When you’re exploring Île Feydeau you may wonder why this district just south of the centre is called an island, or why streets have names like Quai Turenne when there’s no sign of water.
Well, it was an island up to the 1930s when one of the arms of the Loire was blocked off.
Before the 18th-century Feydeau had been uninhabitable marshland when a land reclamation project created a dignified quarter for the city’s wealthy merchants to live.
Their flat-fronted homes are beautiful, with iron balconies, mansard roofs and carved stone grotesques.
The ground beneath remains soft, which sets some of these townhouses at an endearing slant.
