'A visit to Nantes, France' by K.J.S.Chatrath

I was visiting Paris and was fortunate to have got an appointment in the University of Nantes with one of the most distinguished French Historians. Nantes is situated at a distance of around 400 kms from Paris. I promptly booked myself in the prestigious French Train a Grand Vitesse or TGV (pronounced tay-yay-way, ‘tay’ as in ‘Terey’ or yours in Hindi) routes. The train, which starts from Gare de Montparnasse, took just over two hours to reach Nantes. It was a totally noise free and remarkably smooth ride. Nantes is a city with a population of about 8 lakh inhabitants.

Poster in Nantes tourist office
Since I had some time before my meeting, I took the opportunity of visiting some main attractions of this city. I went to the Tourist Office who guided me with a good map of the city showing the important tourist spots. I was a little intrigued to find in this office, a poster depicting sketches of two elephants on the top.
As I was pressed for time, I decided not to pursue this point but to leave on my tour of the city. Of course I did succeed in unravelling the mystery of the elephant symbol a little later in the day. That will come subsequently, but first about the most well known personality that Nantes has produced - Jules Verne who was one of the pioneers of science fiction and wrote about travels underwater, in air and in space. Jules Verne was born in Nantes's Ile Feydeau not far from the Loire River. Thereafter he spent the last fourteen years of his life, in this city. Nantes is justifiably proud of this illustrious son and has established a museum in his name called the Musee Jules Verne. There are two statues of Verne in Nantes, one in the Jardin Des Plantes and the other, a more recent work in bronze in the Mediatheque.
One of the little known facts about Verne has been his special connection with India. An Indian researcher Swati Dasgupta is of the view that Verne's sympathy for the Indian freedom struggle is patent in at least two of his books. It is also claimed that the famous Captain Nemo was inspired by a post-Mutiny Nana Sahib and that the British obscured these aspects for over a century.
The Tourist Office of Nantes organises a guided walking tour to various places where Verne lived and different places inspired by his works. This tour, called “Nantes sur les pas de Jules Verne” or “In the Footsteps of Jules Verne” is conducted at 10.30 am on all the Saturdays between 12th February and 12th November.
There is a very unusual museum in Nantes inspired by the writings of Verne. This permanent exhibition called the ‘Machines of the Isle’ is at display in the warehouses of the former shipyards of the town in Nantes. It was created by two artists,Francois Delaroziere and Pierre Orefice. Perhaps the most famous of the exhibits is the Mechanical Elephant. There is an interesting story about this elephant. A show was commissioned to celebrate the centenary of Jules Verne's death, by the two French cities of Nantesand Amiens, funded by a special grant from the French Ministry of Culture and Communication. It was in French and was called La visite du Sultan des Indes sur son éléphant à voyager dans le temps (Visit From The Sultan Of India [The Indies] On His Time-Travelling Elephant) and was mounted by the Royal de Luxe theatre company. It consisted of a huge moving mechanical elephant, a giant marionette of a girl etc.
This show was performed at various locations around the world between 2005 and 2006. It was subsequently discontinued and the elephant dismantled. But the mechanical elephant had so caught the imagination of the people that the same artists created a 20 feet tall replica of the elephant in 2007, as part of the 'Machines of the Island of Nantes' pernmanent exhibition.
And from fun and frolic of mechanical elephant and the India connection of Verne, one moves to a dark period of Nantes’ history pertaining to its role in the slave trade. In the eighteenth and the first half of the nineteenth centuries the despicable slave trade was changing the faces of Africa, Europe and the Americas. While it depleted the able bodied strength of Africa, it gave the economy of Europe a boost by creating demand for production of goods and articles needed for purchase and movement of the slaves. Europe also benefited by transporting these slaves in its ships to the Americas. Americas of course used the slave labour for converting virgin lands into profitable agricultural farms.
Such was the magnitude of the slave trade in Nantes and elsewhere in Europe, that it overwhelmed the economy. It was, what has been termed “a triangular trade.” European ships carried European goods to Africa, exchanged them for slaves, took the slaves to the Americas and returned to Europe loaded with sugar, tobacco, coffee, cacao and other tropical primary produce. It is reported that there are records to confirm that 3,829 slaving "expeditions" left from France between 1707 to 1847. Out of these 1800 are said to have been launched from Nantes alone and carried around 500,000 captured men and women from African ports and transported them to the Americas. This resulted in an amazing economic spin off for the town.
However, Nantes, unlike other cities which were in slave trade, very courageously and admirably brought it’s past into the open for all to see. Under the auspices of the "Les Anneaux de la Memoire" Association, it held an exhibition on slave trade and slavery in 1993 in Nantes. This token gesture was, in a way its acceptance of, and atonement for, it having been an active player in the slave trade. Let us now move to a less serious and more sweet subjet related to Nantes - biscuits.
It is quite likely that anyone who has visited France would have tasted and relished the “Petit Beurre’ (meaning small butter) square shaped LU biscuits. At the same time it is quite unlikely that anyone visiting the town of Nantes would miss noticing the beautiful dome of the erstwhile LU biscuit factory building near the Railway station. The origin of the Petit Beurre goes back to 1886, when Louis Lefèvre came out with an original square butter biscuit (In French the word biscotte means a rusk, while biscuit meaning a biscuit/cookie or a sponge is pronounced as bis kuee.) at this factory at Nantes. And now for the romantic part. His wife’s name was Utile and so Louis decided to take the first letter of his name ‘L’ (from Louis) and add the first letter of the name of his wife ‘U’, (from Utile) and ‘LU’ biscuit company was formed. It is said that the traditional LU packets of Petit Beurre contain 24 biscuits to match the 24 hours a day!

‘LU’ Tower
After the LU company moved elsewhere the building remained unused for years till there was a talk of pulling it down. And the French love for culture stepped it. It was decided not to demolish the building but to renovate it and use it for some other purpose. One has to admire the French creativity. Remember the way they transformed the old “Orsay’ station in Paris to a world class Museum- La Musee d’Orsay! Similarly it was decided to retain the facade of the dome and so also the alphabets LU. But it was LU as a short form of the ‘Lieu Unique’ meaning the unique place. Thus was born the ‘Lieu Unique’ (Unique Place), a cultural centre created in the shell of the former biscuit factory. This is a perfect example of flowing with the rhythm of continuity while absorbing the change. But this Centre has been planned not only to be different but also to be unique- and hence the name. The Centre has five departments- of plastic arts, theater, dance, music and books and these continue holding different programmes. The facilities include a restaurant, a bar, a book shop, a creche and the latest addition - a Hammam. One can climb up to the top to reach the platform of Gyrorama to take a different view of the city.

The Triumph Column
A short walk from the LU Centre takes one to the impressive Triumph Column called the Colonne Louis XVI in the heart of the town. It was designed and built under the supervision of Dominique Molknecht in 1823. And not far from this column and to the north of the Chateau in Place St-Pierre, is the famous St. Peter and St. Paul's Cathedral. Construction of the building began in 1434 with the facade, continued in the 17th century and was completed between 1840 and 1891. In the past, a number of important events have taken place in this cathedral – perhaps the most important being the signing of the Edict of Nantes on 13th April, 1598. This edict issued by King Henry IV of France, formalised civil equality between the Catholics and the Protestants in France and in a way put the country on the path of secularism, tolerance and civil peace.

St. Peter and St. Paul’s Cathedral
The Chateau of the Dukes of Brittany is the oldest historic building in the city, besides the Cathedral. It has seven towers set into its curtain walls. It was built in the late Middle Ages by Duke Francis II and his daughter, Anne of Brittany, to defend the independence of the Duchy of Brittany, then under threat from the Kingdom of France. The Chateau also houses theThe Nantes History Museum. There is a tram station named “Chateau Duchesse Anne” in front of the Chateau.

Chateau Duchess Anne
Yes, tramway is the easy and cheap mode of conveyance in Nantes and the Nantois, as the residents of Nantes are called, are as attached to it as the Parisians are to their Metro. The first tramway in Nantes opened in 1879 and closed in 1958. It was notable for its pioneering technology. The present tramway was re-introduced to the city in 1985. It is the first 'new generation' tramway to be built in Europe, reversing the trend of tramway closures that had being going on since the middle of the 20th century. It is efficient, inexpensive and does not pollute the environment. Incidentally Paris started its first new generation tram way line called the T-1 in 1992- years later than in Nantes.
Alas due to constraint of time, I could not have coffee at the famous Brasserie la Cigale, praised by some as one of the most beautiful restaurant bars in France. Started way back in 1895, it smartly describes that its philosophy can be summed up in just three words- tenderness, freshness and quality. Its interior is said to be in pure art deco style. I do hope to catch up on that coffee on my next visit to Nantes. And at the end, while I may not agree with the views of the Time Newsmagazine on a number of issues, I do agree with its 2004 choice of naming Nantes as the most livable city in Europe.
Some Practical Information: Usefull websites: http://www.nantes.fr, http://www.nantes-tourisme.com; http://www.nantes.fr/julesverne/ info@lelieuunique.com
Address of the Lieu Unique: 2 rue de la biscuiterie. Entry from Quai Ferdinand Favre, near the Railway Station.
The visiting time for this Centre is from 15.30 hours, on one designated Sunday per month, from May to October. One needs to buy a ticket for 3.5 Euros and a make a reservation in advance. This includes a visit to the Tower.
Photos text and copyright: K.J.S.Chatrath
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