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Visitor Policy
The Castle of the Dukes of Brittany operates a visitor policy based on four main principles: to promote the pleasure of discovery, to respect the spirit of the place, to communicate the knowledge object and to develop subjects for further reflection.
It is committed to openness to all (adults, young people and children, school students, disabled visitors, overseas tourists...) and reflects changes in cultural attitudes..
- It offers an individual welcome to visitors at from the moment of initial enquiry and advice at the reception-ticket office.
- It offers a diversified range of visits, events, educational and learning initiatives, cultural programmes aimed at people with little or no familiarity with the world of museums and heritage. Professionals - tour guides, trainers, primary and secondary teachers - are kept informed of these activities at special introductory and information visits. The approaches offered are both interactive and multidisciplinary, making the Castle a place of exchange and encounter, inviting its visitors to build a long-term relationship with it.
Multilingualism has been developed in every aspect of the visitor services: heritage signage and audio guides in six languages (French, English, Spanish, German, Italian, Breton); multimedia terminals in five languages (French, English, Spanish, German, Italian); explanatory text in the exhibition and its displays in three languages (French, English and Spanish).
The facilitation team
Laurence d'Haene, Conservation Officer, Visitor Services Manager
Julie Pinon, reception - ticket office manager.
David Chatelier, Curation Assistant, Accessibility Officer.
Ten cultural facilitators, bilingual or trilingual, are constantly available. They provide guided tours and also offer assistance to self-guided visitors to help them in their understanding of the value and richness of the castle and the museum.
Documentation Centre
Aimed at the widest possible audience, it offers open and free access to works on the history of Nantes, linked to the museum exhibition and the Castle. It has been designed to promote openness and shared access. Visitors can consult a superb range of documents of a great richness and historical interest, either on paper or via one of the six multimedia units.
Documentary resources linked to the temporary exhibitions are collected there and transcriptions of the lectures and discussions organised by the Castle are available.
When the Castle opens, a series of short presentations will be programmed at set times to assist visitors to discover the resources centre, with a short introduction to the works available, the classification system and the conditions of access.
Photo library
The photo library comprises some 10,000 images. These are in the process of being transferred to high definition digital systems, in particular all the old maps of Brittany, soon to be available on-line.
The collection is available to anyone, with priority given to researchers university teachers, students, and publishers. However, the picture database cannot be consulted directly. Borrowing requests must be made in writing to the Castle of the Dukes of Brittany - Nantes History Museum.
The images are subject to the current City of Nantes copyright restrictions.