25 August 2025

By Hélène Rémond

A new edition of the jazz and pleasure boating festival Les Rendez-vous de l’Erdre takes place in 15 cities of the Nantes region between August 25th and 31st. The free event hosts world-famous musicians and is a unique nautical gathering. This 39th edition celebrates boating, with a “touch of nostalgia for the 1850s when the boatyards of Île de Versailles supplied the Nantes rowing clubs with boats to take up the challenges of Parisian oarsmen arriving by train from the banks of the River Marne”, according to the organizers. “Laundry boats” (bâteaux-lavoirs) were used for mooring and guarding small boats in Nantes, which became the home port for boating on the River Erdre on Sundays.

The Belle Plaisance gatherings explore the world of boating, from Bantry and Odet gigs to Venetian gondolas, along with canoes and competitive rowing shells. There are four types of boats to spot on the water. The flotilla of 160 boats is divided into these categories: sail and oar boats, dinghies, keelboats and motorboats. The boats are easily identified during the parade by the flag bearing the color of its category along the 85-km waterways from Guenrouët to Nantes. The event features a collection of heritage boats, including boats which are classified as national historic monuments.

At the end of the summer holidays, the Rendez-vous de l’Erdre is an opportunity to immerse oneself in one of the biggest jazz festivals in France highlighting boating, “a quiet, simple pleasure in search of nature” referring to French novelist and journalist Alphonse Karr (1808-1890). He was one of the authors of Le Canotage en France, which is quoted in the program of the festival. Whereas boating conjures up straw hats and boozy parties by the water and on the water, artists such as Renoir, Monet or Caillebotte symbolizing a quest for escape in their paintings. The event, which gathers 150,000 people each year, is organized in honor of boating which has left its mark on French social, cultural and sportive history.

See some of the boats here.

For more information, go here.