A train tests a new, temporary bridge over the Loire in Nantes, France, on December 18, 1945. Nantes was occupied by German troops during World War II and the city suffered extensive damage from Allied aerial bombardment. The Germans abandoned the city on August 12, 1944, and it was recaptured without a fight by French and American forces.

Today, Nantes is at a natural crossroads between the ocean in the west, the center of France in the east, Brittany in the north and Vendee (en route to Bordeaux) in the south. And the train? The TGV train can whisk you from Paris to Nantes in two hours. "Nantes also has made a series of architectural, conceptual and cosmetic changes that have transformed industrial neighborhoods into magnets for locals and tourists alike," The Times wrote in 2007. "This urban renewal effort, combined with the city's inherent joie de vivre, is making Nantes, France's sixth largest city, the arbiter of what might be called Atlantic Coast chic."