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Nantes is a city in
western France, near the Atlantic coast,
with 711,120 inhabitants in the metropolitan
area at the 1999 census. Nantes is the
capital of the Pays de la Loire région,
as well as the préfecture of the
Loire-Atlantique département. It
is also the most important city of historic
Brittany, though now a part of the modern
Pays de la Loire region.
Today, Nantes is one
of France’s most attractive cities
thanks to its quality of life. An example,
Nantes was the first to restore its tramway.
Aside from its architectural and historical
heritage, the City of the Dukes is an industrial
pole of learning and research. The Atlanpole
scientific community created in 1987 helps
create and develop new business ventures
centred on food-processing, mecatronics
(combining mechanical and electrical engineering
with software engineering), health services
and building materials. The city also has
a student intake of 30,000 in its dozen
grandes ecoles.
The Stade de La Beaujoire
- Louis Fonteneau, better known as La Beaujoire,
is a stadium in Nantes. It is the home
of the FC Nantes Atlantique football club.
In September 2007 it will host 3 pool matches
of the 2007 Rugby World Cup - Wales vs
Canada on September 9th, England vs Samoa
on September 22 and Wales vs Fiji on September
29th. The stadium opened for the first
time on May 8, 1984 for a friendly game:
FC Nantes - Romania. It was named after
Louis Fonteneau who was President of FC
Nantes between 1969 and 1986. It was renovated
in 1998 for the World Cup. While its original
capacity was 52,923, in 1998 it was converted
to an all seater stadium and its current
capacity is 38,285. Previously, the team
played at Stade Marcel Saupin.
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