4 reasons to go to Nantes if you like Jacques Demy

Lola (1961), Jacques Demy’s first feature film, affirms the port identity of the city of the Dukes of Brittany. The sailors in all white and pompoms stroll peacefully along the Quai de la Fosse, on the banks of the Loire, 50 kilometers from the ocean. They frequent the cabaret of the coach played by Anouk Aimée. The music is already by Michel Legrand and the camera (superb black and white by Raoul Coutard) carries out tracking shots punctuated by the shipyard cranes. The city is like a chessboard where the protagonists cross paths.

Since then, many of the locations from the film have remained. Walking through Nantes where eras collide (medieval districts, from the 18th^e century, post-war or contemporary), we recognize the Théâtre Graslin, where Roland Cassard, played by Marc Michel, meets Lola. This beautiful building from 1788 is located just opposite La Cigale, an Art Nouveau brasserie that the filmmaker transformed into a cabaret. At Eldorado, Lola plays out her destiny. She disappears at the end of the film but Nantes returns twenty years later, sumptuous and in color, in A room in the city (1982).

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