One of the most beautiful temporary gardens in Europe.

Every five years, the Parc de la Beaujoire in Nantes is turned in to a spectacular temporary garden with plants and flowers from all over the world.
This year's Nantes International Flower Show will feature 200 exhibitors and be attended by around 500,000 visitors. An absolute must for lovers of flowers and gardening.

Gorillas in today's world.

The Museum of Natural History in Nantes, working together with the Rennes Espace des sciences and the Palais de la découverte, is organising an expo dedicated to the king of primates, the elusive, mysterious gorilla.

This animal, born out of the African forest, is an important symbol for many faiths and religious systems. The exhibition will be broken into two sections, both of which attempt to reveal the true nature of these fascinating creatures.

Five themes underpin this event: "Brute or BFG (Big Friendly Giant)?"; "Gorilla and man, a common heritage"; "Gorillas and the tropical forest"; "Watching Gorillas"; and finally "Gorillas in Danger".

This last theme will be a stepping stone onto the next section of the exhibition which aims to discuss what is affecting the life and habitat of the gorilla and what the future holds for this awe-inspiring animal.

An imaginary town.

Las Vegas in the wake of WWII was a city unlike any other, but it seems the destiny of the city of vice was preordained. Kurt Weill and Bertolt Brecht imagined a similar scenario as early as 1930 with "Mahagonny", a fictional city built in the heart of the desert by three criminals on the run.

Mahagonny appears as the Babylon of the 30s, a land of ephemeral pleasures, pathetic despair and absurd deaths. Working with Elisabeth Hauptmann and Caspar Neher, Weill and Brecht delve into American folklore, popular music and stereotypes to create a lunatic epic about the fascinating New World. This creative effort seems a taunt to straight-backed Germany with its rising Nazi party - their efforts paid off in many respects, seeing as how the two were exiled from their homeland three years later.

Love, resistance and everlasting hope.

Serge Utgé-Royo blends his inflexible revolutionary stance with a surprising sense of tenderness. For the spectator, its almost impossible not to be moved, not to be drawn in by the sincerity of this Catalonian singer-songwriter's lyrics.

His is a rare voice, a voice of power and yet sensitivity harmonizing with colourful melodies. His words speak of love, fraternity, resistance and everlasting hope…

Working with skilled musicians, Serge Utgé-Royo knows exactly what he is doing. His mission is to touch people's hearts. Every one of his performances is a unique experience, a moment of pure warmth.

Mother Russia!

Discover Russian folklore and culture during this magnificent performance, an expert blend of song and dance for your enjoyment. You will see a whole new side to Russian culture, a side more often than not obscured by current events and politics.

Kalinka is set up like a cabaret show, making it a captivating spectacle that will keep you entertained from start to finish.

Sea Fishing

Every last detail has been thought out so that this major Expo for all fishing-enthusiasts will be one of the great events of its kind. From nets to boats and more, you will find everything you need to get the big prey hook, line and sinker! You can even test the products before purchasing to be sure you're getting exactly what you need.

Romantic and avant-garde

La Traviata is without a doubt the top romantic opera of all time. Based on Lady with the Camellias, a story of love denied signed Alexander Dumas, fils.

La Traviata is a rare example of a lyrical work taken directly from a contemporary literary piece. This was also the case for Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro, which was only two years older than the original French work.

Verdi understood that Dumas was an innovator and that his Lady with the Camellias opened the gates for a new theatrical format. Far from avoiding the unknown, Verdi worked to bring out all that was new and unconventional in the manuscript.

From the start Verdi introduces the two dominant themes of the story, love and death, with brilliant orchestral writing. The vocal performance is also remarkable, notably Violetta, whose every note carries the depth of her emotion.

The Kunsthalle moves to Nantes…

The Fine Arts museum in Nantes will be presenting its own selection of masterpieces from the Kunsthalle zu Kiel, one of Germany's finest museums which blends ancient and contemporary art expertly.

Thirty paintings and sculptures and twenty drawings were selected to be displayed before a French and German public. The Fine Arts museum has decided to complement this display with a number of contemporary works to echo the 19th century paintings.

For hiphoppers & pop'n'lockers

Dance shows, B-boy battles, DJ's, graffiti jams, beat boxing, exhibits, concerts… For two whole weeks Nantes will come alive with Hip Hop culture.
For those who love beats and rhymes and those who are new to the world of bling-bling, there will be performances and new events by the truckload.
Every year the Opsession battles bring the best international teams to engage in deadly combat, with only dance moves as their weapons, all to the sound of hip hop and funk specially mixed by guest DJs.

Hip hop in every possible form…

Mark Adjei, who was revealed on the "Chut" project, and his acolytes will be offering workshops in a variety of dance styles: break dancing, pop, boogaloo, house dance, new style, rocking, free rocking…

There will be demonstrations on a regular basis on the TNT stage or elsewhere, with an end of year performance… Get creative with your body!

Its showtime!

The famed Revue de la cloche ("Bell Revue") is a show anchored in Nante's cultural heritage, and a highly-popular one at that.

A giant stage, sumptuous decors, glitter and gold, song and dance and a whole lot of comedy… This is what makes the new Revue de la Cloche such a major event. Don't miss out!

One of the most important meetings in France

Three days of competitions bringing together some of the best French and international riders with seven trials at the Parc de la Beaujoire, what could be a better way to open the season?

The indoor stage in Nantes is one of the top level events of the year, and is not to be missed after the short winter break.

On the fringe…

Organized by the association of the same name, the CABLE Festival is dedicated to experimental electronica, the music slowly conquering the world! The programme is most certainly leaning towards the bizarre and the deviant, and this in terms of both music and visuals. The common denominator is that all the performing guests are at the cutting-edge of contemporary music, right on the cusp of a new kind of electro.

English baroque music

A Crazy Day in Nantes is a major unmissable music event. The Crazy Day festival has known ever-growing popularity since its creation back in 1995, courtesy of René Martin.

Today the festival hosts some 250 concerts and welcomes some of the greatest international performers to honour a famous composer every year.

The festival is also internationally recognized. It has been taken up in Lisbon since 2000 and Bilbao since 2002. In 2005, even the Japanese welcomed their own "Crazy Day in Tokyo!"

To arrive at such a high level of success so quickly, organizers knew that the first years would have to be extremely well organized. Their greatest satisfaction has been bringing audiences closer to great music and musicians without betraying the quality of the performance.

In a nutshell, the Crazy Day will feature so many concerts your ears won't know what to make of it. Expect a great ambiance, amazing performers and a score of legendary compositions.

The new wave of choreography.

This unusual event, A Dance for 6, was born of a number of roundtables that led to a decision to breath new life into the world of choreography. This programme is thus the fruit of a collaboration between two counties, Loire-Atlantique and Morbihan. Expect an intense moment, a performance unlike any other revealing the ebullient, eclectic nature of contemporary dance in France.

A wide open mind.

To meet Le Gentil Garçon ("The Good Boy") is an exciting experience. At once shy and hilariously witty, serious and yet modest, the artist brings you closer to his multi-layered, versatile work. No label fits him, thankfully.

This "boy" is straight-forward, down-to-earth, and will draw you into his parallel universe, that place you all know but try hard to avoid for its incomprehensible nature. In short, the world of childhood. The artist elicits smiles thanks to subtle tongue-in-cheek, savvy cultural references, and an undertone of politics. His is a world of unchecked, rampant thought and questioning fundamentals… His is a world that breaks every conceivable mould.

A classic poem comes to life…

A strange title indeed for an opera unlike any you’ve ever seen... “Hydrogen Jukebox” is a quote from Alan Ginsberg’s poem, Howl, which was probably the most famous that the beatnik poets churned out in the mid-twentieth century.

Ginsberg and Philip Glass worked on this adaptation in 1988 in honour of Vietnam War veterans – all were disillusioned by the turn of events in America, consumer society and the shark’s world of politics. The opera stages six characters meant to be American emblems or stereotypes: the cheerleader, the cop, the waitress, the mechanic, the businessman and the priest. Their actions and stories, brought together, paint a critical tableau of the New World and what it has become.

Twenty years have passed and Joël Jouanneau decided to take this masterpiece and bring it to the stage, to a French audience. It is evident that this theme will have certain resonance in Europe, as did the original poem, so don’t think twice about it and head on to the opera to experience history revived.

Stars of the Balkans.

Kocani Orkesta will be presenting this unusual performance, works from the traditional Macedonian repertoire.

Building from the Turkish Janissary orchestras of the 19th century, this joyous fanfare brings out the best of Balkan cultural diversity. Experience a musical cocktail made of Serbian, Romanian, Bulgarian music with an Oriental edge (a vestige of the Ottoman occupation and of the originally Indian roots of the Rom and gypsy communities).

The Kocani Orkestar's "Romska Orientalna musika" is a riot, an expression of joy, vitality, romance and a touch of nostalgia. The traditional gypsy rhythms and melodies, along with original arrangements and improvisations, testify to the sheer musical genius of these performers.

Love Story in song

With Imperial Violets, Vincent Scotto was tackling the great operettas, and this he achieved with brio.

The relationship between lovers Don Juan d'Ascaniz and a young violet-peddler takes us on a journey from Seville to Paris to the court of Napoléon III where the Empress Eugénie brings the couple together at a lavish festival.

Luxurious sets and costumes, talented actors, and a window into the second empire... Plenty of reasons to come applaud this famous operette.
Don't miss it!

Will you get a good impression?

The Museum of Printing in Nantes owns a permanent collection of 2,000 original prints by national and international artists, all produced on the museum's presses.
The works are available to interested organisations in the form of "turnkey" exhibitions.
They can also be accompanied by educational displays presenting the various printing techniques, equipment and special events.

Nantes, a modern, contemporary city.

From industrial architecture like the Batignolles plant or the famous Lefèvre-Utile (LU) factory, now home to the Nantes national theatre, from religious buildings like the parish church of Sainte-Thérèse, from modern housing or offices (Le Corbusier's Delamarre building) to post-war reconstruction, from Art Nouveau (villa Jeannette) to Art Déco (CGA building), Nantes is chock-full of an exciting urban contemporary architectural heritage most of which was built during the "Trente Glorieuses", the heady years of post-war expansion from 1945 to 1975.

The heart of Nantes beats again.

After 15 years of restoration and 3 years completely closed to the public, the Château des Ducs de Bretagne has once again opened its doors. The city of Nantes launched a massive restoration programme to revive this outstanding heritage site in the city centre, a living monument to the history of the city and of Brittany. The restoration of this 15th, 16th and 18th century building paved the way for the opening of a new museum, classed as a Musée de France, dedicated to the history of the chateau and the city.

Over 800 exhibits from the musem's permanent collection will be presented as part of an historic and themed series of 32 rooms covering over 5,000m². Extensive multimedia resources, a total revamp of the museum design and modern architectural features will make the museum fully accessible to all visitors.

An outstanding example of architectural and artistic heritage to be rediscovered, the setting for and witness to the history of Nantes and Brittany.

Head in the stars...

The Planetarium attracts over 30,000 visitors a year and is one of the fascinating cultural and instructive experiences not to be missed in Nantes.
Identifying the Big Dipper is only part of it; space, the heavens above us and the Milky Way contain infinitely more mysteries.
If you dream of travelling in space and would like to learn more about astronomy by seeing projections of the main constellations, this is the place for you!

Around Jules Verne in 80 minutes or more…

Get yourself to the summit of the Sainte-Anne butte in Nantes, look around and let your imagination roam free: you are in the fantastic, exotic world of Jules Verne.

The museum is located within a former bourgeois residence that dates back to the 19th century, and within one can admire displays of Verne's manuscripts, scale-models and personal items… The museum also features extensive multimedia and interactive displays to guide the visitor in his discovery, wandering the mindscape of an artist and inventor, a genius and an entertainer.