The Talensac district is home to a covered market teeming with people and activity on weekends. And yet, it is also very laidback, where the tall tour Bretagne offers you its shade.
Every weekend, and more particularly Sunday morning, locals meet at the Marché de Talensac, the city’s oldest and largest market. Walk among its fish and seafood stalls or stop and have a glass of muscadet wine. Here, people live à la Nantaise. Every Saturday morning, Place Viarme hosts, a vast flea market that thrills collectors and curious browsers alike. By way of Place du Pont-Morand, this district stretches all the way out to the banks of the Erdre River, where a laundry boat has been transformed into a popular guinguette open-air café, where you can discover some of the city’s historically preserved river heritage. The promenade along the river banks winds its way into the heart of île de Versailles where the Maison de l’Erdre reveals the secrets of “the most beautiful river in France,” according to King Francis I of France.
The Talensac district is also a den of pleasures, whether you want to dazzle your tastebuds or just feast your eyes alongside the bargain hunters trawling Rue Jean-Jaurès and its antique shops, bric-a-bracs and art galleries. At the end of this street, you can make out the contours of Place Aristide-Briand which, after its former career as a courthouse, prison and gendarmerie barracks, is now enjoying a new life with its luxury hotel, its restaurant and its spa. In a word, come and bite off as much as you can chew in the Talensac district, where every day’s a Sunday.