Nantes safe?

If you're wandering around at 3:00am in all your jewellery someone might try take it off you.

But even the local newspapers, which would be the first place to look for necklace clutching about local crime, haven't been reporting anything.

Don't forget, the difference between haves and have nots is nowhere as great as that in the USA

I’m surprised by this question. I’ve been to Nantes and did not see any greater disparity than in any other city like let’s say San Francisco or New York. It seemed safe to me. Use common sense as you would in any other city. Maybe you are thinking of some place else that starts with “N” like maybe Nanterrre. Take a look at this link

Well, as we all know the haves can be pretty rapacious; in France as in anywhere. One always should watch one's valuables when they're around. I believe it was Balzac who wrote:

Le secret des grandes fortunes sans cause apparente est un crime
oublié, parce qu’il a été proprement fait.

Which is often simplified and changed somewhat in its English version to:

Behind every great fortune is a great crime.

Balzac was a bit more specific in his original, but the advice remains: watch yourself around the haves. They didn't get that way out of accident.

On the other hand, if you wish to spend time with some of the most comparatively generous and kind people you'll ever meet, seek out the have nots. They know what it's like to do without.

There was a publication on a Serbian website, ranking Nantes at the same level of crime as Mexico City, Bogotá and Cali in Colombia,

Obviously this ranking was false but it was widely taken up on social networks (notably by the French far right)

Nantes is a city of approx 330k population. Like any city of this size it has it's issues (whether they be of the 'haves' vs 'have nots' variety or something else) and in recent years there have been protests and clashes with police; also just like many other citiesof this size. What comes to mind is the city of Minneapolis that suffered lots of protests, clashes with police, mob violence, etc in the wake of the George Floyd killing. However, I have never felt that Minneapolis was or is an unsafe city to visit as a tourist. I haven't heard anything regarding muggings of tourists in Nantes though. I'm pretty sure 'muggings' are more likely to happen to you in New York, Chicago, or Miami than in Nantes, France.

Thank you. There's a channel on YouTube that says statistically, it's one of the most dangerous european cities. This guy seems biased on previous videos, so I doubted this. Thank you for all your input!

I do not know any statistics, but spent most of a day plus morning in Nantes in 2022, and got a very positive impression. I'm sure there are less desirable areas, but the center is your typical historic center, the train station is not far away, and the trams are quite new. I think we stayed in the Hôtel Mercure Nantes Gare, which was fine. Nantes has a sizeable university, so plenty of student-age population around.

Nantes was one of our favorite cities the last time we traveled 3 weeks in FR! We loved everything about it. The attraction that drew us to Nantes was Les Machines. https://www.lesmachines-nantes.fr/
We absolutely loved Les Machines. Many other lovely sights in the city as well. We never felt unsafe. Enjoy!

I'll add another thumbs-up for Nantes. Many interesting things to see and do, and although it's certainly a grittier place than many French cities, we never felt unsafe. We found the (free) shipbuilding museum next to Les Machines to be fascinating, as it documents how some of the "have-nots" of the city came to be that way. The Château des ducs de Bretagne is also a great visit, though older, feebler visitors will find it difficult to access some parts of the castle (I'm glad I did it this year rather than next).

I also would strongly urge people to visit the Nantes monument to the abolition of slavery, which is especially significant given the huge part Nantes played in the trade of African slaves. Both a sobering and uplifting experience.

We stayed in Nantes for 3 nights a few years ago and enjoyed it. I took my young granddaughter on a day trip a couple years ago and did the Elephant and the Marine Carousel and it was delightful (she tells me it was the best day of her life, the second best was when her mother was given tickets to a Taylor Swift concert and took her). I'm sure there are parts of the city that are more iffy but tourists are probably not likely to be hanging out there.

There are people who seem to get off on fear mongering on line. I live in Chicago and retired here 12 years ago. From on line hand wringers you would think it was the most frightening place on earth. We have never experienced any discomfort or fear and ride public transport nearly daily, live centrally and spend alot of time in the city. I will be taking a long walk along the river tomorrow morning with friends. On Saturday I will be doing a birding photo shoot at dawn in a nearby lakefront nature area.

Now in the US EVERY city is dangerous because of the out of control arming of every rageaholic in the country -- not a problem you will find in France -- but Chicago is not even in the top ten for violent crime and what there is tends to be concentrated in certain areas of the city where gang members shoot each other. It is reasonable to pay attention to information about parts of a city to avoid -- but I pretty much discount hysterical warnings on line about cities, particularly cities in France which in my considerable experience of the country, both Paris and towns in all regions is nonsense. I don't worry about it. In a total of months spent in the country the only dangerous crime situation we have ever encountered was in a small medieval vilage where I walked into a drug deal alone at midnight -- I just kept walking without looking back and nothing happened.

There is also the interesting Jules Verne museum in Nantes, since he was born there: https://julesverne.nantesmetropole.fr/home.html

We were in Nantes last May just for the day (took the train from Rennes) and after seeing Les Machines, went up to the museum. It's rather small but we really enjoyed it. After we returned home I reread my old high school paperback, The Mysterious Island, by Jules Verne. The battered pages kept falling out, but I got through it! (I'm a senior now!)

We enjoyed Nantes and would certainly return if we're ever in the area again. We felt very safe the whole day.