10 Art Pieces to Uncover on Nantes’ Unique Art Trail

Winding through the historic streets of Nantes, the Voyage à Nantes art trail transforms the city into an open-air gallery, where contemporary installations and thought-provoking sculptures surprise and inspire at every turn.

Criss-crossed by the Loire and Erdre rivers, the western city of Nantes is the historic capital of Brittany. Barely 30 minutes away from the Atlantic and only 2 hours away by train from Paris, Nantes is the 6th largest city of the country. Most notably, it is the home of one of France’s most ground-breaking art trails, with more than 120 artworks scattered across town. Alongside the city’s rich architectural, historical and artistic heritage a unique, 20 km-long trail, materialized by a green line painted on the floor, snakes its way through the historic centre and beyond, blending art into the urban landscape.  

Following this line is the best way to discover the city and understand the way Nantes was transformed – once a rather grubby industrial town – into a hub of culture, art, and creativity. This larger-than-life art collection has been highlighted by the yearly Voyage à Nantes event. Created in 2012, Le Voyage à Nantes invites artists to transform the city every summer and create contemporary art pieces embedded in the public space. Their only constraint: to follow a theme and link their artwork to the environment. With every edition, the collection of art installations grows, some pieces forever cemented into the city’s landscape and cultural scene.  

Find out more on how to follow the green line, a veritable open-air museum, but here are 10 pieces to discover.

1. Les Anneaux, Daniel Buren & Patrick Bouchain 

Les Anneaux is a work of art created by Daniel Buren and Patrick Bouchain in 2007. Today, these 18 monumental rings are one of the symbols of Nantes, facing the river and offering frames onto the riverbanks and the elegant homes lining the water. At night, the rings are illuminated — red, blue and green, three colours at the basis of so many others — and become tools, almost like portals, allowing us to see the world differently. Les Anneaux is found on the Ile de Nantes and is part of one of Europe’s largest architectural and urban projects. 

2. L’Absence, Atelier Van Lieshout 

In the heart of the “Creative District”, on the Ile de Nantes, we can observe L’Absence on the banks of the Loire since 2009. This has been created by Atelier Van Lieshout for the new School of Architecture. The artwork, today a bar-café, is a moving and living mass that contrasts with the school’s modernity.

3. L’Homme de bois, Fabrice Hyber 

Part of the 2024 edition of the summer Voyage, L’Homme de bois, a tall figure made of wood, takes place in the botanical gardens. Made of wood from trees in Nantes, the sculpture will evolve through the years as water drips down, gradually producing a natural patina over which moss and ferns will grow. The seeping moisture and stream jetting out of its mouth provide water for a pond protecting the botanical abundance of a local wetland with rare, protected species.

4. L’Évasion, Cyril Pedrosa 

In 2024, the artist Cyril Pedrosa was invited to design a new chapter in the story of Wallace fountains, weaving a tale in 4 chapters in 4 locations throughout the city. These fountains provide access to water for all and highlight an important theme today’s climate crises. It also speaks of women’s emancipation, with a focus on sorority. The 4 Caryatids reach out, pull themselves up and help each other to escape their fate. In L’Evasion, the women, condemned to hold up the fountain their whole life, gradually extricate themselves from the fountain, allowing trees to take their place, and run away to a new life.

5. On va marcher sur la lune, Detroit Architectes & Bruno Peinado 

Since 2015, on the Ile de Nantes, at the heart of the Parc des Chantiers, we can discover the artistic playground On va marcher sur la lune. Designed by Détroit Architectes and Bruno Peinado, the playground invites visitors of all ages to play and dream. Dotted with craters and bumps, it offers a chance to experience zero gravity with trampolines or to simply gaze at the sky from large hammocks. 

6. Filili Viridi, Jean Jullien 

The botanical garden (Jardin des Plantes) hosts over 10,000 taxa, which places it among the top 5 biodiversity collections in France. To make this place even more unique, every summer, artists flood the park with artwork. Since 2020, 3 Filili Viridi, characters created by Nantes-born Jean Jullien with Le Fileur (Spinner), L’Observateur (Observer) and Le Passeur (Ferryman), can be spotted in the park. They welcome the visitors at the gates and bring a touch of fun to Nantes’ botanical gardens. Jullien is known for his beloved posters portraying some of the city’s best-known sites and for these fantastical characters.

7. Ping-Pong Park, Laurent Perbos 

In 2016, Laurent Perbos created a unique playground with revised ping pong tables. Sports are very present in his work and he enjoys creating new types of fields or sports-related elements to make them more accessible, original and funnier. In Nantes, play with a ball that is caught in an air loop with Loop! Play a set while lying on your stomach, then on your knees, and finally on your feet with Shell. Or play two games at once with Puzzle, then try to follow the chaotic criss-crossing balls… All so many new ways to play table tennis. His last work of art here was Glycine, in 2017, in which he created a sculptural work with pieces of ping pong tables.

8. Invendus – Bottes, Lilian Bourgeat 

At the heart of the vegetable garden of La Cantine du Voyage, we can discover Lilian Bourgeat’s work Invendus – Bottes, a pair of 3-metre-high boots – 2 left feet to be precise. Lilian Bourgeat adds his comic and allegorical vision of a gardener who forgot one of his tools after a hard day’s work: a trusty pair of rubber boots. This work of art was originally in the 2020 edition of Le Voyage à Nantes but has since joined the permanent collection and can be discovered while walking the green line.

9. Belvédère de l’Hermitage, Tadashi Kawamata 

This artwork by Japanese artist Tadashi Kawamata rises from the peak of the Butte Sainte-Anne. It takes the form of a 36-metre-long walkway, including a 10-metre beam protruding over the cliff-edge. The chaotic, intertwining wooden planks resemble a gigantic bird’s nest. Seemingly clinging to the cliff, the belvedere is suspended almost 20 metres above the ground and offers an unprecedented urban panorama of Nantes and the Loire River. Just a few short steps from the Jules Verne Museum and the Jardin Extraordinaire, the Belvédère de l’Hermitage adds weight to the cultural and touristic offer of the Chantenay district.

10. Micr’Home, Myrtille Drouet 

Some 5 metres above the ground, Micr’Home extends over 3 levels to provide a 26m² home. Designed by Myrtille Drouet, this home can be rented for the night, containing the essential spaces with a living room/kitchen, a bathroom, and a bedroom. With this artwork, the artist examines the question of interstitial spaces in cities.