Narrow lanes, timber-framed houses with overhanging upper storeys, and the street names of the trades that worked here. Rue Kervégan, Rue de la Juiverie and Rue de la Bâclerie are the ones to walk.
This is the oldest surviving fabric in Nantes. Much of the city was flattened in September 1943 and rebuilt; Bouffay came through, which is why the change of scale between here and the boulevards is so abrupt.
It is now the main eating and drinking quarter, which means it is lively at night and calm in the morning.
Walk it before ten in the morning. The same lanes are a completely different place once the tables come out.
Quartier Bouffay in pictures
