OBSERVATIONS OF NANTES, FRANCE

Since April of 2015 to now, January 2016, I have been in a different country at some point in time every month. I’ve travelled for a long time, but the amount of traveling I’ve gotten up to in the last 10 months is incredible even by my standards. For a non religious person I dare say I have to use the word, blessed. I’ve been blessed to see what I have in the last months. I was able to revisit some old places and visit a few new places. One of those new places was Nantes, France.

Now, I actually lived in France for awhile over 10 years ago. Time is literally on a rocket ship because it feels like it was yesterday. I lived close to Toulouse and Lyon. Loved both cities dearly. If I hadn’t been so intimidated by the French language, I could easily have seen myself living in France much longer than I did. I was totally unprepared by how much I enjoyed France and all it had to offer. So, when I found out I was being surprised with a birthday trip to Nantes I obviously was excited! First thing I had to do was Google it because I had no idea where it was. Second thing is I had to learn how to pronounce the city correctly because my American tongue kept wanting to call it NAN-tez. How else could it be pronounced any other way?? Germans say it like, Naud which totally confused me as I couldn’t figure out where they got the ‘d’. In French it’s like, ‘Naunt’. Yeah, so my first observation was the city name is difficult for my American tongue to pronounce properly.

As I knew nothing of nothing about this city before arriving I quickly realized it’s a young city. For me, I would compare the vibe to Boston. There are over 150,000 college students in the greater Boston area and all of that youthful energy leaves its mark. I felt that same vitality in Nantes. I loved attending university in Boston because of this feeling so I really enjoyed that about Nantes. Going out in the evening there were throngs of young people out in the streets wandering around and hanging out with friends. What I also noticed is, they mostly congregated in the center of the city. This was cool because a tourist didn’t have to travel to distant parts of an unknown city and everything is in walking distance. Often when there are a lot of young people gathered with alcohol present young guys often let their testosterone get the better of them. Not in Nantes. Saw many groups of young men and never felt like I was being sized up or saw them making women feel uncomfortable. Hats off to the young men of Nantes, France!

Another thing I liked about Nantes, and very aware only medium-sized cities could get away with this, they have painted a line that runs through the entire city to take tourists past important landmarks, sites and shopping areas. How smart is that!?! It was like having a deaf and mute tour guide. Wait, I hope that’s not offensive.. then again, I’m not forcing anyone to read this. Not like I could ask questions about things I saw, but I could walk as slow or fast as I wanted, take as many coffee breaks as I wanted, skip parts, retrace my steps. I loved it! I travel a lot and this is one of the few cities I felt like I saw almost everything there was to see while I was there. Now I didn’t experience everything I possibly could, but as far as the major sites I saw it all.

Photo not taken by me

Another observation I had with Nantes, and I noticed it at the exact same time I noticed the youthful energy, I kept picking up a strange vibe from the place. I couldn’t quite put my figure on it. In theory, Nantes had everything in a city I should love, history, good food, nice local population, no overt sense of racism and reasonably priced. But I just kept on thinking, eh, something is off. Then walking along the harbor I came across it. There is a huge memorial dedicated to the abolition of slavery. It’s a very powerful and well done memorial. I lingered there for at least an hour reading everything and taking it all in. One question I had walking through the memorial was answered at the end. “Why would a European city have a memorial dedicated to slavery?” kept going through my head. I understand Germany having museums dedicated to terror and tyranny. Additionally, the monuments dedicated to the holocaust makes perfect sense. But Nantes, France? Abolition of slavery monument? Strange.. The city has another tribute to slavery that answered the question in such a striking manner that as cliché as it sounds, left me at a loss for words. The tribute is, all the slave ships that left Nantes, their names and date of departure and are laid out on a pathway represented with small bronze bricks. Nantes, France was the epicenter of the European slave trade during the 15th and 19^th centuries. My history teachers definitely left that out of our history lessons. The number of bricks was literally sickening. What I thought was a small path turned into a boardwalk along the harbor. Every single step on a brick represented hundreds of innocent human beings being bundled and packed into horrible conditions like farm animals being shipped off to the slaughter house. For a super logical Virgo it was emotionally overwhelming for me. If I had known the history of the city would I have visited? I can’t answer that. But it was good that the city had decided to create these monuments to own up to it’s history. Unless I’m mistaken, the United States, a very willing participant in the Mid-Atlantic Slave Trade, has no slave memorial of any type at all.

Did my previous vibe about the city have something to do with it’s history? I don’t know, but once I knew about the history of the city that weird energy I felt before didn’t go away, but it made more sense. And as I said, the city wasn’t shying away from it’s history. I felt like that until I went to the Museum of History of Nantes. It’s located at the Castle of the Dukes of Brittany. It has about 7 chambers that go into detail about the history of Nantes. I LOVE history so a museum set in an actual castle?? Awesome! Not only do they have historical artifacts, but they have touch screens throughout the museum that give stories connecting the use of certain artifacts or eras through the eyes of the people who lived during those times. A great use of technology! It bought the history to life! I was feeling it! Then I got to the hall on slavery. It had a lot of artifacts and stories about Nantes during that time. They showed the wealth the city made during that time, architecture constructed as a result of the wealth, certain artifacts associated with the slave industry and other things. Can’t say anything connected to the misery of millions of people to make it more human, but it was informative. The one thing though that totally threw me off and completely changed my view of Nantes was the story they decided to use in the slavery chamber. They chose the story of a young white resident of Nantes who was the son of a powerful merchant. To learn the trade of the family, which was the purchase and sales of African slaves, he set out on a slave ship to get an education from the bottom up. This young boy kept a journal so the story is based on his actual words. It spoke in great detail about his trip, all the actual quantifiable facts; what date they set out from Nantes, how they were delayed by weather, negotiating for the slaves, loading them in the ship’s hold, the trip across the Atlantic Ocean, the unloading in the Caribbean of a portion of the “cargo”, what goods they received in return, then continuing to the New World to sell the rest then the return trip, etc, etc. That’s it. That’s all the story included. The story ended with the young man deciding never to go on one of those trips again. Because he had a change of heart and realized human beings shouldn’t be treated like bales of cotton or material? No. He felt he had learned enough, went into the family business of slave trading, made even more money than his father did in the business and became a much respected member of the Nantes elite society. Wait.. What??!! Of all the stories a museum could dedicate to it’s history of slave trading you choose one with a happy ending for the slave trading merchant?? WTF city of Nantes!? In a modern city, with a disgusting history that laid the foundation for it’s wealth, no one understood how it might come across having a story about a titan in the slave trading industry be the story you present in the slave trading chamber?? And the story had a happy ending for the man you use as well?? Disgusted. That’s how I felt when I finished that chamber. Totally and completely disgusted. The amount of pain and anguish and death associated with Nantes to this day is still present in the very fabric of the city. Even my uber logical analytical self picked up on it immediately upon arriving. So given the opportunity to use a story from the perspective of those affected by your actions which could add a very real sense of humanity to this period of your history, you choose the perspective of the slave merchant. Yeah, I’d called that a big fat fail.

Typically, I don’t write observations like this. But it’s obvious the museum left a very bad taste in my mouth. Bad enough that I wrote to the museum.. but I didn’t receive a reply. I will blame it on the fact I wrote in English to a French museum which is entirely possible. Hey, Nantes is a really nice city. There are some amazing things to see, the people are super friendly, and their memorials to slavery are powerful and a must see. Personally, I’d never go back to the place. Ever. I won’t ever have the inkling to rediscover its streets or explore uncharted areas of the city. It’s the first city I would say that about. And it is sad since it is such a beautiful city and region of France.