NANTES, 2

Site of the Irish College until the Revolution.

Timmy and Helen left for the airport at about 10 o’clock. There were new ugly scenes about the satnav and the best way to get to the airport. It took them about 25 minutes to get there with plenty of time for their 2 o’clock flight. Unfortunately there was a problem at Dublin Airport and they didn’t get home until after midnight!
We spent the day in Nantes. We checked out the Natural History Museum. There was an exhibit about gorillas that we had seen last year in Paris. The main part of the museum consisted of one large hall with an upper gallery. I learned a little about Nantes’ history as a whaling town and a lot about the various animals native to this area. There was also an interesting exhibit of live snakes that Rich refused to walk through. What a whoos!
In the afternoon we walked through the chateau. I found out that Nantes was the major port for the transport of Africans to the New World. More than 500,000 people were sold in the slave market before beginning their journey to the plantations of America.



Natural History Museum

The château was also the place of two important events. Francois I signed the decree uniting the Duchy of Brittany and the Kingdom of France 1532. Later Henri IV (the Protestant king) signed the Edict of Nantes guaranteeing that the Protestant Huegonots could practise their religion. At that time their were more than 2 million Protestants in a total population of 16 million people. The Edict of Nantes was signed in 1598 and effectively put an end to the Wars of Religion.




Anne of Brittany.