- Accueil NANTES, Venice of the West The history of Nantes is marked by the encounter of peoples, their civilization. Celts, then Vikings and Bretons have concluded there their alliance with the Kingdom of France. The port trade has made Nantes the great port of the XVIIIE century, and. The trade and the industrialdevelopment have made some the great metropolis of the west. All the city tells the ...www.reception.com/US/nantes/NantesM.htm