Clisson is a lovely town twenty minutes from Nantes by train and it definitely fits its description as "Tuscany meets France".

When Brittany was separate from France, this town and it's large castle were at the frontier of Brittany's defence. The castle is largely ruins now but you can really get a good feel for the size of place at the height of it's use from the 13th century until it's destruction in the 18th century.

In the 19th century François Lemot, while studying architecture in Italy, met two brothers from Clisson. When he visited them on returning to France, he fell in love with Clisson, finding the landscape very Italian. He soon bought up the castle and hunting grounds and began making his mark on the town. The church and much of the town are built in a very Italian style and the hunting grounds were transformed into a beautiful estate with Italianate mansion, gardeners house and public park dotted with statues and monuments. He also saw that what remained of Clisson Castle was well preserved and he planted beautiful trees around parts of the site.

We spent most of our time walking around the town, exploring the castle ruins and we had a lively tour of the estate and park from an English woman who has lived here for 25 years who was impressed we'd even found out about this little town. The view from the estate side of the river looking back over to the castle and town is a truly beautiful sight. A great day trip and a glimpse of things to come hopefully in Italy in a few weeks.