According to my dictionary,
nef (nf) = ship

... similar to a church's entrance ...

I see it also says nef= nave (cathedrale)

You're right, Tony!

The idea of the great nave of a church allied to architectural/naval origins of the word, make me hazard a guess that this might be a hangar/workshop. Have you been to the Ile de Rennes? What is there?

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Note added at 2 hrs (2008-02-20 18:01:04 GMT)
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Having seen the photos...for which all thanks, it seems clear that the type of sheds these are....are hangars. The target word is "nef" so we shouldn't be going for a plural answer, do you think?
Finally, The Concise Oxford Dictionary defines Hangar as: "Building with extensive floor area , for housing aircraft etc" The "etc" has it, Tony, do you think?

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Note added at 2 hrs (2008-02-20 18:06:26 GMT)
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The "nef" concept is, I agree, interesting. The compagnons in the middle ages thought of their roofs as inverted boats ("Les Tours Inachevées" Raoul Verguez) Here in Monein, the roof of the church is often (wrongly) described as being built by sailor/carpenters "on the beach" It's a fascinating history

I think it probably is talking about the various dockside sheds (perhaps the open-sided ones?) — but I am only guessing!

A lofty structure of some kind, like the nave of a church, or your 'hall'

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Note added at 32 mins (2008-02-20 16:17:11 GMT)
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Pour la petite histoire...

Interestingly enough, I had never stopped to think that the use of 'nef' (nave, in a church) comes from the name of the boat (i.e. not the other way round), and the same root as 'naval' etc. — mustn't forget that early forms of cruck-beam construction (to create taller spaces) amounted in many ways to little more than an upturned ship's hull!

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Note added at 2 hrs (2008-02-20 18:37:00 GMT)
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Whatever semantic arguments we might get into, current usage tends to reserve 'hangar' for aviation buildings only — any nautical person I know would laugh like a drain if I said that ships were built in hangars; I know there's a special name for places where you keep submarines (pens, isn't it?), but all I've ever heard in terms of shipbuilding is 'shed' — and sometimes, by a kind of inverted snobbery, 'boat shed', even if it's for ruddy great ships (cf. Navy usage of 'boat'!)



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Note added at 3 hrs (2008-02-20 18:45:46 GMT)
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The plural / singular issue is a little bit of a side issue: I inadvertently put it into the plural, as that's how it appears in the context given; however, I do note that Miranda had carefully asked her question in the singular. Mea culpa!

However, 4th's comment about the plural in "ships' sheds" is more important; general speaking, in EN, when a noun is used as to qualify another noun, the qualifer remains in the singular, and doesn't need to take the possessive 's; we talk about car repairs, not cars' repairs. One of the few exceptions to this is the dedicated expression "ship's captain", and oddly enough, "ship's biscuit" too! There are a number of other uses of the possessive, mainly aasociated with on-board personnel or equipment.

In any case, I don't feel that these particular 'sheds' need 'ship' attaching to them — perhaps to make them more exotic, one might refer to them as 'shipyard sheds'...