. . . A GLOBAL ROUND-UP . . . The month in travel, hospitality and retail Inventory issue 121 | march 2019

1 2 3 4 5 destinations travel & hotels city guide best in class shopping Three French towns Idyllic stays in France An exploration of A treasure trove Where to find French to call home. and beyond. Montpellier. in Nice. goods galore.

A green line runs through destination. . . Nantes, tracing a trail from Nantes former shipyards on the banks of the Loire River 1. and disused biscuit factories to new developments INDUSTRIAL and contemporary-art installations. The Voyage REVOLUTION. à Nantes route showcases Students and professionals the creative energy that has alike are calling Nantes risen from the ruins of the home. What’s behind the city’s industrial past. Until city’s new lease of life? 1987, Nantes was a bastion of French shipbuilding. By Annick Weber Now it’s building on culture, Photographer Alex Cretey Systermans higher education and, more recently, the innovation sector to reclaim its title as the economic capital of the industrial northwest. 1 Nantes would most likely not be the audacious, artistic city it is today were it not for artistic director Jean Blaise. When the last shipyard closed its doors some 30 years ago, Blaise took the helm of a cultural renaissance that has led to the founding of a number of arts initiatives, including the Lieu Unique exhibition space and Voyage à Nantes. “I’m not originally from Nantes but the town’s enterprising nature spoke to me immediately so I wanted to prevent it from losing this dynamic,” says Blaise. “Back

(1) La Cantine CEO Adrien Poggetti and operations director Magali Olivier (2) The city is marked by its rivers

2 no121 — monocle — 183 then Nantes was a blank canvas for artistic creation. Our destination. . . aim was to stir the imagination Dinard of the residents and attract international talent.” 2. In an effort to democratise art, Blaise turned Nantes into SETTING SAIL. a living museum with festivals, A seaside town that is rediscovering its biennales and works by the potential as a charming place to live. likes of Daniel Buren and Philippe Ramette studding By Daphnée Denis its public spaces year-round. Photographer Thomas Humery Nantes’ annual visitor numbers rose by 64 per cent in less than a decade, and with this With grey stone and red- Facts & figures revamped image as a creative brick villas perched atop its powerhouse, the city’s art and cliffs, Dinard is a glorious 10,114 design schools – among them – if dramatic – reminder of Residents the École des Beaux-Arts and France’s Belle Epoque, when 3 hours the École de Design Nantes- the Brittany city became Travel time to Paris Atlantique – have seen an 2 a popular beach town for 5 influx of students from it this way,” says Magali aristocrats and wealthy €350,000 up between Paris and Lille gallery here in 1989. “At the around the world. Olivier, operations director holiday-goers. Today the Average price but moved to Dinard, where time we knew of Dinard’s The new Nantes is nowhere of La Cantine, a friendly summertime destination is of a central his family owned a holiday glorious past but it was at two-bedroom as apparent as on the Île, an co-working space for digital attracting a growing number apartment home, at 15. He started his its lowest ebb, there was professionals, subsidised by of French entrepreneurs, with sail-making career abroad nothing,” he says. Now he the Nantes metropolis. nearly 100 new businesses 84 but when the time came to sees investment going “in the Across the Loire, in the created in 2017 alone. New businesses launch his first company, right direction”. picturesque centre, Nantes “Living here was always created in 2017 Sail Innovation, returning to Matthieu Gailly and his has made equal investment my dream,” says Alex Udin, Dinard was an obvious choice. wife Caroline left high-stress 1989 in making the city more the 37-year-old founder of Dinard Film Working by the sea is good for jobs in Paris to take over liveable, neatening parks and Phantom International, a Festival launches business: he needs to test his Biscuits Joyeux, a Brittany improving public transport. company manufacturing boats in the water, and being biscuit brand dating to 1963. It is this equilibrium between hydrofoil boats. Udin grew able to sail with friends after In just two years the couple 1 urban, economic and cultural 3 work is priceless. “Here, it’s have opened two shops, in island south of the historic infrastructure that has kept Facts & figures heaven on Earth,” he says. Dinard and Saint Malo, heart that was once the existing residents and brought The seaside lifestyle has putting a modern spin on a epicentre of naval construction. in new ones too. 306,694 attracted others, including regional delicacy. “Before, With the acquisition of the In recent years the city has Residents architect Christophe I travelled to at least two old Alstom factory in 2001, benefitted from an influx Bachmann, whose Dinard- countries every week. Now 2 hours the city initiated an ambitious of young restaurateurs and Travel time to based studio remodelled many I pick up my children from urban development mission, shop owners from other Paris on the TGV of the art deco villas and school, I organise my time,” based on the belief that the parts of France, who have hotels in the region. “Being says Matthieu. “I find myself creation of an innovation come to set up successful 2 out of 3 based here doesn’t stop us living for real.” hub on the island could help businesses amid the town’s Inhabitants aged from working all over France Meanwhile, Pierre and under 40 generate 2,000 jobs by 2020. cobbled streets. Now there and abroad,” he says. “But Flore de Kerautem bought The five converted Alstom are boutiques exhibiting the 40 we have peace and quiet and and remodelled the century- halls will provide 25,000 work of craftsmen, such as Business incubators it’s one of the most beautiful old Hotel St Michel in 2013, square metres dedicated L’Atelier du Petit Parc and 6 coastlines in the world.” after deciding to leave Paris. to creative and emerging the Spanish-Breton-run 10 Dinard itself is small, with “We wanted to change our industries with flexible office Mira, as well as restaurants Grandes Écoles just 10,000 residents in the lives and here we had to units, a food court and such as Roza that wouldn’t 25 minutes off-season, but it’s only a remake everything,” says university campuses. A year look out of place in the Average commute 15-minute drive away from Pierre, who used to work before the final completion French captial. “We relocated the larger city of Saint Malo, in finance. The hotel’s cosy of the Alstom site, city hall’s to Nantes once quality of life €264,230 where a high-speed TGV line interiors attract clients plan is already bearing fruit: became more of a priority for 4 Average price travels to Paris in about three throughout the year. “We of a central start-ups, architecture studios our family,” says Oscar Piñon (1) Le Chocolat des Français two-bedroom hours. The local airport offers thought we’d only open and art galleries have popped of Mira. “I like that the town (2) L’Atelier du Petit Parc (3) Jean apartment direct flights to London. The for eight months,” he says. up on the island. has such a strong identity, in Blaise (4) Oscar Piñon (5) Villa town’s accessibility explains “But people are coming Les Roches Brunes in Dinard (6) “Nantes has always been line with its industrial history Castelbrac Hotel (7) Biscuits Joyeux its growing appeal according all the time. There’s always a land of entrepreneurs and and its newfound cultural (8) Matthieu and Caroline Gailly to Daniel Besseiche, who something happening in the city is doing a lot to keep dynamic.” — (m) opened a contemporary-art Dinard.” — (m) 7 184 — monocle — no121 no121 — monocle — 185 8 (1) Palais de Justice Bordeaux after a long London The city is also actively destination. . . (2) Laurianne winter, which can be hard,” helping La Planche with Labeyrie, manager of he says. He’s sitting in the its aims. “The network has Bordeaux tea brand and salon La Diplomate (3) Le Meat Pack, a restaurant he grown really fast,” says Du 3. Grand Bar Castan launched last year in a former Peloux. “We’ve already met (4) Damien Gruel’s metal-smith workshop on Rue all the relevant people, which RIVERSIDE workshop En Terre du Chai des Farines. “It was could take years to do in a city d’Atelier (5) Book April and we went down to the like Paris. The politicians are RICHES. shop Bad Reputation beach. The sun was shining. behind our project. They are (6) Wine shop in the Bordeaux is known as city centre (7) Tim I just felt this urge, ‘I can do in search of something new.” the wine capital of Remi (8) Bordeaux’ something here.’ I suppose it Bordeaux’s peerless wine France but its mix of deliveries are made was fate but also the weather – has defined the city and its 18th-century glamour by electric bike and the quality of life.” surroundings for hundreds of and thriving urban 4 Paris-based architect Victor years. Yet Bordelais are pushing street life make it a du Peloux was enrolled on a beyond their heritage to launch vibrant place to call home. master’s in wood construction food and beverage brands. when he met Clément Belin Last year a cashless food court By Sophie Grove and decided to launch a called La Boca opened next to Photographer Markel Redondo co-working and maker the port in the old abattoirs of space that would engage the Bordeaux featuring counters community and further their from independent producers As soon as the sun breaks own work. The pair began and restaurants that range through the clouds along the searching for the right city from Corsican to Basque. Garrone River, Bordelais to put down roots. “We were Laurianne Labeyrie has are out in force, traversing thinking about Nantes and managed the tea brand its wide banks by foot or also Bordeaux, both changing La Diplomate since it was on bikes, scooters and cities,” says Du Peloux, as we founded six years ago. In rollerblades. Once known walk around the former garage her cosy shop-cum-tea for being traditional and Facts & figures in the Saint Michel area that salon, people sip infusions rather stiff, the city has seen he will soon transform into a around a huge stone fireplace. a transformation in the past 252,000 workshop called La Planche. “We’re busier than ever,” 15 years. Under the steer Residents “Ultimately it was the forests says Labeyrie, as she decants of its longstanding mayor near the city, and the suppliers tea leaves into her glossy 1,500 (the former prime minister Restaurants in down there, that convinced us.” black tins. — (m) 1 5 and presidential hopeful, town (seven have a Alain Juppé) Bordeaux has distinctly Parisian feel, its Michelin star) ousted cars, spiffed up the pace does not. Bordelais have once blackened 18th-century an escape hatch in the form 1,810 Hectares listed on architecture and put citizens of Atlantic beaches that are the Unesco World and tourists at its centre. just an hour’s drive from the Heritage list “Bordeaux was considered a city. “On a Sunday you get sleeping beauty,” says deputy out to the coast, surf some 2 hours mayor Stéphan Delaux waves and clear your head and Travel time to Paris from his office overlooking be at home by the evening €600,000 the Place Pey-Berland, ready for a week’s work,” says Average price of where cafés in the shadow Guillaume Chamaillard, who a central two-bed of the cathedral are filling set up the company PIP, a beer apartment up. “We woke up,” he says. brand with “a collaborative “Today Bordeaux is a place and cultural” space in a 2 of contrast. You have the pavilion next to the harbour. tradition, yes, but also a sense “We can take these kind of of the new. We’re a young city micro holidays all the time – with ideas.” these days of sun and nature. This balance is starting I can swim in the city lake to lure a steady flow of just 10 minutes from here at Parisians, as well as expats lunchtime. I can cycle to work 7 drawn to this medium-sized along the river path.” city for its art de vivre. While Tim Remi was raised in Bordeaux’s opera house, Bordeaux but left at the age cathedral and elegant streets of 21 to work as a designer at lined with lavishly carved Levi’s in Paris, Brussels and stone edifices have a wealthy, Los Angeles. “I returned to 3 6 8 186 — monocle — no121 no121 — monocle — 187