Kingdoms
Nantes
Vines, lanterns, and old roads that remember the wars.
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Nantes is the northwestern kingdom of long vineyards, terraced hills, and pilgrim roads worn smooth by centuries of sandalled feet. Its lanterns are lit at dusk along every road that leads to a chapel, and the Basilica has long treated Nantes as the kingdom most likely to remember without being reminded.
Its piety is not loud. It is hereditary. A child of Nantes is taught the Psalm before the alphabet, and the lanterns are tended by families whose grandfathers also tended them.