Nantes

Our visit to Nantes was originally driven by the fact that the Waterman Pen Company has its factory in Nantes, and I am a pen collector so this alone would be the reason to travel to Nantes. Indeed, we did have a very interesting tour of the factory, but we also found Nantes to be an interesting town to visit. I notice in other references Nantes is referred to as the capital of the Pays de la Loire Région, and the préfecture of the Loire-Atlantique département and also an important city of Brittany. I have been using the Michelin Maps and the Regions as published by the French Government to organize our Journal notes so I am including my comments on the city here, rather than in Brittany.

Nantes was the former capital of Brittany. In 1532 Brittany was annexed to France and for a few years the parliament remained in Nantes before being moved north to the city of Rennes.