Nantes’ leaning houses

You may have noticed that several houses in Nantes tend to lean dangerously. This is really obvious on la Fosse Quay, opposite the port, where facades seem to follow a surrealistic angle. Look at the one of the bakery in front of you, it has completely lost its symmetry. It is particularly visible at window level. As you know, Nantes is a river city and was once dotted with numerous river branches of the Loire and Erdre rivers running through it. Most of them are now filled in. The buildings were thus constructed on sandy and unstable soils along the banks of these watercourses. The foundations of these constructions were not dug deep enough to reach what could be called solid ground, and thus began to shift. It’s exactly the same phenomenon as with the Leaning Tower of Pisa. Before the 20th century urban restructuring that diverted and filled in watercourses, the street named “le cours des 50 ottages” was covered by River Erdre. If you take a look at a map of Nantes, you’ll easily notice that this major artery of the city follows the river’s natural course. If you could go back in time to the 18th century, you would practically have your feet in the water. The right bank of the Erdre was home to the tanners, who needed water to process their hides and were always a little secluded because of the smell emanating from their factories. Times have changed, and it’s still hard to imagine what the place once looked like. I’ll leave you to cross the road to reach the banks of the Erdre.