Nantes is a city in western France, located on the Loire River, 50 km (31 mi) from the Atlantic coast. The city is the 6th largest in France, while its metropolitan area ranks 8th with over 800,000 inhabitants. Nantes is the capital city of the Pays de la Loire region and Loire-Atlantique département. It is also the major city of the historic province of Brittany, and culturally remains strongly identified with it.
In 2004, the Time magazine described Nantes as “the most liveable city in Europe”. The city is also home to the Audencia Nantes School of Management, broadly well-ranked according to the FT rankings. In 2010, the Nantes was named a Hub city for innovation in the Innovation Cities Index by innovation agency, 2thinknow. The city was ranked 36th globally from 289 cities and 4th overall in France, behind Paris, Lyon and Strasbourg for innovation across multiple sectors of the economy.
Nantes is located on the banks of the Loire River, at the confluence of the Erdre and the Sèvre Nantaise, 55 km (35 mi) from the Atlantic Ocean. The city was built in a place where many branches of the Loire river created several islands, but most of those branches were filled in at the beginning of the 20th century (and the confluence with the Erdre river diverted and covered) due to the increasing car traffic.
Until the 1970s, Nantes’ harbour was located on the Île de Nantes, when it was moved to the very mouth of the Loire River, at Saint-Nazaire. In the subsequent 20 years, many service sector organisations moved into the area, but economic difficulties forced most of these to close. In 2001, a major redevelopment scheme was launched, the goal of which is to revitalise the island as the new city centre.
In 2003, the French weekly L’Express voted Nantes to be the “greenest city” in France, while in both 2003 and 2004 it was voted the “best place to live” by the weekly Le Point. In August 2004, Time designated Nantes as “the most livable city in all of Europe.”
