Nantes (Breton: Naoned; Gallo: Naunnt) is a city in western France, near the Atlantic coast, with 711,120 inhabitants in the metropolitan area at the 1999 census. Nantes is the capital of the Pays de la Loire région, as well as the prefecture of the Loire-Atlantique departement. It is also the most important city of historic Brittany, though now a part of the current Pays de la Loire administrative region. Nantes is a green city, and is also known, according to its citizens and a French magazine Le Point, the most pleasurable and peaceful city to live in France.