About Nantes
When was the last time you rode a mechanical elephant? Or treated yourself to a deliberately burnt pastry? Nantes, where American ragtime jazz first landed on European shores, is not your usual city. Birthplace of Jules Verne, Nantes transformed itself from France’s major slavery port to a youthful, energetic, art-loving city where tradition, a forward-thinking government, and whimsy, blend together in a multicultural, yet very French, enclave. Poised on the Loire, 30 miles from the Atlantic, the map says it’s in the Loire-Atlantique, but its heart is Breton and the street signs are Breton and French.
(https://www.lonelyplanet.com/articles/first-time-guide-to-nantes)
Nantes is two hours from Paris (by train), one hour from London (by plane), and 45 minutes from the Atlantic Coast (by car or train).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p5gw6ukLS_I&t=32s