Transfert in Rezé, Nantes, Loire Atlantic (44)

 

Transfert was born in 2018 on the wasteland left by former abattoirs in Rezé. It was intended as 'une zone libre d’art et de culture ouverte', a 'poetical and oneiric metaphor for a town within a town'. It's unclear what will happen to the site after the agreement expires at the end of the year, but it appeared to be closed at the time that we were there. A great pity.

La Maison Radieuse, Rezé, Loire-Atlantique (44)

La Maison Radieuse in Rezé was designed by Le Corbusier and finished in 1955. There are 294 flats with a nursery school at the top. It is 52 metres tall.

Trentemoult, Rezé, Loire-Atlantique (44)

I first noticed someone going towards Trentemoult with a huge rucksack, with a number of objects attached to his back, including a wok. I thought that perhaps Trentemoult is somewhat alternative, and our visit today proved that this is the case, although in a very sophistacted way: a number of houses are brightly coloured, cats are everywhere and almost seem to be part of a religion, and murals are also everywhere.

Today the former fishing village of Trentemoult is perhaps best remembered for Jean-Loup Hubert's 1991 film La Reine blanche, and in particular for 'Au confort moderne' featured in the film, the facade of which has been preserved.

Boite à lire, Rezé-Trentemoult, Loire-Atlantique (44)

I have visited many boites à lire, but this is the weirdest yet. It's not unusual to find the odd non-French book among the French ones, but although there weren't many books at all here in the shadow of E. Leclerc hypermarché, almost all were in English, and most of those orginated from an academic place in Wageningen in the Netherlands. But the titles! Biological Control of Thrips Pests, The American Heliocentric Ephemeris 1901-2000, The Genetics of Bacteria and their Viruses, Genetic Variation between and within Ethiopian Barley Landraces with Emphasis on Durable Disease Resistance. I'm not joking, although could it be that someone else is?