Bananas from the Caribbean were ripened in this shed. It is now a row of bars and restaurants along the western tip of the Île de Nantes, facing the water.
Outside it stand Daniel Buren and Patrick Bouchain's Anneaux — eighteen steel rings in a line along the quayside, each framing a piece of the Loire, each lit a different colour after dark. They are free, permanent, and the most photographed thing in the city after the elephant.
The old shipyard cranes still stand along this stretch, kept deliberately.
Come at dusk. The rings light up, the city is behind you and the estuary runs away to the west.
Hangar à Bananes & the Rings in pictures
