Bayeux
Bayeux is a commune in the Calvados department in Normandy in northwestern France. Bayeux is the home of the Bayeux Tapestry, which depicts the events leading up to the Norman conquest of England, it is known as the first major town secured by the Allies during Operation Overlord. Charles de Gaulle made two famous speeches in this town. Bayeux is a sub-prefecture of Calvados, it is the seat of of the canton of Bayeux. Bayeux is located 7 kilometres from 30 km north-west of Caen; the city, with elevations varying from 32 to 67 metres above sea level – with an average of 46 metres – is bisected by the River Aure. Bayeux is located at the crossroads of the train route Paris-Caen-Cherbourg; the city is the capital of the Bessin. The city was known as Augustodurum in the Roman Empire, it means the durum dedicated to Roman Emperor. The Celtic word duron, Latinised as durum, was used to translate the Latin word forum. In the Late Empire it took the name of the Celtic tribe who lived here: the Bodiocassi, Latinized in Bajocassi and this word explains the place-names Bayeux and Bessin.
Bodiocassi has been compared with Old Irish Buidechass'with blond locks'. Founded as a Gallo-Roman settlement in the 1st century BC under the name Augustodurum, Bayeux is the capital of the former territory of the Baiocasses people of Gaul, whose name appears in Pliny's Natural History. Evidence of earlier human occupation of the territory comes from fortified Celtic camps, but there is no evidence of any major pre-existing Celtic town before the organization of Gaul in Roman civitates. Any settlement was more confined to scattered Druid huts along the banks of the Aure and Drome rivers or on Mount Phaunus where they worshiped. Cemeteries have been found on the nearby Mount Phaunus indicating the area as a Druid centre. Titus Sabinus, a lieutenant of Julius Caesar, subjected the Bessin region to Roman domination; the 5th-century Notitia provinciarum et civitatum Galliae mentions Suevi, settled here. The town is mentioned by Ptolemy, writing in the reign of Antoninus Pius, under the name Noemagus Biducassium and remained so until the time of the Roman Empire.
The main street was the heart of the city. Two baths, under the Church of St. Lawrence and the post office in rue Laitière, a sculpted head of the goddess Minerva have been found, attesting to the adoption of Roman culture. In 1990 a closer examination of huge blocks discovered in the cathedral in the 19th century indicated the presence of an old Roman building. Bayeux was built on a crossroads between Lisieux and Valognes, developing first on the west bank of the river. By the end of the 3rd century a walled enclosure surrounded the city and remained until it was removed in the 18th century, its layout can be followed today. The citadel of the city was located in the cathedral the southeast. An important city in Normandy, Bayeux was part of the coastal defence of the Roman Empire against the pirates of the region, a Roman legion was stationed there; the city was destroyed during the Viking raids of the late 9th century but was rebuilt in the early 10th century under the reign of Bothon. In the middle of the 10th century Bayeux was controlled by Hagrold, a pagan Viking who defended the city against the Franks.
The 12th-century poet Benoît de Saint-Maure, in his verse history of the dukes of Normandy, remarked on the "Danish" spoken at Bayeux. The 11th century saw the creation of five villages beyond the walls to the north east evidence of its growth during Ducal Normandy. William the Conqueror's half brother Odo, Earl of Kent completed the cathedral in the city and it was dedicated in 1077; however the city began to lose prominence. When King Henry I of England defeated his brother Robert Curthose for the rule of Normandy, the city was burned to set an example to the rest of the duchy. Under Richard the Lionheart, Bayeux was wealthy enough to purchase a municipal charter. From the end of Richard's reign to the end of the Hundred Years' War, Bayeux was pillaged until Henry V of England captured the city in 1417. After the Battle of Formigny, Charles VII of France recaptured the city and granted a general amnesty to its populace in 1450; the capture of Bayeux heralded a return to prosperity as new families replaced those decimated by war and these built some 60 mansions scattered throughout the city, with stone supplanting wood.
The area around Bayeux is called the Bessin, the bailiwick of the province Normandy until the French Revolution. During the Second World War, Bayeux was the first city of the Battle of Normandy to be liberated, on 16 June 1944 General Charles de Gaulle made the first of two major speeches in Bayeux in which he made clear that France sided with the Allies; the buildings in Bayeux were untouched during the Battle of Normandy, the German forces being involved in defending Caen from the Allies. The Bayeux War Cemetery with its memorial includes the largest British cemetery dating from the Second World War in France. There are 4,648 graves, including 466 Germans. Most of those buried. Royal British Legion National, every 5 June at 1530 hrs, attends the 3rd Division Cean Memorial Service and beating retreat ceremony. On the 6th of June, it holds a remembrance
Union for a Popular Movement
The Union for a Popular Movement was a centre-right political party in France, one of the two major contemporary political parties in France along with the centre-left Socialist Party. The UMP was formed in 2002 as a merger of several centre-right parties under the leadership of President Jacques Chirac. In May 2015, the party was succeeded by The Republicans. Nicolas Sarkozy the president of the UMP, was elected President of France in the 2007 presidential election, but was defeated by PS candidate François Hollande in a run-off five years later. After the November 2012 party congress, the UMP experienced internal fractioning and was plagued by monetary scandals which forced its president, Jean-François Copé, to resign. After his re-election as UMP president in November 2014, Sarkozy put forward an amendment to change the name of the party into The Republicans, approved and came into effect on 30 May 2015; the UMP enjoyed an absolute majority in the National Assembly from 2002 to 2012 and was a member of the European People's Party, the Centrist Democrat International and the International Democrat Union.
Since the 1980s, the political groups of the parliamentary right have joined forces around the values of economic liberalism and the building of Europe. Their rivalries had contributed to their defeat in the 1988 legislative elections. Before the 1993 legislative election, the Gaullist Rally for the Republic and the centrist Union for French Democracy formed an electoral alliance, the Union for France. However, in the 1995 presidential campaign they were both divided between followers of Jacques Chirac, elected, supporters of Prime Minister Edouard Balladur. After their defeat in the 1997 legislative election, the RPR and UDF created the Alliance for France in order to coordinate the actions of their parliamentary groups. Before the 2002 presidential campaign, the supporters of President Jacques Chirac, divided in three centre-right parliamentary parties, founded an association named Union on the Move. After Chirac's re-election, in order to contest the legislative election jointly, the Union for the Presidential Majority was created.
It was as such established as a permanent organisation. The UMP was the merger of the Gaullist-conservative Rally for the Republic, the conservative-liberal party Liberal Democracy, a sizeable portion of the Union for French Democracy, more the UDF's Christian Democrats, the Radical Party and the centrist Popular Party for French Democracy. In the UMP four major French political families were thus represented: Gaullism, Christian democracy and radicalism. Chirac's close ally Alain Juppé became the party's first president at the party's founding congress at the Bourget in November 2002. Juppé won 79.42% of the vote, defeating Nicolas Dupont-Aignan, the leader of the party's Eurosceptic Arise the Republic faction, three other candidates. During the party's earlier years, it was marked by tensions and rivalries between Juppé and other chiraquiens and supporters of Nicolas Sarkozy, the then-Minister of the Interior. In the 2004 regional elections the UMP suffered a heavy blow, winning the presidencies of only 2 out of 22 regions in metropolitan France and only half of the departments in the simultaneous 2004 cantonal elections.
In the 2004 European Parliament election on 13 June 2004, the UMP suffered another heavy blow, winning 16.6% of the vote, far behind the Socialist Party, only 16 seats. Juppé resigned the party's presidency on 15 July 2004 after being found guilty in a corruption scandal in January of the same year. Nicolas Sarkozy announced that he would take over the presidency of the UMP and resign his position as finance minister, ending months of speculation. On 28 November 2004, Sarkozy was elected to the party's presidency with 85.09% of the votes against 9.1% for Dupont-Aignan and 5.82% for Christine Boutin, the leader of the UMP's social conservatives. Having gained control of what had been Chirac's party, Sarkozy focused the party machinery and his energies on the 2007 presidential election; the failure of the referendum on the European Constitution on 25 May 2005 led to the fall of the government of Jean-Pierre Raffarin and to the formation of a new cabinet, presided by another UMP politician, Dominique de Villepin.
However, during this time, the UMP under Sarkozy gained a record number of new members and rejuvenated itself in preparation of the 2007 election. On 14 January 2007, Sarkozy was nominated unopposed as the UMP's presidential candidate for the 2007 election. On the issues, the party under Sarkozy publicly disapproved of Turkey's proposed membership in the European Union, which Chirac had endorsed several times publicly, took a more right-wing position. On 22 April 2007 Nicolas Sarkozy won the plurality of votes in the first round of the 2007 presidential election. On 6 May he faced the Socialist Party candidate Ségolène Royal in the second round and won, taking 53.06% of the vote. As a consequence, he resigned from the presidency of the UMP on 14 May 2007, two days before becoming President of the French Republic. François Fillon was appointed Prime Minister. On 17 June 2007, at a
Châteaubriant
Châteaubriant is a town in western France, about 350 km southwest of Paris, one of the three sous-préfectures of the Loire-Atlantique department. Châteaubriant is situated in the historical and cultural region of Brittany, it is the capital of the Pays de la Mée, its inhabitants are called Castelbriantais, the commune of Châteaubriant proper had 12,022 inhabitants in 2010, while its small metropolitan area numbered 24,125 inhabitants in 2009. A part of the traditional province of Brittany, Châteaubriant lies on the threshold of Anjou, it was an important stronghold in northwestern France during the Middle Ages; the town appeared around a castle and a priory. A fair, which still exists, was founded in 1050. Châteaubriant played a certain role during the Mad War between France and Brittany and became a significant cultural centre in the 16th century, when the Renaissance château was built in the medieval fortress; the town is situated between Nantes and Rennes, tends to be economically oriented towards the latter.
The medieval fair and cattle market are still important for the local economy, but Châteaubriant developed a metallurgical industry during the 19th century, plastics manufacturing during the 20th century. Châteaubriant is noteworthy for its château, which combines a large medieval castle and a Renaissance palace; the town has an 11th-century church and a medieval town centre, with half-timbered houses and remains of city walls. During the Second World War, Châteaubriant had a concentration camp, it is known in France for the 27 hostages who were shot there in 1941. Châteaubriant lies at the north of the Loire-Atlantique département, in the middle of a triangle between Nantes and Rennes; the town is not situated on any of the roads that link the three cities, thus, it is somewhat isolated. The closest highway, linking Rennes to Nantes, is 30 km away. Châteaubriant 49 km north of Ancenis, 68 km south of Rennes, 69 km north of Nantes, 85 km west of Angers; the neighboring communes are Rougé, Saint-Aubin-des-Châteaux, Louisfert and Soudan.
According to the French statistical office, Châteaubriant is an urban commune, the only one in its urban area. The metropolitan area, much wider, is made up of Châteaubriant plus several surrounding rural communes; the commune of Châteaubriant itself encompasses not only the town, but agricultural land and some hamlets. The main agricultural activities are forage and cereal growing, cattle breeding; the town is built in the small drainage basin of the river Chère. Several streams flow in the Chère in Châteaubriant: the Rollard, the Choisel and the Ruisseau du Pont-Pirraud; the basin is limited by several hills belonging to the central axis of the Armorican massif which forms the Breton peninsula. The highest hill is 107 metres high. Several ponds are supplied like the Étang de Choisel and the Étang de Deil. Both were created by small dams; the subsoil consists of old sedimentary deposits of sandstone. These deposits came after the Cadomian Orogeny, they were deformed by the tectonic activity. Châteaubriant enjoys an oceanic climate with weak rain.
Temperatures are mild with little variations. Châteaubriant is connected to the regional major roads and to the surrounding villages by several minor roads, such as the RD 163 which connects the town to Rennes and Candé, the RD 178, which goes to Nantes, the RD 771, linking Châteaubriant to Laval and Nozay. Châteaubriant has its own bus company, the "Castelbus", it operates a small network comprising 30 stops. The town has a coach station served by the Loire-Atlantique coach network; the railway station provides several departures a day to Rennes on a local line. The track continues south to Nantes, but this portion was closed in 1980; the reopening of the line to Nantes is scheduled with a new tram-train. Châteaubriant is a young city for France, because it was not built before the 11th century. Thus, the name of the town is not mentioned before that period. Châteaubriant means "Briant's castle", refers to Brient, the founder of the castle and of the town; such origin is common among other French cities founded at the same period.
The town was first mentioned with the Latin Castrum Brieni or Castrum Brientii, the first mention in French, in 1266, is Cheteau Brient. During the 15th century, the "e" of Brient became "a", the final "t" was replaced with a "d" until the standardization of the name in the 19th century; the standard Latin translation is Castrobriandum but the medieval forms Briandi Castrum and Brientii Castrum are still accepted. In Breton language, the town is called Kastell-Briant, in Gallo language, the local dialect, it is called Châtiaoberiant. During the French Revolution, many towns and villages which had a name with a reference to religion or feudalism had it changed; as "Châteaubriant" makes a reference to medieval lords, the town was renamed Montagne-sur-Chère. The town did not keep this name for long, it was called "Châteaubriant" again by 1801. Châteaubriant has had at least three coats of arms: two primitive ones dating from the Middle Ages, a modern one, adopted by the town council in 1890; the primitive coats of arms, used by the lords of Châteaubriant, was Gules, semy of pine cones or, or Gules, Papelonny or, which means red with numerous yellow pine co
Saint-Nazaire
Saint-Nazaire is a commune in the Loire-Atlantique department in western France, in traditional Brittany. The town has a major harbour on the right bank near the Atlantic Ocean; the town is at the south of the second-largest swamp in France, called "la Brière". Given its location, Saint-Nazaire has a long tradition of shipbuilding; the Chantiers de l'Atlantique, one of the largest shipyards in the world, has constructed notable superliners such as SS Normandie, SS France, RMS Queen Mary 2 and MS Symphony of the Seas, the largest passenger ship in the world as of 2018. Saint-Nazaire was a small village until the industrial area but became a large town in the second half of the 19th century, thanks to the construction of railways and the growth of the seaport. Saint-Nazaire progressively replaced Nantes as the main haven on the Loire estuary; the town was one of the most damaged in France during World War II. As a major submarine base for the Germans, Saint-Nazaire was subject to a British raid in 1942 and it was bombed by the Allies until 1945.
Being one of the Atlantic pockets, Saint-Nazaire was one of the last territories in Europe to be liberated from the Germans, on 11 May 1945. Archaeologists believe that Saint-Nazaire is built upon the remnants of Corbilo, an Armorican Gaulish city populated by the Namnetes tribe, the second-largest Gaulish city, after Massilia. Archeology suggests that the area has been inhabited since at least the Neolithic period, as evidenced by the presence of monuments like the tumulus of Dissignac, the dolmen located in the centre of the present-day city, ancient bronzes found in the vicinity. According to the 15th-century chronicler Alain Bouchart, Brutus of Troy, the mythical ancestor of the Bretons, travelled to Saint-Nazaire to set foot upon the new homeland of his people. Historical accounts note that at the end of the Roman Empire, some Britons colonized the Loire estuary and the peninsula containing Guérande; the farthest extent of the Breton language in the Loire region is Donges, to the east of Saint-Nazaire.
According to the late-6th-century writer Gregory of Tours, the Roman Church sheltered the remains of the martyr Nazarius in a local basilica. According to legend, the Breton chief Waroch II sent an emissary to seize these relics; the plot was foiled. Waroch, interpreting this as a miracle, was deterred and the village thenceforth took the name of Sanctus Nazarius de Sinuario. After this point, the history of Saint-Nazaire, like much of Europe during the Dark Ages, is not well documented. Battles occurred, such as in 1380 when Jehan d'Ust defended the city in the name of John V, Duke of Brittany against the Castilian fleet during the Hundred Years' War. After this time, Saint-Nazaire became the seat of a parish extending from Penhoët to Pornichet, part of the Viscountcy of Saint-Nazaire. Like the whole of Brittany, Saint-Nazaire formed part of the Duchy of Brittany until 1532, when it was annexed by France. In 1624, the city was threatened by the Calvinists. In 1756, a fort was built on the order of the governor of Brittany to protect the town, which by had 600 inhabitants.
Until the French Revolution, Saint-Nazaire belonged to the province of Brittany. At the beginning of the 19th century, the port only consisted of one simple harbor; as the town was so far inland, its main economy was not based on commercial fishing but on its strategic location as the lowest possible navigation point for large ships and on supplying pilots for navigation further up the Loire. In 1800, the parish of Saint-Nazaire had 3,216 inhabitants; the modern Saint-Nazaire was created by the administration of Napoleon III. The population of 3,216 in 1800 shows its battered history, with a local, of Lower Brittany, minor representation from most other areas of France. From this point forward the population of Saint-Nazaire experienced exponential growth, reflected in its nickname of "Little Breton California", or "Liverpool of the West". In 1802, a road was built to develop the port, which extended by 1835 to a breakwater with a navigational lighthouse at its end; the development included new basins for ships to unload to barges that carried goods further up the river.
This development moved the town into the area of the city, now called the district of "Little Morocco". This development made the town the base for the passenger steamships of the Nantes–Saint-Nazaire line, as well as making the town the alternate port for ships which could not access Nantes. In 1856, the first wet dock was dug in "Halluard City", making it possible for ships to moor and turn; this led to the construction of the town's first railway connection. In 1857, the Chemin de Fer de Paris à Orléans railroad company of Orléans connected Saint-Nazaire to Nantes. In 1862, the first transatlantic telegraph lines were installed from France to South America, coming ashore at Saint-Nazaire. 1862 saw the construction of major shipbuilding facilities, including those of Chantier Scott, which launched the first French metal-hulled ships. In 1868, Saint-Nazaire became a sub-prefecture of the town of Savenay. A second dock basin was created at Penhoët in 1881, to allow the handling of larger ships, but a lock gate built to access it cut the town in two, thus creating Old Saint-Nazaire and an artificial island called "Little Morocco".
In early 1870, Nantes-born Pierre Waldeck-Rousseau joined the bar in Saint-Nazaire. In September he became, in spite of his youth, secretary to the municipal commission tempo
Ille-et-Vilaine
Ille-et-Vilaine is a department of France, located in the region of Brittany in the northwest of the country. Ille-et-Vilaine is one of the original 83 departments created during the French Revolution on March 4, 1790, it was created from part of the province of Brittany. Ille-et-Vilaine is a part of the current region of Brittany and is bordered by the departments of Manche to the north-east, Mayenne to the east, Maine-et-Loire to the south-east, Loire-Atlantique to the south, Morbihan to the south-west, Côtes-d'Armor to the west and north-west; the English Channel borders the department to the north. The department is named after its two main rivers, the Ille and the Vilaine, whose confluence is in Rennes, the capital of the department and of the region. Other important rivers include: the Rance, that borders the department in the north-west and flows to the north, creating a deep fjord before reaching the English Channel on the western part of the coast between the cities of Dinard and Saint-Malo).
The department is moderately elevated above the level of the sea, with many hills. The elevated hills bordering this basin are covered by several old forests now exploited by men for the production of wood; the basin itself is a rich agriculture area, as well as the north-west of the department near the Rance. In the extreme south of the department the Vilaine goes through a slower decrease in elevation in a small corridor in the area of the city of Redon. To avoid these hazards within inhabited cities, some natural fields bordering the Vilaine in the south of the department are now left floodable, works for regulating the level have been done including, small artificial lakes with derivation channels, replanting trees in the basin, better management of forests, regulating the artificial drains made for agriculture; the population has grown over the last few decades and was estimated at 1,019,923 in January 2013. Gallo is a historic minority language spoken in eastern Brittany. Gallo and Breton are both studied at the University of Rennes.
The Breton language was little spoken in the eastern part of Brittany, this was one of the first regions where the language disappeared such that Breton was not spoken for many centuries. Today, Breton is again spoken due to schools teaching Breton, due to a small immigration from Western Brittany to Eastern Brittany, where there are more cities with growing industries and external investment and therefore more work. A recent study shows that Breton speakers in this region represent 3.3% of the total number of Breton speakers. The Breton speakers aged 18–30 in this region represent 12.7% of the total number of Breton speakers of that age group. This is because there are few elder speakers but many people are learning the language; the study says. The President of the General Council is the Socialist Jean-Louis Tourenne since the French cantonal elections, 2004; the city of Rennes and its suburbs are the original base of the rapid Socialist growth in the department. The city has been governed by Socialist Mayors since 1977, notably by Edmond Hervé between 1977 and 2008.
Since the growth of middle-class suburbs have helped the Socialists, who have been gaining strength in those right-leaning areas. The right remains strong in a Catholic area from outside Redon to Vitré or Fougères. In addition, the right is strong in the wealthy coastal area of Dinard. Cantons of the Ille-et-Vilaine department Communes of the Ille-et-Vilaine department Arrondissements of the Ille-et-Vilaine department Prefecture website General Council website Ille-et-Vilaine at Curlie Cultural Heritage City of Rennes website
Côtes-d'Armor
Côtes-d'Armor known as Côtes-du-Nord, is a department in the north of Brittany, in northwestern France. Côtes-du-Nord was one of the original 83 departments created on 4 March 1790 following the French Revolution, it was made up from the near entirety of the ancient Pays de Saint-Brieuc, most of historical Trégor, the eastern half of Cornouaille, the north-western part of the former diocese of Saint-Malo. In 1990 the name was changed to Côtes-d'Armor: the French word côtes means "coasts" and ar mor is "the sea" in Breton; the name recalls that of the Roman province of Armorica. Côtes-d'Armor is part of the current administrative region of Brittany and is bounded by the departments of Ille-et-Vilaine to the east, Morbihan to the south, Finistère to the west, by the English Channel to the north; the inhabitants of the department are known in French as Costarmoricains. Côtes-d'Armor's long tradition of anti-clericalism in the interior around Guingamp, has led to the department's being seen as an area of left-wing exceptionalism in an otherwise clerical and right-wing Brittany.
The current president of the departmental council, Alain Cadec, is a member of the centre-right party, Les Républicains. The western part of the département is part of the traditionally Breton-speaking "Lower Brittany"; the boundary runs from Plouha to Mûr-de-Bretagne. The Breton language has become an intense issue in many parts of Brittany, many Breton-speakers advocate for bilingual schools. Gallo is spoken in the east and is offered as a language in the schools and on the baccalaureat exams. Anne Beaumanoir, one of the Righteous Among the Nations, was born in Guildo. English-born poet Robert William Service, known as the "Bard of the Yukon", is buried in Lancieux. Cantons of the Côtes-d'Armor department Communes of the Côtes-d'Armor department Arrondissements of the Côtes-d'Armor department Prefecture website General Council website Cotes-d'Armor at Curlie Tourist board website
Nantes
Nantes is a city in Loire-Atlantique on the Loire, 50 km from the Atlantic coast. The city is the sixth-largest in France, with a population of 303,382 in Nantes and a metropolitan area of nearly 950,000 inhabitants. With Saint-Nazaire, a seaport on the Loire estuary, Nantes forms the main north-western French metropolis, it is the administrative seat of the Loire-Atlantique department and the Pays de la Loire région, one of 18 regions of France. Nantes belongs and culturally to Brittany, a former duchy and province, its omission from the modern administrative region of Brittany is controversial. Nantes was identified during classical antiquity as a port on the Loire, it was the seat of a bishopric at the end of the Roman era before it was conquered by the Bretons in 851. Although Nantes was the primary residence of the 15th-century dukes of Brittany, Rennes became the provincial capital after the 1532 union of Brittany and France. During the 17th century, after the establishment of the French colonial empire, Nantes became the largest port in France and was responsible for nearly half of the 18th-century French Atlantic slave trade.
The French Revolution resulted in an economic decline, but Nantes developed robust industries after 1850. Deindustrialisation in the second half of the 20th century spurred the city to adopt a service economy. In 2012, the Globalization and World Cities Research Network ranked Nantes as a Gamma world city, it is the fourth-highest-ranking city in France, after Paris and Marseille. The Gamma category includes cities such as Algiers, Porto and Leipzig. Nantes has been praised for its quality of life, it received the European Green Capital Award in 2013; the European Commission noted the city's efforts to reduce air pollution and CO2 emissions, its high-quality and well-managed public transport system and its biodiversity, with 3,366 hectares of green space and several protected Natura 2000 areas. Nantes is named after a tribe of Gaul, the Namnetes, who established a settlement between the end of the second century and the beginning of the first century BC on the north bank of the Loire near its confluence with the Erdre.
The origin of the name "Namnetes" is uncertain, but is thought to come from the Gaulish root *nant- or from Amnites, another tribal name meaning "men of the river". Its first recorded name was by the Greek writer Ptolemy, who referred to the settlement as Κονδηούινκον and Κονδιούινκον —which might be read as Κονδηούικον —in his treatise, Geography; the name was latinised during the Gallo-Roman period as Condevincum, Condevicnum and Condivincum. Although its origins are unclear, "Condevincum" seems to be related to the Gaulish word condate "confluence"; the Namnete root of the city's name was introduced at the end of the Roman period, when it became known as Portus Namnetum "port of the Namnetes" and civitas Namnetum "city of the Namnetes". Like other cities in the region, its name was replaced during the fourth century with a Gaulish one. Nantes' name continued to evolve, becoming Nanetiæ and Namnetis during the fifth century and Nantes after the sixth via syncope. "Nantes" is pronounced, the city's inhabitants are known as Nantais.
In Gallo, the oïl language traditionally spoken in the region around Nantes, the city is spelled "Naunnt" or "Nantt". Gallo pronunciation is identical to French. In Breton, Nantes is known as Naoned or an Naoned, the latter of, less common and reflects the more-frequent use of articles in Breton toponyms than in French ones. Nantes' historical nickname was "Venice of the West", a reference to the many quays and river channels in the old town before they were filled in during the 1920s and 1930s; the city is known as la Cité des Ducs "city of the dukes " for its castle and former role as a ducal residence. The first inhabitants of what is now Nantes settled during the Bronze Age than in the surrounding regions, its first inhabitants were attracted by small iron and tin deposits in the region's subsoil. The area exported tin, mined in Piriac, as far as Ireland. After about 1,000 years of trading, local industry appeared around 900 BC. Nantes may have been the major Gaulish settlement of Corbilo, on the Loire estuary, mentioned by the Greek historians Strabo and Polybius.
Its history from the seventh century to the Roman conquest in the first century BC is poorly documented, there is no evidence of a city in the area before the reign of Tiberius in the first century AD. During the Gaulish period it was the capital of the Namnetes people, who were allied with the Veneti in a territory extending to the northern bank of the Loire. Rivals in the area included the Pictones, who controlled the area south of the Loire in the city of Ratiatum until the end of the second century AD. Ratiatum, founded under Augustus, developed more than Nantes and was a major port in the region. Nantes began to grow; because tradesmen favoured inland roads rather than Atlantic routes, Nantes never became a large city under Roman occupa
