ACT LIKE A LOCAL
Welcome to the wild wild West (coast) of France! Get ready young folk, you will soon realise that Nantes is going to turn your head upside down — for the best! Whatever the season, we are French chatting on terraces and pray for the gift of being everywhere at once not to miss all the cultural events. And whatever the season it is more sunny than rainy, despite what Parisians say. Here is an overview of how to fit in as a local year-round:
SPRING
* Spend lazy afternoons at Parc du Procé to refill your vitamin D.
* Join in the massive cultural programmation bloom: watch out for posters in bar toilets.
* Drink a glass, a bottle or a cellar of Muscadet during late evenings at any bar terrace.
* Demonstrate, because we are French people after all. Smell the tear gas, when we face the French police. Beware, public transportation may be disturbed.
SUMMER
* Have barbecues at Parc du Crapa. Come early if you do not want to eat raw sausages.
* Follow the green line and judge every new art piece of Le Voyage à Nantes.
* Have an ice cream and rent an electric boat to chill on the Erdre River.
* Take a day trip to the sea-side, to Pornic, Le Pouliguen or Le Croisic, and swim, surf and get tanned on the beach.
AUTUMN
* Watch incredible leaf colours at Parc du Grand Blottereau.
* Make adventurous cultural discoveries with Scopitone, the festival for digital arts and electronic musics, and Les Utopiales, the great event for science-fiction.
* Visit noisy gigs inside bars with Festival Culture Bar-Bars.
* Do not put your bike back into the garage: even under the rainy storm, cycling remains the absolute best way to move around the city. You just need the right equipment!
WINTER
* Drink hot wine, eat gâteau nantais, but still sit at the outside bar terrace (ohhh smokey ones), wondering if Nantes is part of Brittany or not.
* Enjoy the natural warmth of plants with a visit of the tropical greenhouse of Le Jardin des Plantes.
* Feed your winter body with lots of salted butter h every kind of (hot) cheese.
* Improve your street style flow with Festival Hip Opsession.
