La Folle Journée

The Erdre (French pronunciation: ​[ɛʁdʁ]; Breton: Erzh) is a 97.4 km (60.5 mi) long river in western France, right tributary to the Loire. Its source is in the Maine-et-Loire department, near La Pouëze. It flows through the departments Maine-et-Loire and Loire-Atlantique. The Erdre meets the Loire in the city of Nantes. Other towns on the Erdre, going downstream, are Candé, Riaillé, Nort-sur-Erdre and Sucé-sur-Erdre. South of Nort-sur-Erdre, the river flows through reclaimed marshland, and is up to a kilometer wide at the Plaine de Mazerolles near Sucé-sur-Erdre. At the Plaine de la Poupiniere, the Nantes-Brest canal joins the Erdre. The Erdre flows into the Loire via the St Felix canal tunnel under Rue Henri IV, emerging near the main railway station. Its former course is a main road and shopping area, the Cours des Cinquante Otages.

Nantes station (French: Gare de Nantes) is the principal passenger railway station serving the French city of Nantes. It is a through station aligned east–west, with entrances and station facilities on both north and south sides. The two entrances are often described as Gare Nord and Gare Sud, as if they were separate stations, but they are in fact linked to each other and to all the platforms by a pedestrian subway. In 2020, after 3 years of work, a new pedestrian aerial way has been built over the railways to facilitate the passengers flow. Construction was started on the current station in 1965, and it was placed into service three years later. It is situated somewhat to the east of the old Gare d'Orléans, originally the Nantes station of the Chemin de Fer de Paris à Orléans, which it replaced. The southern entrance hall was opened in 1989, in time for the inauguration of the TGV Atlantique. Since years, major changes has started to extend the station capacities and ease the users journey. The first major step was done in 2020 with the addition of the new aerial way, part of a more global transformation project which should end in 2025, with a complete restructuration of the station area. Line 1 of the Tramway de Nantes serves the northern hall of the station. The southern hall is served by several of the bus services of the Tan network, including the Navette Tan Air express shuttle service to Nantes Atlantique Airport. All platforms at train station Nantes have elevators and escalators to help people with limited mobility.

The Stade Marcel-Saupin is a sports complex in the city of Nantes (Loire-Atlantique), France. It was opened in 1937 under the name Stade Malakoff, and was used primarily by Stade nantais université club for rugby union, then became the stadium of FC Nantes after World War II until the club moved to the Stade de la Beaujoire in 1984.

The Lycée Georges Clemenceau, French pronunciation: ​[lise ʒɔʁʒ klemɑ̃so], usually called Lycée Clemenceau is a public secondary school located in Nantes, France, formerly known as the Lycée of Nantes. Inaugurated in 1808, it is the oldest secondary school of the town of Nantes and in the department of Loire-Atlantique. It offers both a sixth-form college curriculum (as a lycée), and a post-secondary-level curriculum (classes préparatoires). It is located next to a botanic garden (Jardin des plantes). Train and tram stations offer an easy access to the school for students. Furthermore there is a lovely chapel inside. The Emperor Napoleon visited the Lycée on 9 August 1808. The school was rebuilt from 1886 to 1892 to a design by the architects Antoine Demoget and Léon Lenoir. Many famous people studied in Clemenceau, like the writer Jules Verne and the politician Georges Clemenceau who give his name to the school.

The Jardin des plantes de Nantes (73,280 m²) is a municipal botanical garden located on Rue Stanislas Baudry, Nantes, Loire-Atlantique, Pays de la Loire, France. It is open daily without charge, but a fee is charged for the greenhouses. The city's earliest botanical garden dated to 1688 as a small medicinal plant collection outside the city walls, near today's Rue Paré. It subsequently fell into disuse but in 1726 was revived as a Royal Garden for exotic plants. By 1790 the garden contained more than 600 species but by 1795 the garden had dwindled to fewer than 150 exotic plants; it again reverted to a medicinal garden, and slowly declined until its demise in 1877. The current garden was first established in 1806 under the leadership of Jean Alexandre Hectot, and by 1807 contained a magnificent magnolia which still endures (the Magnolia d'Hectot, 16 years old when transplanted). It became a municipal garden in 1820 and opened to the public in 1829. Under director Jean Marie Ecorchard, it was restyled as an English park containing some 2500 species. In 1840 it contained 12 camellia varieties, 4 peony varieties, 202 chrysanthemum varieties, a good rose garden, and an enormous Yulan Magnolia that took four men a full day to plant. A second section was added in the 1840s with greenhouse built in 1845 and ponds and an artificial "mountain" added several years later. The last section was created in the 1850s, including a remarkable fountain (1859) that operated for 130 years without maintenance or repair. Unfortunately, the disastrously cold December 1879 caused extensive destruction, including the loss of 245 trees and 600 shrubs; most of the existing magnolia collection, with the exception of its oldest specimens, were lost. After more than a decade of neglect, active restoration began in the early 1890s under the leadership of Paul Marmy, who built the garden's palm house 1895-1898 and orangery in 1899. By 1900 the garden was substantially complete in its current form. Today the garden contains about 11,000 species planted within a web of ponds, waterways, and paths, with an artificial "mountain" and fine collection of statues, as well as pavilions, fountains, and cascades. It features an excellent collection of camellias (600 cultivars), mature specimens of Magnolia grandiflora (219 years old), Liriodendron tulipifera (150 years), Sequoiadendron giganteum (150 years), and Sequoia sempervirens (150 years), Aesculus hippocastanum (140 years), Platanus acerifolia (140 years), as well as fine specimens of Arbutus unedo, Carpinus betulus, Ginkgo biloba, Liquidambar styraciflua, Pterocarya caucasica, and Quercus mirbeckii. The garden's palm house and greenhouses (800 m²) are also notable. East and west wings contain an exceptional collection of epiphytes, including orchids of the African lowlands and Asian mountains respectively. The taller central pavilion (10 meters) houses plants of tropical America. The Orangerie shelters citrus trees during the winter, and the dry greenhouse contains a good cactus collection, said to be one of the best in France.

Palais des Sports de Beaulieu is an indoor sporting arena located in Nantes, France. Built in 1973, the seating capacity of the arena is for 5,500 people. It is currently home to the HBC Nantes handball team. The arena hosted the 1974 European champions cup final in basketball in which Real Madrid defeated Ignis Varese 84–82, the 1983 European basketball championship finals and the 1992 European Cup final in which Real Madrid defeated P.A.O.K. Thessaloniki.

The Fine Arts Museum of Nantes, along with 14 other provincial museums, was created, by consular decree on 14 Fructidor in year IX (31 August 1801). Today the museum is one of the largest museums in the region. The facades, roof and stairs in the building that houses the art collections have been registered as historical monuments since 29 October 1975. On 18 December 2011, the museum closed its doors for what was initially expected to be two years at most, to carry out extension expansion work. Due to problems associate with the discovery of ground water in the foundations, which required almost four years of additional work, the reopening of the entire building (renamed the "Art Museum of Nantes") was postponed until 23 June 2013.

The Château des ducs de Bretagne (English: Castle of the Dukes of Brittany) is a large castle located in the city of Nantes in the Loire-Atlantique département of France; it served as the centre of the historical province of Brittany until its separation in 1956. It is located on the right bank of the Loire, which formerly fed its ditches. It was the residence of the Dukes of Brittany between the 13th and 16th centuries, subsequently becoming the Breton residence of the French Monarchy. The castle has been listed as a monument historique by the French Ministry of Culture since 1840. Today the castle houses the Nantes History Museum.

The tomb of Francis II, Duke of Brittany is a monument located in Nantes, in the Cathedral of St. Peter. The project was commissioned by Anne of Brittany, Queen of France, who was the daughter of Francis and his second wife Margaret of Foix, who is also depicted beside Francis. The tomb was originally located in the chapel of the Carmelites in Nantes. Francis II had wished that his body rest there, to join the remains of his first wife Margaret of Brittany. The tomb eventually received the body of Francis and both his wives, though only his second wife (Anne's mother) is depicted. It was executed in Carrara marble in the early sixteenth century by the sculptor Michel Colombe based on a design by the royal artist Jean Perréal. It is the first major work of art in the Renaissance style in Brittany and is considered a masterpiece of French sculpture.

Nantes Cathedral, or the Cathedral of St. Peter and St. Paul of Nantes (French: Cathédrale Saint-Pierre-et-Saint-Paul de Nantes), is a Roman Catholic Gothic cathedral located in Nantes, Pays de la Loire, France. Construction began in 1434, on the site of a Romanesque cathedral, and took 457 years to finish in 1891. It has been listed since 1862 as a monument historique by the French Ministry of Culture.

The cantons of Nantes are administrative divisions of the Loire-Atlantique department, in western France. Since the French canton reorganisation which came into effect in March 2015, the city of Nantes is subdivided into 7 cantons. Their seat is in Nantes.

The Roman Catholic Diocese of Nantes (Latin: Dioecesis Nannetensis; French: Diocèse de Nantes; Breton: Eskopti Naoned) is a diocese of the Latin Church of the Roman Catholic Church in Nantes, France. The diocese consists of the department of Loire-Atlantique. It has existed since the 4th century. It is now suffragan of the Archdiocese of Rennes, Dol, and Saint-Malo, having previously been suffragan to the Archdiocese of Tours. Its see is Nantes Cathedral in the city of Nantes.