Life's a beach in the home town of Verne

By HARRIET ROCHEFORT

n the Cours St. Andre in Nantes, right behind the 15th century St. Peter's Cathedral, is la plage. Not exactly the place you'd except to find Copacabana Beach--along with volleyball tournaments, snack stands and rock bands--but Nantes' World Cup planners saw nothing odd about dumping 2,800 tons of sand in the middle of town to welcome last year's champion team Brazil. After all, Nantes is the birthplace of visionary writer Jules Verne, says Isabelle Simonnet, local head of press relations for the World Cup: "Nantes has always had a grain de folie [touch of madness]."

At the confluence of the Erdre, Sevre and Loire Rivers, in an estuary on the Atlantic, Nantes has always been closely tied to ships and the sea. In 843, the Vikings sailed up the Loire to sack the town. In the 18th century, a booming slave trade brought dishonorable prosperity, which can be seen in the carved faces and wrought-iron balconies on the fine homes of shipowners on the Rue Kervegan and Quai de la Fosse. Under Louis XIV, ships' captains were ordered to bring back exotic plants and seeds for the city's Botanical Gardens, which teem with camelias, magnolias and lilies-of-the-valley.

Jules Verne might never have dreamed of distant worlds had he not grown up with views of a port crowded with ships. Nantes' great food industries--LU, Biscuits Nantais and Saupiquet--grew from the need for sailors to have non-perishables on board. Today, port traffic is concentrated on the quays Wilson, Roche-Maurice and Chevire, but much of the harbor activity has moved downstream to the port of St. Nazaire, Nantes' sister city.

With a population of 500,000--28% below age 20--Nantes is the country's seventh-largest city and the metropolitan center for the west of France. Just under two hours from Paris on the fast train, it has attracted 43,000 students to its universities and fostered new businesses in the service sector: two-thirds are less than 10 years old. With maritime, aeronautics, mechanics, electronics and computer industries, Nantes is France's fourth industrial city. Twenty-seven km of tramway, the longest line in France, make it easy to get around.

Although administratively the capital of the Western Loire region, Nantes' ties to Brittany remain strong, and most Nantais consider themselves Breton. When Henri IV--who in 1598 signed the Edict of Nantes, giving Protestants religious freedom--first saw the imposing Castle of the Brittany Dukes, he cried: "God's teeth, the Dukes of Brittany were no small beer!" The castle is now being renovated. It won't be finished until 2008, but visitors can admire the inside courtyard and attend exhibitions organized in the Salorges Museum.

The Nantes Fine Arts Museum has its own collection of Kandinskys and is now also showing the Kandinsky collection from the Beaubourg Museum in Paris. The Jules Verne Museum is in a charming 19th century house in the St. Anne quarter. The heart of Anne of Brittany is contained in a reliquary in the elegant Thomas Dobree Museum.

One of the most striking sights in Nantes is the Passage Pommeraye. Built in 1843, this shopping arcade is on three levels linked by wooden stairs and wrought-iron balconies topped by statues. The adjacent Rue Crebillon is Nantes' answer to the Faubourg Saint Honore. Window gawking at the expensive stores is so prevalent that the Nantais have a verb for it: crebillonner. At the top of the street, the 18th century Graslin Theater faces La Cigale, a restaurant with an elaborate 1900s decor, which is always buzzing with Nantais sipping cold Muscadet and savoring oysters on the half shell. Want to die happy? Stop at the Gautier confiserie and try a mascaron, a chocolate filled with muscadet.

Nantes' mild climate makes it ideal for plants and flowers--and outdoor festivals. With 850 hectares of parks, it's easy to find a green spot somewhere, be it the Parc de Proce, the Grand Blottereau--a wooded park surrounding an 18th century chateau--or the Japanese-style garden on the Ile de Versailles on the Erdre, an ideal starting point for river tours through the locks to Brittany. Ideal, too, as a venue for World Cup matches. Nantes takes justifiable pride in its 39,500-seat La Beaujoire Stadium, built in 1984 to host the European Championship and since upgraded for this summer's matches.

Every spring, the whole town turns out for its carnival. For the past two years avant-garde theater troupe Royal de Luxe has amused the Nantais with its 10-m giant puppet which walks the streets.

Nantes is well worth discovering. Visitors may even end up agreeing with surrealist Andre Breton, who wrote: "Nantes, perhaps with Paris, is the only city in France where I have the impression that something worthwhile might happen." Like an urban beach.