The Loire, the source of Nantes' riches, has dwindled from the centre. As recently as the 1930s the river crossed the city in seven separate channels, but German labour as part of reparations for World War I filled in five. What are still called "islands" in the centre are now surrounded and isolated, not by water, but by hectic dual carriageways. These are not easy to cross, but they do at least mean that Nantes is separated into a series of discernible districts: the older medieval city is concentrated around the cathedral, with the Château prominent in its southeast corner, while the elegant nineteenth-century town lies to the west, across the cours des 50-Otages.
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