Come Alone · English
You just moved to Nantes. This page walks you through the first month: paperwork in order with official links, free places to start, and events you can go to on your own and meet people.
France has no residence registration at the town hall. EU, EEA and Swiss citizens can live here beyond 3 months without a residence permit; a residence card is optional. If you came with a long-stay visa that counts as a residence permit (VLS-TS), validate it online within 3 months of arrival and pay the tax that comes on top of the visa fee. If your visa says “carte de séjour à solliciter dans les 2 mois suivant l'arrivée”, you apply at the préfecture instead. Then go through the city's moving checklist.
EU/EEA citizens: right of residence (service-public F2651) · Long-stay visa (service-public F16162) · Validate your VLS-TS (service-public R52684) · ANEF, online portal for foreigners · Moving to Nantes checklist (Nantes Métropole)
A Ticket 1h costs €1.80, ten cost €17.80 and a Ticket 24h €6.80 (fares as of October 2026). Buy them as mTickets in the Naolib app, online, at machines at tram and busway stops or in 120 Relais Naolib shops. The monthly ticket costs €67 from age 26 (€40 under 26) and goes on a personal carte nominative: from 26 you get it at the Espace Mobilité (2 allée Brancas, Commerce stop, Mon–Fri 9:30–18:00, Sat 9:30–17:30) or a Relais Naolib. On a low income, ask about the solidarity fare.
Naolib tickets and prices · Points of sale · Solidarity fare
With an EU mobile plan, calls, texts and data in France cost the same as at home under “roam like at home”, so you can keep your number for the first weeks. Once you take a French plan and want to keep a French number when switching operator, call 3179 from that phone to get your 12-character RIO code and give it to the new operator: it cancels the old contract for you, and porting takes at least 3 working days. ARCEP, the telecom regulator, explains your rights.
Save 112, the European emergency number, plus 15 (SAMU, medical emergencies), 17 (police) and 18 (fire brigade); 114 is the emergency number for deaf and hard-of-hearing people. The city's Maison de la Tranquillité Publique answers on 02 40 41 99 99. Lost something on Naolib or in the street? The city's lost-property desk is at the main town hall, 29 rue de Strasbourg, Mon–Fri 13:00–17:30, or call AlloNantes on 02 40 41 90 00, the only official number for it.
Emergency numbers (Nantes Métropole) · Emergency numbers list (ARCEP) · Lost property (Ville de Nantes)
If you work or live in France in a stable and regular way, the universal health cover (PUMa) pays for your health care. EU, EEA and Swiss citizens only need an ID card or passport; others need a residence permit or document. If you work, you are covered as soon as your application is accepted; if you don't, you must wait 3 months after arriving. You apply to the Assurance Maladie (CPAM) with the form “Demander l'ouverture des droits à l'Assurance maladie”.
Trams, buses and Navibus are free every weekend, from Saturday 00:00 to Sunday 23:59, so you can explore without a ticket (except the airport shuttle). The Château des ducs de Bretagne courtyard and ramparts are free every day, 8:30–19:00, and its museum is free on the first Sunday of the month except July and August. The Musée d'arts is free on Thursday evenings 19:00–21:00 and also on first Sundays (closed 1 November). Then pick a free outing in the city's agenda.
Free weekend transport (Naolib) · Château: hours · Château: free entry · Musée d'arts: prices and free entry · What's on in Nantes
The library card is free for everyone and lets you borrow 15 items; bring an ID. Every week outside school holidays, the médiathèques hold free French conversation groups with no sign-up, for example at Jacques Demy on Tuesdays at 17:30. Sign up for the city's “Bienvenue à Nantes” welcome scheme to get information and an invitation to its yearly evening for new residents, or drop in at your maison de quartier. Or go to one of the events below: they are picked because it is easy to go alone and talk to people.
Library card · French conversation groups · Bienvenue à Nantes (new residents) · Maisons de quartier
Rules change: always confirm on the official page before you go.
Municipal libraries, a neighbourhood centre, gardens and museums with free entry in Nantes, each with its official page. Hours change: check the page before you go.
The central library on the Loire at 24 quai de la Fosse (tram 1, Médiathèque stop). Open Monday to Saturday, from 10:00 or 12:00 until 19:00; entry is free and the card costs nothing. French conversation groups meet here on Tuesdays at 17:30 and Fridays at 14:30, with no sign-up.
A large library in Nantes Nord, 1 rue Eugène Thomas (tram 2, Chêne des Anglais stop), with a garden to relax in. It is also open on Sunday afternoons (14:00–18:00 in the week of 18 October) and hosts a free French conversation group on Thursdays at 14:30.
The city's neighbourhood centre for the city centre, 22 rue Emile Péhant (busway 4, Cité des Congrès stop). Its reception tells you about local associations, activities from dance to language classes, French lessons and volunteering, and it runs free events. A good place to ask how to get involved.
7 hectares of free gardens and glasshouses opposite the station, rue Stanislas Baudry (tram 1, Gare Nord – Jardin des Plantes stop). One of France's four major botanical gardens, open every day: a calm place for a first walk on your own.
The castle at 4 place Marc Elder: its courtyard and ramparts are free every day, 8:30–19:00, and the moat garden 8:00–19:00. The history museum inside is free on the first Sunday of the month (except July and August); free visitors still book a time slot.
Nine centuries of art at 10 rue Georges-Clemenceau, open 11:00–19:00 every day except Tuesday. Entry costs €9, but it is free on Thursday evenings 19:00–21:00 and on the first Sunday of the month except July and August.
Librarians at the Médiathèque Jacques Demy share their favourite adaptations, covers and rewrites that arguably beat the original text. It is an informal after-work session where everyone can chip in with their own examples, which makes it an easy conversation starter if you arrive alone.
Jazz students from the Nantes conservatoire take over the stage of the Pannonica, the city's well-known jazz club. Entry is free with no booking, so you can simply walk in and chat with other music fans between pieces.
Fans and newcomers alike swap favourite comics, discoveries and hidden gems in an informal discussion group at the Manufacture library. You don't need to have read anything specific; just bring a title you like or come to listen, which makes it easy to slip into the conversation alone.
In a 'living library', the books are people: here, people who have lived with mental-health conditions share their journeys towards recovery, and readers move from one 'book' to the next to listen and ask questions. It is organised with the association Psy'Activ. The one-to-one format is perfect if you come alone.
The Cercle Breton de Nantes holds its annual fest-noz, a traditional Breton dance night, with live sets from the Hamon Martin Quintet, Tildé, Barrañ and other groups. Fest-noz dances are chains and circles where everyone links arms, so you can step in alone and follow your neighbours. Entry is 10 € (free under 12).
Florence Viguier-Dutheil, director of the Musée Ingres Bourdelle, talks about Ingres's close attention to fabrics and materials, prompted by the return of his portrait of Madame de Senonnes to Nantes after a loan to Montauban. The one-hour talk is free, without booking, while seats last. An evening museum talk is a comfortable way to go out alone.
This 'Place publique' debate looks at where plastics are found, from packaging and clothes to our bodies, what is known about microplastics and health, and the limits of recycling. Entry is free. A public debate gives you plenty to discuss with the people around you.
Ensemble Lads, a singer with recorder, theorbo, guitars and harpsichord, travels through English song from medieval times to today. The hour-long concert takes place at the city conservatoire. Single tickets are listed at 12, 9 or 3 euros.
Historian Emmanuelle Berthiaud traces how artists have pictured mothers and children from the Middle Ages onward, and how those images changed over the centuries. The talk is free at the city's art museum. An evening lecture is a low-pressure way to spend time among people with shared interests.
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Meet & Mint is our app: come-alone events and people to go with. It is not a government service. Many of the events on this page are also in the app.
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