Loire-Atlantique in the context of "Erdre"

Nantes (/nɒ̃t/, US also /nɑːnt(s)/; French: [nɑ̃t] ; Gallo: Naunnt or Nantt [nɑ̃(ː)t]; Breton: Naoned [ˈnãunət]) is a city in the Loire-Atlantique department of France on the Loire, 50 km (31 mi) from the Atlantic coast. The city is the sixth largest in France, with a population of 320,732 in Nantes proper and a metropolitan area of nearly 1 million inhabitants (2020). With Saint-Nazaire, a seaport on the Loire estuary, Nantes forms one of the main north-western French metropolitan agglomerations.

It is the administrative seat of the Loire-Atlantique department and the Pays de la Loire region, one of 18 regions of France. Nantes belongs historically and culturally to Brittany, a former duchy and province, and its omission from the modern administrative region of Brittany is controversial.

The culture of Brittany is the patterns of human activity and symbolism associated with the historical region of Brittany in northwestern France and the Breton people. Breton culture has been influenced by various local and nearby traditions over the centuries, including the Celtic culture of the Britons and Gauls and French culture to a lesser extent, particularly in Upper Brittany.

Modern day Brittany (Breton: Breizh, Gallo: Bertaeyn, French: Bretagne) is considered a historical region, which includes the Loire-Atlantique department. It was once independent as the Duchy of Brittany, with its capital in Nantes, and then it became duchy within the Kingdom of France before being ultimately integrated into France in 1491. Therefore, it is not meant to be confused with the administrative region of Brittany, which are the boundaries of Brittany as politically defined by France's historical Vichy regime since 1941. Brittany's strongest international connections tend to be in the United Kingdom, particularly in the Celtic Brythonic groups of Cornwall and Wales, and in Canada.

The War in the Vendée (French: Guerre de Vendée [ɡɛʁ də vɑ̃de]) was a counter-revolutionary insurrection that took place in the Vendée region of France from 1793 to 1796, during the French Revolution. The Vendée is a coastal region, located immediately south of the river Loire in western France. Initially, the revolt was similar to the 14th-century Jacquerie peasant uprising, but the Vendée quickly became counter-revolutionary and Royalist. The revolt was comparable to the Chouannerie, which took place concurrently (1794–1800) in the area north of the Loire.

While elsewhere in France the revolts against the levée en masse were repressed, an insurgent territory, called the Vendée militaire by historians, formed south of the Loire-Inférieure (Brittany), south-west of Maine-et-Loire (Anjou), north of Vendée and north-west of Deux-Sèvres (Poitou). Gradually referred to as the "Vendeans", the insurgents established in April a "Catholic and Royal Army" which won a succession of victories in the spring and summer of 1793. The rebels briefly overran the towns of Fontenay-le-Comte, Thouars, Saumur and Angers, but were halted at the Battle of Nantes.

Saint-Nazaire (French: [sɛ̃ nazɛːʁ] ; Breton: Sant-Nazer/Señ Neñseir; Gallo: Saint-Nazère/Saint-Nazaer) is a port town and commune in the Loire-Atlantique department in western France, in traditional Brittany.

The town has a major harbour on the right bank of the Loire estuary, near the Atlantic Ocean. The town is at the south of the second-largest swamp in France, called "la Brière". Given its location, Saint-Nazaire has a long tradition of fishing and shipbuilding. The Chantiers de l'Atlantique, one of the largest shipyards in the world, constructed notable ocean liners such as SS Normandie, SS France, RMS Queen Mary 2 and the cruise ship MS Symphony of the Seas, the largest passenger ship in the world until 2022.

The Reunification of Brittany or Breton Reunification is a political movement to reunite the Loire-Atlantique department with the administrative region of Brittany, to form the entire cultural and historical region of Brittany. This reunification is considered a prerequisite for further Breton autonomy.

The Duchy of Anjou (French: [ɑ̃ʒu] ; UK: /ˈɒ̃ʒuː, ˈæ̃ʒuː/, US: /ɒ̃ˈʒuː, ˈæn(d)ʒuː, ˈɑːnʒuː/; Latin: Andegavia) was a French province straddling the lower Loire. Its capital was Angers, and its area was roughly co-extensive with the diocese of Angers. Anjou was bordered by Brittany to the west, Maine to the north, Touraine to the east and Poitou to the south. The adjectival form is Angevin, and inhabitants of Anjou are known as Angevins. In 1482, the duchy became part of the Kingdom of France and then remained a province of the Kingdom under the name of the Duchy of Anjou. After the decree dividing France into departments in 1791, the province was disestablished and split into six new départements. The majority of its area formed the new Maine-et-Loire department and its remaining area split between the departments of Deux-Sèvres, Indre-et-Loire, Loire-Atlantique, Sarthe, and Vienne.