My 5 Favorite Churches in Nantes (Worth Visiting for Anyone)

Studying abroad in France has offered several opportunities for me to practice my Catholic faith while at the same time discovering new places and customs of my host city. 

I found some other IES Nantes students who were interested in joining me for weekly mass either as a personal religious observance or to have a unique cultural and language immersion experience.

There are several churches around the city, most of which are iconic to Nantes, and deeply rooted in history. I tried to visit a new church every Sunday when I was in the city. During the weekends when I was traveling, I found that it was never hard to find a Catholic church in France. During IES Nantes excursions, I was able to find churches at the places we visited ahead of time online, as discuss my plan to attend mass with the IES Nantes staff, which was very accommodating.

In France, not all parishes have their own websites with listed mass times.The schedules of all masses in France are centrally located on the website messes.info. On this site, you can find mass times at all of the parishes in the country within a selected radius of any given city or region.

The Catholic mass is a universal celebration, and thus the order of the Mass is largely the same as in the United States, apart from the language difference, though I have noticed one difference worth noting. During the Eucharistic procession, altar servers will walk to the front of the church, where the doors are, and lead the congregation in line for the procession. This always begins at the back of the church, and then snakes up to the front, which is different from in the U.S., where the procession always begins with the first pew. Also, most churches in France are very old and do not have heating, so the locals usually retain their coats when in attendance.

Independent of spiritual motivations, visiting churches in France is a great way to discover local history. Small town churches and grand cathedrals can be like free museums, that often feature spectacular art and architecture in their interiors. Several churches that I have visited have crypts where historical figures have been buried, and interiors that are sometimes themed to correspond with regional history and traditions.

I also feel that visiting churches has aided my overall language immersion. One time, when on the voyage to the castles of the Loire Valley, I went to attend mass at a small historic church near the Chateau de Chambord. I arrived a bit early, and was approached by a woman there who asked me if I wanted to read aloud the first reading during the mass. I explained that I am not a native French speaker, and that my pronunciation was not the best, though she said that I could do it anyway, and let me practice a few times before mass began. This was a great experience for developing my confidence in the language at the beginning of the semester.

In addition, I had some protestant friends through the IES Nantes program who attended weekly protestant services in Nantes. They told me that the services were similar to most evangelical churches in America, and some services included interactive conversations where they had to speak before the congregation in French.

In Nantes, there were five churches that I found to be particularly worth visiting:

 5. Église Sainte-Croix

        This church was relatively smaller than many of the others that I visited, with a historic facade and well-preserved interior that is charmingly somber and illuminated with magnificent stained glass windows. It is located just beside the Place du Bouffay.

4. Basilique Saint-Donatien-et-Saint-Rogatien

        This enormous basilica was the first church I visited during my semester abroad. It has a stunning white interior with that is brightly illuminated with natural light. There was always a very large congregation in attendance when I went for mass, with several concelebrating priests. Being there gave me the impression of a large neighborhood parish, as there were many locals greeting each other and talking among themselves in the courtyard after mass. The basilica is located in the north of the city, to the West of the Erdre River. This is about 30-minutes by bus from the IES Nantes center downtown, though it was walking distance from my host accommodation.

3. Cathédrale Saint-Pierre et Saint-Paul de Nantes (also called the Cathédrale de Nantes)

        This grand 14th-century cathedral is on the most iconic landmarks of Nantes, located just beside the Château des Ducs de Bretagne. The cathedral is an immensely impressive heritage site that is definitely worth a visit when in Nantes. There was a fire a few years ago that affected the facade, and it is currently undergoing some restoration to the front of the building, which is covered by an artistic green banner that simulates the aesthetic of the wall that it is temporarily blocking. Next to the cathedral is the Porte Saint-Pierre, which is the last remnant of the curtain wall that originally surrounded the city.

2. Basilique Saint-Nicolas

        This Basilica is notable for the imposing steeple that clearly distinguishes it from other churches. It was one of my favorite churches to attend mass, as it champions a stunning interior with high ceilings, symmetrical columns, and an immense altarpiece. It always drew a sizable weekly congregation, and on the evening of Ash Wednesday, there were hundreds who stood wherever there was space as all of the seats has been quickly filled. St. Nicolas is situated right at one of the corners of the Place Royal, within short walking distance of the IES Center in the center of Nantes. I would highly recommend visiting for those who wish to experience a French mass celebration.

1. Notre-Dame de Bon-Port

        This was my overall favorite church in Nantes. Situated facing the River Loire, it is an incredibly elaborate structure with a distinguishing dome-shaped roof. I found Notre-Dame de Bon-Port to be particularly remarkable because of the incredibly ornate interior, with details that continue to multiply and astonish the more one visits. The stone walls of the inside are adorned with murals, mosaics, statues, paintings, stained glass, and wood carvings depicting various Catholic imagery. The church gives a strong impression of a historic bastion of Nantes, despite the fact that I found it to be rarely referenced in popular representations of the city. I consider it to be somewhat of a hidden gem, despite its imposing presence along the riverfront. Notre-Dame de Bon-Port is a short walk from the IES Center in the opposite direction of St. Nicolas (past the Musée Dobrée). I would highly recommend visiting at some point to anyone spending a semester in Nantes.