It was all a ploy to get me to a football game. An enticing invitation to Nantes, capital of the Western Loire, land of Muscadet, birthplace of Jules Verne and home to some of the finest gastronomy in France. I could go on extrolling the virtues of this tranquil and ancient city. But footy? Not what I had in mind.

Just over an hour’s flight from London and below us was the mighty Loire snaking across the landscape — now there’s a real river. Rendez-vous a l’hotel with friend Pierre to discuss dinner arrangements.

We booked in at La Cigale, one of the finest restaurants in town with a wonderful art nouveau brasserie — an Aladdin’s cave of enamelled tile, mirrors and mosaics. “Great, ”I thought, “just what I’d hoped for”. “But first we go to the match”, said Pierre.

Having grown up in the shadow of Newcastle United without ever once cheering on the lads, it was a bit galling to come all this way just to be dragged off to a football game, but Pierre was adamant. We just had to see the wonderful new stadium.

Nantes is one of only 10 cities in France to have been chosen as a venue for the 1998 Football World Cup. The stadium will be enlarged to hold 40,000 seats (each one with a back, Pierre says) and the citizens of Nantes are bursting with pride. So much so that they all seemed to turn up for the match between Nantes and Strasbourg.

It was a lovely, sunny evening when we took our seats in the stadium. We were at the Strasbourg end of the pitch for the first half. Giant drums at the Nantes end were mightily thumped to rouse the crowd. Not that they needed much rousing, everyone was waving scarves and clapping hands to the beat. At one point somebody was “offside”. I didn’t know what it meant but I didn’t care.

I was hooked and just yelled along with the crowd, whatever happened. The “wave” undulated around the stadium — each block of fans jumping up in turn, waving arms and yelling in a continuous ripple. I couldn’t believe I had such a good time. I still don’t know anything about football and I’m not hooked enough to have gone to another game since, but I would certainly go to Nantes again.

Although football is putting the city on the map at the moment now, the city once flourished on rum, sugar, cotton and the slave trade and in more recent times developed a huge industrial complex. Its one and only (and ugly) skyscraper seems to pop up everywhere. Overall, it’s not picturesque in the tourist sense but it does have a medieval quarter with streets of beautifully preserved 15th Century houses, wonderful restaurants, a fantastic castle, and an elegantly austere cathedral.

Pollution-free trams trundle by the wide boulevards and in spring the scent of magnolias fill the air — the trees are the offspring of the first ones brought from America in 1711.

There’s a fabulous 15th Century statue of a woman in Nantesvisit for this alone.

For something less spiritual, how about a shopping mall? Not, however, your everyday mall, bright with kitsch, but an elegant 19th Century shopping arcade named Passage Pommeraye. If you like to shop till you drop you could get a head start here. Nantes has many stylish boutiques and hat shops that would not look out of place on a Paris boulevard.

The castle of the Duke of Brittany sits snugly in the city’s medieval centre. “Duke of Brittany?” I know, you thought you were in the Western Loire but Nantes was the capital of Brittany until fairly recent times.

The castle looks wonderful at night, bathed in soft floodlight. Its wide moat separates it from the surrounding ancient streets and if you’re looking for a romantic evening walk, this is it.

There are many great castles in this part of France. One of the most dramatic is at Angers, just over an hour’s drive from Nantes. With its 17 huge, black towers it is a formidable fortress which took 100 years to build. The formal gardens, covering its dried-up moat, are some of the best I have ever seen — a feast of colour and artistic design.

The castle guards a very special treasure — the great Tapestry of the Apocalypse. At 120 yards long and 16ft high it is one of the finest in the world and shows a series of horrifying and humorous scenes from the Book of Revelations. It was made between 1373 and 1380 and is also a subtle satire of 14th Century politics. For example, the seven-headed dragon with ten horns symbolises either Satan or England, depending on which interpretation you trust.

This region is the home of dry, white Muscadet wine — marvellous with the local seafoods. The vineyards cover the valleys just south of Nantes and if you are really serious about tasting then take the Route Touristique du Vignoble Nantais (the vineyard route of Nantes). We did just this and a few miles out of Nantes stopped at the Hardy vineyard in Mouzillon, owned by Dominique and Beatrice who, in spite of their English surname, are very French. Visitors are welcome, the Muscadet is wonderful, and the company charmant.

After a few more stops and a few more tastings I was almost ready to agree to another football match. The biggies, for the 1998 World Cup, will be held between June 13 and July 3 — six games in all. For visitors, there will be a chance to join in football Brazilian style, on a sandy Copacabana Beach which is to be recreated in the city centre.