Are you a garden lover? Do you like being in nature, surrounded by plants and flowers? Nantes is the city you’re looking for, renowned for the quality and wealth of its parks.
Nantes is the city you’re looking for, renowned for the quality and wealth of its parks. There’s a huge variety of gardens – 101 in all!
L’ile de Versailles
This magnificent artificial island, created in 1831 and originally occupied by marine carpenters, was transformed into a Japanese garden in 1983. In this garden you’ll find the tea house, also known as the Erdre house, as it’s surrounded by lush vegetation, giving you the chance to discover the life of the plants and fish that inhabit the Erdre, including some twenty species of fish in aquariums, as well as animals such as ducks and fish.
Educational activities: Every year, some 3,000 schoolchildren visit the Ile de Versailles to learn about the ecology of the river and its flora and fauna, as well as discover the Japanese garden.
Festive events: The Ile de Versailles hosts a number of festive events, including the Rendez-vous de l’Erdre jazz festival, which attracts over 150,000 spectators every year in early September. This is also where local Japanese associations hold their traditional festivals.
Le jardin des plantes
The gardens of Nantes are very beautiful, but the Jardin des Plantes is extraordinary. It’s a vast green space in the middle of the city center, with 7 hectares of greenery and over 10,000 plant species. Flowerbeds, plant sculptures, exotic plant greenhouses. The Jardin des Plantes de Nantes is one of France’s four major botanical gardens. Among the park’s many permanent works of art is a family of deer that greets visitors just beyond the entrance, created by sculptor Georges Gardet in 1900. Another symbol of the Jardin des Plantes, Claude Ponti’s Dormanron plant sculpture naps in a flowerbed. It’s magnificent!
In the greenhouses, you’ll find a large collection of cacti and succulents from the African and American continents. Toutes les plantes sont divisées par les besoins climatiques et la zone d’origine. To find out morewpml_nbsp below is the link
Le parc de Procé
Il existe de nombreux jardins à Nantes, dont le parc de Procé, où l’on retrouve toute la gamme des plantes aujourd’hui emblématiques de Nantes. Designed by landscape architect Dominique Noisette in 1866, this 12-hectare park welcomes some 800,000 visitors every year. Just next door, in the rue des Dervallières, at the southern entrance to the park, is the children’s garden, featuring a slide, swings and manipulative games in a large sandbox. Parc de Procé is home to the Tulipier de Virginie, a tree said to be contemporary with the construction of the original manor house over 200 years ago. This is the largest specimen in Loire-Atlantique. Its light green to white flowers resemble large tulips, hence its name. The species was introduced to France by Count Barrin de la Galissonière, Governor of Louisiana.
Le parc floral de la Beaujoire
La Beaujoire floral park offers beautiful views over the Erdre river. This landscaped area combines perennials with almost 20,000 rosebushes, mainly selected for their fragrance. A fragrance honored at the International Rose Biennial, held here every two years in June. Every 5 years, nearly 400,000 visitors converge on the nearby exhibition center and floral park for the Floralies de Nantes. The Floralies de Nantes are held every 5 years at the Beaujoire exhibition center. An opportunity to admire the landscape scenes created by over 200 exhibitors, professionals and amateurs alike. Créées en 1956 au Champs-de-Mars, les Floralies ont été transférées à la Beaujoire en 1971. Until 1989, they were held in the Parc Floral in the style of world’s fairs, with open-air stands and pavilions. In this magnificent garden there is a large rope spider web and many children’s games are located in the lower part of the park near the iris garden. You will find all the answers to your questions in this link
Le parc de la Gaudinière
The gardens of Nantes are extraordinary, but among them is the wonderful Parc de la Gaudinière, a very relaxing, rocky park with a large green area. The château dominates the northern entrance to Nantes, and is a former bourgeois shipowner’s property built of brick and tufa stone. It is particularly well enhanced in the evening by the northern breakthrough in the hardwoods and the lighting. Near the château, it is a majestic tree with a circumference of more than 100 metres. Parc de la Gaudinièrewpml_nbsp is also a breathtaking mountain walk, even though the altitude here is no more than 40 meters above sea level. In the hollow of the shady glen, the alpine rockerywpml_nbsp has acclimatized perfectly. The thousands of narcissus, crocus and anemone bulbs in bloom from mid-February add a touch of spring color. This park is truly a place of relaxation for young and old alike, thanks to its sunny lawns, play areas and numerous animals. There’s also a mountain stream cascading through the rhododendrons, ferns unfurling their crooks, columbines and blue thistles; it’s a real picture-postcard vision for visitors to La Gaudinière, just a few meters above the sea. This landscape is less than 25 years old, created from scratch by SEVE gardeners in the early 90s. The rock gardeners have used their know-how to naturalize the rocks, which seem to have always been part of the landscape. The staggered planting of trees and perennialswpml_nbsp allowed us to get as close as possible to the vegetation found in the mountains.
Le parc du Grand Blottereau
With its 22 hectares, it’s the largest park in Nantes, offering a journey through the world’s natural landscapes and cultivated fields: the Mediterranean, the American bayous, the hills of South Korea, and tomorrow perhaps the 5 continents. The flowers and trees planted in all the city’s green spaces are also produced here. And once a year, in September, the park suddenly comes alive: a plant extravaganza that lives up to its name, with over 40,000 visitors and 160 exhibitors at each new edition. This garden features the French parterre château built between 1742 and 1747 for Gabriel Michel, then director of the Compagnie des Indes in Nantes. The château comprises a central main building with two pavilions linked by galleries. The exterior decoration, featuring mascaron of water and wind gods, testifies to the owner’s professional activity at the time. From 1945 to 1961, Châteauwpml_nbsp was home to war orphans. The Grand Blottereau park is home to tropical greenhouses built in 190é to meet the needs of the colonial agronomy section of the Nantes business school. The aim was to prepare future settlers for their departure and encourage the commercial development of the colonies. The greenhouses were renovated and enlarged in 2002. They are home to a remarkable plant heritage of exotic economic plants, some of which are over 100 years old. These include textile plants such as cotton and kapok, precious woods and fruit trees (pineapple, star fruit, cocoa, etc.).
Le parc des Oblates
This is Nantes’ latest public park, but it already has a long history. Created the Franciscan Oblate Sisters of the Sacred Heart in 1886. This park became public in 2013 after being redeveloped by the green spaces and environment department in consultation with local residents. In the Parc des Oblates, visitors walk along ancestral paths in the heart of nature, protected from the hustle and bustle of the city by high granite walls. From the heights, you can also enjoy the breathtaking views over the Loire. At the foot of the park, the great landscape of the Loire offers itself to the visitor. In the foreground is the Bas-Chantenay district, home to the city’s first shipyards. There are also two children’s play areas on the site: built from acacia wood in the landscape. One area is for 3-7 year-olds, while a second offers 7-12 year-olds the chance to climb to the top of a nest hung around a hundred-year-old cedar. Finally, the Parc des Oblates is home to the Maison de l’Apiculture, a place where visitors and schoolchildren can discover the city of bees. An educational apiary set behind glass gives a better understanding of this highly organized micro-society. Just click on this link to find further information.
So if you come to Nantes and love to spend your time in nature, don’t hesitate to visit the city’s wonderful gardens! You can also see in this link the other places you can discover.