The places are difficult to recognize for those who have not set foot in Nantes in recent years. After four years of a huge construction site, it’s time for the final adjustments in the Feydeau-Commerce sector, right in the city center. This essential place of passage, where 100,000 pedestrians walk a day, now looks like a large esplanade where buses and cars no longer have their place. No more cluttered sidewalks, steps to step over, old TAN booths to get around… “The first challenge was to calm the space by giving it back to pedestrians, says Johanna Rolland, the mayor (PS) of Nantes. It was a bus station, today it is a promenade, a green corridor located on what was a former arm of the Loire. »
On either side of tram line 1, the landscape architect Jacqueline Osty, in charge of the project, has transformed the Brancas and Duguay-Trouin alleys into “garden quays”. Sandwich in hand, Maya, Aurélie and Léa are seated on one of the very many stone benches, which frame the new “planted islands”, from which dozens of purple irises emerge, but also perennials. “It’s much more airy, very pretty, say the high school girls. Before it was old and frankly dirty. There, we do not hesitate to stop, it is almost convivial. »
If several dozen plane trees were cut for the project, in particular to “reveal the facades”, 3,400 m2 of spaces in total were planted with the planting of a hundred new trees and a thousand shrubs, ” adapted to climate change”. “Compared to before, there is nothing to say, it’s really very good, we appreciate at the tobacconist’s on Allée Brancas, in addition to the relief that the work is finally ending. On the other hand, on the other hand, not everyone is of the same opinion…”
“It lacks green” Place du Commerce
A few tens of meters away, it’s true that the atmosphere is different on the Place du Commerce. The café terraces overlook a vast granite plateau, without trees or flowerbeds, as if “nature in the city” had been forgotten here. “It lacks green, laments a trader, who still misses the old flower market. The place needed a little sprucing up, but it’s really too gray! I honestly dread the next heat wave. “It’s ugly, it’s too mineral. We will be flooded again when it rains, ”plague, too, an employee of a nearby restaurant.
According to the town hall, this lack of plantations in this place is explained in particular by the constraints linked to the underground car park, and by the events, such as the Christmas market, that the place is intended to bring together. But she relies on these funny fountains, already criticized on social networks for their diamond shape which would resemble that of a coffin, to “create islands of freshness”, like the Mirror of water in front of the castle. . “Water jets will be programmed to animate the set and catch the light”, promises Jacqueline Osty, who specifies that it is a closed circuit.
This major renovation, which cost more than 30 million euros, will be celebrated in ten days during an inaugural festive weekend, May 13 and 14. The mayor of Nantes will surely share her objectives in terms of security, in particular to fight against the many traffics that take place in this sector. “The public lighting has been redesigned, the plantations designed to prevent people from hiding there, five additional cameras have been installed”, details Johanna Rolland.
The mayor will also surely ask the most critical residents to wait a little longer, while the vegetation grows and the inhabitants take ownership of the premises. “This project will live, assures the mayor of Nantes. We will look in the coming months at how the spaces and plantations will evolve. I’m sure it will look like a successful bet. »