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Introducing Nantes
You can take Nantes out of Brittany (as happened when regional boundaries were redrawn during WWII), but you can’t take Brittany out of its longtime capital, Nantes (‘Naoned’ in Breton).
Spirited and innovative, this city on the banks of the Loire, 55km east of the Atlantic, has a long history of reinventing itself. Founded by Celts around 70 BC, in AD 937 Alain Barbe-Torte, the grandson of the last king of Brittany, established the duchy of Brittany here following a series of invasions. A landmark royal charter guaranteeing civil rights to France’s Huguenots (Protestants), the Edict of Nantes, was signed in the city by Henri IV in 1598. Its revocation in 1685 led to a Huguenot exodus from the region.
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