Погода: Нант, март

Regulars describe this month as genuinely fifty-fifty, warm or cold and sunny or rainy with no reliable way to predict which combination a trip will get, though they're consistent that flowers are everywhere by this point, making gardens and walks along the Loire especially rewarding regardless of the forecast. Our row backs that mild, genuinely wet read, 17.1C over 6.9C nights feeling 4C, with 49.9mm of rain across 8.3 days and humidity at 74 percent. Regulars are consistent layers remain the standard advice given the real coin-flip nature of the month, a light rain jacket worth having even on a promising-looking morning. The record: 9.9 hours of sun, an 18.7 kph wind and AQI 37.

Regulars call May the start of the better half of the year here, running through September, when the seaside day trips this city is known for become genuinely pleasant and the days stretch out. The nearby month they describe most vividly is unpredictable rather than settled - warm and cold, sunny and rainy in roughly equal measure - and our row backs that with 20.7C reading as 19C over 10.3C nights and 56.6mm of rain across 8.7 days. The compensation regulars name specifically is the Jardin des Plantes, where camellias and other spring flowers are in bloom by now, a reliable outdoor draw whatever the sky decides on a given day. The record: humidity 73 percent, 11.2 hours of sun, an 18.8 kph wind and AQI 39.

Asked which month, regulars give May to September and their reasons are the coast and the light rather than the city itself - this is an Atlantic town with beaches within reach, and it wants long evenings to use them. September is the last month of that window and shows it: daylight is down to 12.6 hours from midsummer's sixteen. The trade is a gentler set of numbers, 23.1C days over 12.4C nights with 57.9mm across 8.7 days, the driest stretch of this coast's year. An 18.1 kph westerly keeps it feeling a degree under the reading. One local point worth knowing: the castles people picture on the Loire are upriver, a train ride away, not here. The record: 9.4 hours of sun and AQI 35.

The worry regulars hear most about a French August is whether everything will be shut, and their answer is that this stopped being true a long time ago: some French take July and some take August, and in places that see tourists the opening hours actually lengthen rather than disappear. May to September is the window they name for Nantes, partly because the coast is close and the evenings are long - our row gives 14.2 hours of daylight and 11.1 hours of sun. August here is mild rather than fierce at 26.3C, dropping to 14.8C at night, with 37.3mm across 7.3 precipitation days. The record: humidity 69 percent, a 17.4 kph wind and AQI 33.