- [Christine] This French city is known for its love of modern art, as the home to the Dukes and Duchesses of a very powerful medieval dukedom, and, of course, as the hometown of the curious mind who created this giant elephant.

Can you guess where we are?

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(dramatic music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) - This French City's history is forever intertwined with the Noir river.

It once battled it out with a neighboring French city over who had the most power in the region of Brittany, and it got its name from the Gallic tribe that once lived here.

Bienvenue aux Nantes.

(upbeat music) Nantes is in northwest France near the Atlantic Coast, along the Loire River and for much of its history has thrived as a port city.

Also, for much of its history, it was part of the region of Brittany.

Technically today it is part of the Pays de la Loire région, but most residents still feel a strong cultural and historical connection to Brittany.

(upbeat music) Nantes began as a Celtic settlement in ancient times, and that's where the name comes from.

Namnetes is the name of the Gallic tribe who lived here.

In its medieval history, the Dukes of Brittany built themselves a fine castle here, which becomes the home to French royalty.

And in the late 16th century, the French wars of religion were ended here when the King of France enacted the Edict of Nantes, one of Europe's very first decrees of religious tolerance.

(upbeat music) In more recent years, Nantes has made a name for itself as a city of art (upbeat music) with its museums, galleries, and most noticeably its public arts projects which take over the city in the most wild, wacky, and wonderfully curious ways.

(upbeat music) So here's what I'm curious about in Nantes.

Who lived in this castle and united Brittany with France?

What is this 10 foot tall pair of boots doing here?

Where can you bounce on the moon?

(host speaking in French) Why is there an elephant crossing sign here?

When did these guys replace these guys on the Place Royale fountain?

And how is the iconic cookie of Nantes actually a tiny calendar?

Who, what, where, why, when, and how, so much to be curious about in Nantes.

Our curious journey into Nantes takes us first to where the city began, here along the ancient wall of the town where those original Gallic Namnetes people settled.

A smaller castle was built in the 13th century here, but was demolished in the 15th to build one of the most important buildings of the city: the mighty castle of the Dukes of Brittany.

(upbeat music) Filled with six centuries of history, a palatial residence with its renaissance design, a rampart, a moat, and an inner courtyard that zaps you back in time.

So how did all this come to be?

Well, before France was a country, it was a smaller kingdom.

And before Brittany was a region, it was a Duchy.

Let's learn more about the Dukes, their wealth and power, and their relationship with the Kingdom of France.

How important and how strong and how powerful was this particular dukedom?

- The Dukedom of Brittany created in the 10th century came to be quite a powerful place as of course it was having all that west coast line.

- Yeah.

- Protection, power on the coastline.

And of course some of the essential products it was managing on the coast was the production of salt.

- Now plain old salt might not sound that interesting today, but salt was very important in those pre-refrigerator days to preserve food.

And the expansive coastline of Brittany contained salt marshes.

And those tons and tons of salt have been harvested here since the Middle Ages.

And Breton Salt became so lucrative that at one point it was known as white gold, and that white gold was controlled by the Duke.

(upbeat music) - So it came to be a wealthy product that was managed by the Duke.

It lasted until the mid 16th century, the control of goods coming into land through the Loire Valley, so control of Nantes, control of the Loire Valley and control of the coastline.

There were many connections for the dukedom on the Atlantic with other kingdoms like Spain or the north of Europe.

So it was having a big role, which was very, very, very looked on by the French king.

- In fact, the king of France knew that Brittany was so powerful that he wanted to absorb the Duchy into his kingdom.

And that history is told through this castle.

The castle was built in the 1470s for Francis II, who was the last independent Duke of Brittany.

And throughout his reign he worked tirelessly to defend his Duchy from the encroaching kingdom of France.

After his death, his daughter, Anne of Brittany, carried on building the castle.

Tell us about Anne of Brittany 'cause I know she's a very important part of the history here.

- She was of course Duchess of Brittany at the age of 12.

She came to power quite early in life, and so she's been generating a large patrimony, a large piece of land and a big economy.

So she was very looked on by many other kings.

So she first married a king from Austria, and that marriage was canceled by the Pope who really wanted to give power again to the French king.

So she married in 1491 first time, and in 1498, to the French king.

She's the unique case in the French history.

- Wow, okay, so obviously during that time period, a marriage between a Duchess and a king was a very powerful political union.

- Yeah.

- So what did her marriages accomplish for Brittany?

- It left to Brittany some rights on all the goods that were managed and sold, of course, coming from Brittany.

So they kept their own rights.

She gave power again to the city.

She wanted to have it, the whole money for Brittany.

She's the first time probably to have a woman.

- On the money.

- On the money face.

- Yeah.

- She gave also rights through the parliaments.

- Yes, that's right.

Anne of Brittany becomes the queen of France twice.

But she continued to work to keep the identity of Brittany strong during her reign and added much to the castle.

You'll see these beautiful dormer windows and coats of arms, which are all thanks to Anne of Brittany.

(dramatic music) And today the history of Anne of Brittany and of all the dukes and duchess are preserved inside the castle, which is now a wonderful museum, which tells not only their history, but the entire history of Nantes (upbeat music) including a rather curious and tasty tiny calendar, which is connected to a lucrative product that has been produced here for centuries.

No, not salt this time.

This Nantes icon is much sweeter, but we must save dessert for last.

So for now, let's explore the city to find out where this castle has become a crown.

(upbeat music) So let's head into the historic heart of the city to find another spot shaped by Nante's royal history.

This is Place Royale.

It was originally called Place Royale in honor of Louis the 16th.

Created in the 1770s, these buildings surrounding the square are where the medieval wall and gates once stood.

And in the center of the Place are the allegories of the city, a queen like symbol of Nantes in the center with the castle of the Dukes as her crown.

(upbeat music) Surrounded by allegories of the Loire river and its tributaries and even more allegories of agriculture and commerce.

But wait, why are all the statues over here and who are all these hooligans?

This is the city's very modern twist on its historic fountain with modern day symbols of the city temporarily replacing the original bronze and marble allegories.

At first, the new artwork might seem like a meaningless grouping of everyday people, but when you look closely, you will see that each of the 14 sculptures still represent the industries and culture of the city.

(upbeat music) And watching over it all, just as the allegory before her, this queen still rains at the top, but instead of the castle as her crown, she wears one of the city's modern day skyscrapers.

How curious.

(upbeat music) And these funny figures atop the Place Royale fountain really set the stage for the entire city because this isn't the only curiosity in town.

In fact, how would you like to meet a big orange guy wrapped around a tree, a big yellow guy floating in the water, a pair of 10 foot tall boots and even bounce on the surface of the moon?

How in the curious world will we do all that?

Well, it's very simple.

Just follow the green line.

(upbeat music) So I was walking through the park, and I came across this funny looking guy.

Bonjour.

And his name is "Le Fileur," and you will see a lot of surprises like this throughout the city.

Now it looks like my pal is holding maybe a garden hose over his shoulder, but in fact, it is something very unique and very important to the city.

What he is holding is called the green line, and as you can see it kind of wanders down and then starts running right here under my feet.

Now the green line is an 11 mile path that takes you throughout the city to see not only the most important historic sites, but also to see more than 130 beautiful, modern, wacky, wild, and wonderful works of art.

So do you have your walking shoes on?

Let's walk the green line.

(upbeat music) La ligne verte or the Green Line is a cultural initiative and a unique, to say the least, public art display for the city.

The line takes visitors to some of the most important city landmarks, and to see more than 130 works of art in all manner of styles.

Like the more classical style with this series of sculptures called "The Escape," where the traditional caryatid women who are normally having to hold up something heavy instead help each other to escape their burden through a series of four different sculptures spread throughout the city.

(upbeat music) Then there are the more modern art installations like this one where we find some seriously big shoes to fill.

And here in the middle of an urban garden, we have yet another wild, wacky, and wonderful work of modern art.

Behold, we have a pair of 10 foot tall gardening boots.

Well, of course we do.

Why wouldn't we?

The artist who made this is actually a very famous French artist who is known for taking everyday objects and either making them supersized or kind of turning it on its head in some peculiar way.

So with this particular one, the name of the work is called "The Unsold Boots."

Now they're called the unsold boots for a variety of reasons.

The obvious one is that, you know, only the Jolly Green Giant could probably fit into them.

But the other thing, if you look closely here, do you notice something a little peculiar?

Well, they are two right footed boots only.

So unless you know a 60 foot giant with two right feet, I think these particular boots will remain unsold and in this spot for a very long time.

And in case you're wondering, the artist has decided that the size of the boots is 2000.

(upbeat music) Following along the green line, there is much more modern art to experience, including La Colline, a work of art that's also a playground.

This giant nest of sorts sticking out over the Loire river, large enough to hold dozens of visitors and a giant rusty sculpture of a pregnant woman laying down in front of the Opera House.

But on a lighter note, there is an exhibit that is so light, there's no gravity here.

(upbeat music) Along the green line you will see all different types of works of art, some big, some small, some making political statements, some celebrating different cultures, and some that are just plain fun like this one where it's the surface of the moon complete with footsteps from astronauts.

And it is called "On Va Marcher Sur La Lune," as in let's go jump on the moon.

How do you do that?

Well, clearly when you go to the craters, there's trampolines, whee!

(upbeat music) While there are plenty of fun and light and interactive works of art along the green line, there are some political statements too, like this one called "Ode to Sidestepping," where this man in a suit is refusing to stand still like he's supposed to and is instead sidestepping the rules, symbolizing the rebellious spirit of Nantes.

And for another symbol of the city, we head back to the Loire river and take a right at the giant mural of the yellow clad man playing chess with a giant banana.

Well, of course we do.

To view some of the city's historic landmarks framed up in a whole new way.

The largest, or should I say the longest work of art, is this one called "Les Anneaux, which simply means the rings.

So they are 18 giant rings here along the walkway, along the Loire river, and "Les Anneaux" has actually become a symbol of the city.

And each of these rings all light up at night in different colors, and the effect is spectacular.

There's a couple of cool little curiosities here too.

If you kinda look how they're all lined up perfectly, they're meant to mimic an old telescope because we're looking towards the sea this way.

And there's one more little tip, you should kind of look around.

Since it is a work of art, each of the rings is meant to be like a little picture frame for different parts of the city.

(upbeat music) And if you look closely through one of those circular frames, you will see this lovely little Victorian house.

This is the home and museum of the brilliant science fiction writer Jules Verne.

Born here in Nantes in 1828, he wrote some of the most popular science fiction novels in history, including "Around the World in 80 Days," "The Journey to the Center of the Earth," and "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea."

He dreamt up all manner of crazy cool creations for his novels, and one of them has come to life right here in his hometown.

And today you can find it along the green line, but watch out, giant elephant crossing up ahead.

(upbeat music) The city of Nantes reused and repurposed an industrial area to include steam punk in its finest and most fun forms, including a giant mechanical elephant.

I'm not the only one that sees the elephant, right?

Meet my new friend, the grand elephant.

Inspired by the steam powered elephant in Jules Vern's 1880 novel, "The Steam House," this 40 foot tall, 48 ton mechanical steam-powered elephant can carry 50 passengers.

And when you ride it, you're on the fourth floor of a traveling house with wonderfully realistic movement.

(upbeat music) Well, as realistic as a mechanical elephant with a house on its back can be.

This one of a kind ride took about two years to build and has been described as architecture in motion.

It uses 62 hydraulic pneumatic and gas-powered cylinders, and through special levers can move its head its ears and blink its eyes with those beautiful giant eyelashes.

And the best part, watch out for when he sprays water out of his trunk.

(upbeat music) To protect the secrets of this ingenious engineering, no filming is allowed inside the beautiful beast.

So I climbed back down to stroll along the grand elephant to find out how it all works.

(upbeat music) It's fantastic, and after going on the ride on it, I told you, I said the engineers and the creators did such a good job of it.

It really feels very, not that I've ridden on an elephant before, but, you know, on a horse or a camel or something, it's that real animal like movement, and, you know, you don't feel like you're on a machine.

- No.

- Yeah - They wanted that effect.

They wanted to recreate the natural movement for real, and they didn't want it to look like a robot or to feel like a robot.

- Yeah, yeah.

- So they decided to mix the hydraulic and diesel motor and electric motor energy to recreate the movement.

- I love it.

As he's turning his head here right now, this is a good time, so I think all the details, even his jaw when it opens kind of looks like an accordion fan.

- Yeah.

- There's so many little details like that that are fabulous, and then on his ear, it's got kind of all the little rivets and things.

This is fantastic, and then you've got your friend driving it and not squirting us.

He's like, hopefully not, hopefully not.

Even the location where the Grand Elephant roams is significant and incorporates the city's heritage.

- It used to be an industrial area, and it closed.

(cross talking) - So where we're standing right now?

- Exactly, so.

- Okay.

- After it closed, it was a shipyard where we used to build boats.

- Making sure you's not getting run over.

- Yeah.

- Sorry, go ahead.

- Especially with the pilots, they like to joke about it.

- Sorry.

- So it used to be a shipyard, and when it closed it was an empty area, so they wanted to have something that brings the people in here.

- Oh.

- So the mayor decided to ask two people some projects, and they decided that the elephant was the better one, so.

- It's incredible, and it's obviously working.

We can hear the kids, you know, having a ball over there.

- And the entire area changed completely with the elephant coming here.

It came back to life basically.

- I'm glad they're getting sprayed and not us.

That's amazing.

- That is the kind of thing that can happen with the giant elephant.

- But wait, there's more.

Inside the fittingly industrial age greenhouses are more of Jules Verne's and Leonardo da Vinci's imaginations come to life.

The Marine World's carousel is inspired by "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea."

The giant mechanical heron is from Da Vinci's sketches on flying machines.

And there's also this beautiful mechanical butterfly garden and this giant spider, which I was allowed to operate.

(upbeat music) What this has to do with Leonardo da Vinci or Jules Verne, I'm not quite sure, but it sure is fun.

(upbeat music) Next, in the same time period that Jules Verne was dreaming up his curious creatures, a new art movement was sweeping across Europe: art nouveau.

Art nouveau influenced both art and architecture.

It gave us the Tiffany lamp, the Paris Metro stations, and the exquisite art posters of Alphonse Mucha.

And here in Nantes, it also gave us a giant work of art that you can sit in.

This is La Cigale, built in 1895 and designated as a historic building in the 1960s.

And take a look around.

Even though it's a restaurant, doesn't it look like a museum full of gorgeous art nouveau?

Everywhere you look, you see all these beautiful tiles and bright colors and symbols of the story of La Cigale.

So La Cigale is based on the fable of the cricket and the ants where the cricket just kind of lounged around all summer long while the ants did all the work.

Now the fate of the cricket wasn't that great, but what this beautiful brasserie focuses on is living the leisurely life like the cricket did.

We have gorgeous symbols surrounding us everywhere.

First of all, look up to the top, and we see on this gorgeous ceiling mural, you have all these symbols of having a party or having a carnival.

And then over here over the doorway, you have all these gorgeous little maquettes.

You have little harlequins, little clowns, and we have the evolution of the ladies who lunch.

So we have in this one panel over here, we have a kind of a countryside lady who's working hard trying to sell the produce, and then all the way on the other corner here we have the independent woman, and she's going it on her own, but hasn't quite made her fortune just yet.

And we can tell that because she has a broken umbrella, and she's kind of having a tough time in the city.

By contrast, over in the other corner, we finally have the epitome of the lady who lunches.

She's got her gorgeous gown on.

She's having a wonderful afternoon out there at the horse races and even has the cute little doggy along with her.

So I think I am going to follow her lead.

Take a seat here at La Cigale and patiently wait, oh, merci beaucoup, for my espresso, merci, where I will sip away the afternoon.

(upbeat music) Well, it's what La Cigale would do.

(upbeat music) Before we wrap up our visit to Nantes, I wanted to show you one last landmark of the city.

This tower with an allegory of fame in the middle, surrounded by the signs of the zodiac and the initials Lu at the top has stood proudly since 1909.

What is this tower?

A tribute to a war hero, an important politician, a favorite duke or duchess?

Nope, it marks the location of a cookie factory.

For that history, we head back to the castle of the Dukes of Brittany one more time, but no nibbling the exhibit, please.

In the 19th century, a very tasty symbol of the city was born, the LU Biscuit.

And if you ask anybody here in town what a LU biscuit is, trust me, they will know.

So LU, L-U comes from the names of the inventors and owners.

We have the husband whose last name was Lefevre, and the wife's last name was Utile.

So together we get L-U or LU.

So again, they call them biscuits, but for Americans, we probably call them cookies.

Now if you look here, this was one of the molds they used to use to make the most iconic cookie.

And you see all those little dots and all those little lines on there?

Well, those are pretty important, and I'll explain why here in the next room.

Follow me.

So this is kind of a super sized version.

This cute little perfect little French boy nibbling on a cookie really was the symbol and all the packaging for the cookies for a very, very long time.

But if you look kind of above his shoulder here, we have the biggest cookie of them all.

So here's where it gets fun.

Remember those dots and lines I told you about where have one, two, three, four, five, six times one, two, three, four, that gives you 24.

And you're not gonna believe this, but that symbolizes the 24 hours of the day.

And then we have all of these little pieces sticking around the top on all four sides.

That actually equals 52 for 52 weeks of the year.

And last but not least on the corners, we have these little circular shapes.

And guess what, that symbolizes the four seasons of the year.

All of that in one little cookie.

(upbeat music) And why you may ask, was this cookie designed like this?

Well, in 1886, Louis Lefevre-Utile created this tiny tasty calendar to be an allegory of time with the idea that his timekeeping cookie could be enjoyed each and every day of the year.

How curious.

(upbeat music) So from a mighty castle, which marks the importance of a renaissance capital city to a royal city square with a royal fountain at its center today watched over by a very modern queen, to a funny looking yellow guy, a funny looking wooden guy, a funny looking pair of boots, and a funny looking surface of the moon, to a ginormous steam punk pachyderm dreamt up by a not local to a tasty little calendar in tasty cookie form, Nantes has so much to be curious about.

Merci beaucoup for joining us on our educational journey.

And hopefully now you're even more curious about the who, what, where, why, when, and hows of Curious Nantes.

As they say here, "Au bientôt."

(upbeat music) Closed caption funding provided by - [Narrator] Eden Andalou Aqua Park and Spa, an all-inclusive luxury resort in Marrakesh.

Moroccan inspired suites, authentic cuisine, all set in a desert oasis.

- [Christine] "Curious Traveler" is made possible by the following.

(dramatic music) - [Narrator] You can immerse yourself in the very soul of Europe aboard a European Waterways luxury hotel barge cruise.

EuropeanWaterways.com.

(dramatic music) (upbeat music) - [Christine] Still curious?

Go to CuriousTravelerTV.com and find our links to follow us on social media.

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