Seven years ago today, Killian and I followed a painted green line through Nantes for twelve kilometres. In thirty-six-degree heat. With a Canon 6D Mark II and no particular plan other than cheesecake at Sugar Blue Café, which was, if I’m honest, probably the whole plan.

The line belongs to Le Voyage à Nantes, the city’s annual art festival. They paint it on the ground so you don’t get lost. You follow it. You stop when something interests you. We stopped for cheesecake, obviously, and then for a lengthy digression into the history of General Cambronne: a man who, when asked to surrender to the British at Waterloo, may or may not have replied with one very short word that has since been immortalised as le mot de Cambronne. Right back on track now.

The photographs are from the archives: the 16-35mm, the summer light, and a city that always has something worth slowing down for.