines and oceans worth of steampunk shellfish and 
deep sea creatures on the Carrousel des Mondes Marins or Carousel of the Marine 
Worlds are also on the site to explore. The Carrousel first opened in 2012 and 
is made up of three layers stacked on top of each other themed across 
the three levels from the Fonds Marins or Seabed through Abysses to the 
surface of the sea or surface de la mer. Each layer has a number of mechanical creatures 
that you can ride on or in, with the passengers manipulating parts of the creature with either 
pedals, pullies, wheels or levers whilst some of the creatures emit smoke and a visit to the 
carrousel includes a ride on one of the creatures. ♫ Music ♫ And of course, if the ride is 
included with the entry ticket… ♫ Music ♫ The Carrousel also doubles 
up as one of the boarding and alighting points for the Great Elephant. It’s only really when you’re down at ground level 
that you can appreciate the scale of both the carrousel and the elephant and the sheer amount of 
work and mechanics that goes into creating them. Le Galerie des Machines houses many 
more of the mechanical marvels that have been created, several of them also 
large enough to accommodate passengers, from giant hummingbirds and caterpillars To Herons that take flight ♫ Music ♫ Spiders that will give you nightmares for days ♫ Music ♫ Giant Chameleons ♫ Music ♫ Complete with their trademark tongues ♫ Music ♫ And even Ride on Ants ♫ Music ♫ Click the link above or in the description to see 
the full show at normal speed in a separate video [SOUND OF MECHANICAL
ELEPHANT TRUMPETING] But the main attraction is, 
of course, Le Grand éléphant During the day the elephant struts backwards 
and forwards between the carrousel and the main building, though the last ride of the night, the 
one I was booked on to, takes the elephant inside the main building to park it up for the evening. 
Boarding is via the stairs on the Carrousel or the air stairs out by the main building, and onto 
a dedicated platform by the Galerie des Machines. The first of the attractions to open at Les 
Machines de l’île the elephant was originally designed to carry 35 passengers for a 30-minute 
round trip its capacity has grown over the years to 50, though due to it’s slow speed – 
averaging between 1 and 3 Kilometres per Hour – the length of the route was shortened 
and each journey lengthened to 45 minutes. Over the steel and wood structure the 
elephant is covered in tulip wood with leather for the ears. The body is lubricated 
with 2,500 litres of hydraulic oil and since 2018 has run on electric traction 
from a hybrid engine and battery. Motion is controlled using 62 cylinders – 6 
pneumatic, 10 gas-powered and the rest hydraulic. [SOUND OF MECHANICAL
ELEPHANT TRUMPETING] ♫ Title Music ♫ Gare de Nantes has regular TGV 
services to Paris in just over 2 hours as well as Intercités and 
TER services across the region. Aéroport de Nantes Atlantique is just 
five miles from the city centre and is a base for three low cost carriers – easyJet, Transavia and Volotea with flights across 
much of Europe and North Africa, as well as links to Canada. There are direct flights to 
the major European hubs of Paris, Amsterdam, Frankfurt and Munich as well as London Gatwick and 
Stansted for connections to the rest of the world. ♫ Title Music ♫

I’ve headed into former industrial France where the Dukes of Brittany gave way to shipyards and the shipyards have now given way to 45 ton mechanical elephants.

Basilique Saint-Nicolas de Nantes (https://notredamedenantes.com)
Cathédrale Saint-Pierre-et-Saint-Paul de Nantes (https://cathedrale-nantes.fr)
Château des ducs de Bretagne (https://www.chateaunantes.fr)
Île de Versailles (https://nature.metropole.nantes.fr)
Jardin des Plantes (https://nature.metropole.nantes.fr)
Les Machines de l’Île (https://www.lesmachines-nantes.fr)
Carrousel des Mondes Marins
L’Arbre aux Hérons
La Galerie des Machines
Le Grand Éléphant
Full video of the visit to Les Machines de l’Île – https://youtu.be/WaGRNk07niA
Mémorial de l’abolition de l’esclavage (https://memorial.nantes.fr)
Musée d’histoire de Nantes (https://www.chateaunantes.fr)
Place Royale
Porte Saint-Pierre
Porte Sauvetout

Le Voyage à Nantes – http://www.levoyageanantes.fr

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Chapters:
0:00 Intro
0:35 Background
6:44 Château des ducs de Bretagne
9:22 Place Royale
10:16 Basilique Saint-Nicolas de Nantes
11:46 Porte Sauvetout
12:04 Cathédrale Saint-Pierre-et-Saint-Paul de Nantes
12:30 Porte Saint-Pierre
13:07 Place Maréchal-Foch
13:23 Jardin de Plantes de Nantes
15:09 Île de Versaille
16:43 Mémorial de l’abolition de l’esclavage
18:26 Île de Nantes: Les Machines de l’Île
19:23 Carrousel de Mondes Marins
21:21 La Galerie des Machines
23:35 Le Grand Éléphant
25:24 Getting There
26:07 Outro

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