Twenty four hours in Nantes

In the end, I decided to spend much of today in Nantes then head for Paris.

The hostel kicks everyone out at ten, whether they're staying another night or not, so I checked out, leaving my bags in their secure storage room, and headed for the centre. My end goal was to get to Les Machines de L'ile to see their giant machine elephant. First stop, however, was the train station for a ticket - I purchased one leaving at 16H52, arriving in Paris at 19H20.

Then, I just wandered my way towards the island, which, if I remember right, was where the Nantes centre originally was but it was moved for some reason. It was the first day of true spring here after a long winter - forecast called for sun and 70F - so I walked through the entire Jardin des Plantes, taking many photos, AJ will be pleased to know.

After that, I stopped for a biere de garde at a sidewalk cafe and just chilled for a bit. The beer was delicious and, as I was right across the rue from the train station, there were plenty of people bustling around.

Next was the chateau which is entirely open to the public and houses a World Wars museum inside - I went through quite fast. It seemed to be both larger and in better condition than the chateau de Clisson, not necessarily more impressive, however.

Then I walked. And walked and walked and walked [I am hoping I narrowly avoided getting blisters], mostly along Courses John Kennedy and Franklin Roosevelt, I kid you not. Antoine told me last night that "France loves America!" After today, from both the street names and the museum, I believe him. I walked clear across town to the bridge that Les Machines de L'ile was on the other side of.

And I arrived just as the elephant was walking up to the front gate - it was spectacular! Amazing, not just the engineering behind it but the fact that someone got the idea to do it and to follow it through, sharing his vision and procuring funding and the support of the city to get a prominent position in the Island revitalization. I toured the whole place, was invited to get hoisted up for a better view of the heron show but declined - I wanted to see the caterpillar go. :)

I left with the intent of giving myself plenty of time to get back intending to take the light rail. Good thing I did because the celebration this weekend was larger than I thought. I got some bad advice as to which train to get on because, it turned out, the trains were not running through the centre of town because of the celebration! I got on the first one and it turned around and went the other way! So I got some advice from someone that was privy to the day's schedule, took the train back to my origin and started hoofing it, probably only a quarter of a mile but there was a parade right in the middle that I had to cut through - a parade!

Anyway, tram to the Manufacturing stop, grabbed my bags from the hostel, speed-walked the best I could with all the extra weight to the train station, and managed to have all of five minutes to wait for the train to arrive - whew!

And the train is where I am now, about an hour into the ride. I rested for a while, then cleaned up in the WC, then I figured I'd get some thoughts down while I have some spare time. They have outlets in the train, even ones that will work with US plugs in the WC for some reason, but no wifi so you will not be receiving this in real-time.

(pics later, too tired now)