Royal Life in Nantes

After two weeks of work, we had two weeks off for fall break, and since I don't work on Fridays, I was able to start my break a little early and leave for Nantes on Friday, October 16. On the train ride to Nantes, I sat next to a 12 year old girl who loved talking my ear off about school and her friends and she showed me her drawings, all in French of course. She was very sweet, and told me that 22 is still young, which I found hilarious but just thanked her. She was traveling by herself to see her dad in Nantes and she had been on the train longer than I was, so I think she was lonely and really wanted someone to talk to. I was happy to listen to her and offer a few words of encouragement. We said goodbye when we made it to Nantes and went our separate ways. I stayed in a hotel just down the street from the train station and a little further down is the Château des Ducs de Bretagne. The first day I just walked around and saw what I could find without doing too much since my friend Thea was coming the next day. Here are a few things that I saw on my walk around Nantes:

Château des Ducs de Bretagne

Nantes Cathédrale St. Pierre et St. Paul

Place Maréchal Foch

In front of Eglise Sainte-Croix there was a little market and I bought two books because I can never resist buying a book.

Saturday, October 17
I spent most of the morning in the Jardin des Plantes, which is just a big park in Nantes, waiting for Thea to come in the afternoon. Here are some pictures of the beautiful park and a church I walked to since it was close to the park.

Jardin des Plantes

One of many paths in Jardin des Plantes

Despite it being October, there were so many beautiful flowers around the park

A giant bench in the middle of the park

One of the entrances to the parks; I love the flower pots.

Here I am among the flowers

A beautiful orange/red tree in the Jardin. I love fall :)

Eglise St. Clement

Thea arrived around 3pm and then we just walked around and saw some other things.

At Place Royale, there was an interesting band playing silly kids songs.

A really cool building we saw while walking around.

Eglise St Nicolas

A beautiful restaurant where we got a coffee later on our visit

Sunday, October 18

Today we went to the Château des Ducs de Bretagne and walked around the huge museum inside talking about the history of Nantes. There was a lot of interesting information but too much to share here.

Château des Ducs de Bretagne

With the Loire River cutting through Nantes, trade was very prominent here.

Unfortunately that included trading slaves from Africa. This is the guide to a slave's life, declaring what one can and cannot do, and I studied some of this in one of my French classes at Augustana.

The famous author Jules Verne, and musician Barbara are from Nantes.

Walking around the top of the chateau

We had lunch at a restaurant right across from the château. I could get used to this view!

After lunch, we walked to Les Machines de l'Ile, which was an old shipyard and they used the materials to make large mechanical animals.

Machines de l'île

We watched the elephant "walk" around the park. It moved very slowly, and it would spray water through the trunk and make the elephant sound.

Unfortunately Thea was not feeling well today, so after the Machines de l'île, we returned to the hotel and relaxed for the rest of the evening. After dinner, we did go to a bar called Le Nid (The Nest), which was at the top of the Tour de Bretagne. It was cool seeing the city all lit up from above.

Nantes from the top of the Tour de Bretagne

It was cute: all of the tables and chairs were eggs and there was this big bird that wrapped around the bar.

Thea and I are chilling in the nest

Monday, October 19

Today I went to the Musée Jules Verne by myself while Thea met up with a friend who lives near Nantes and was in the city today. 

On the windows in the museum were quotes from Jules Verne

Jules Verne is the most translated French author. J Hetzel was his editor and editor to many other famous French writers.

Behind the museum was this beautiful church: Eglise Sainte-Anne

Thea and I tried to go to the Musée des Beaux-Arts, but it was closed so we walked around the Jardin des Plantes and found another pretty church while looking for a boulangerie for lunch.

Chapelle de l'oratoire

We bought sandwiches and ate in the chateau and walked around on the grounds. Even though it was sunny, it was a little chilly.

Lots of people with children walk around and feed the birds.

Afterwards, we went to the Musée de L'imprimerie, which was very small but the tour was long because the guide showed how many of the machines worked.

Printing Museum!

He made posters on this large printing press.

I had taken several videos of him displaying how different machines worked, but sadly I lost them when I transferred my pictures to my laptop.

After the museum, we walked through Passage Pommeraye, which is a beautiful shopping center.

Inside Passage Pommeraye

Tuesday, October 20

Today Thea and I rented bikes and rode along the Erdre River. It was a little scary riding the bike in the city with all of the cars. I almost got hit a few times but I made it! This was my first time riding a bike in a LONG time; it's true that you never do forget how to ride a bike. We got the bikes around 11:30am so we had the bikes until 4:30pm but we ended up returning them an hour before we needed to just because there wasn't anywhere else we could go that wouldn't take a long time to get back. The trail out of the city was beautiful:

At the start of our bike ride we stopped at Ile de Versailles, which was a pretty garden.

Over the river...

and through the woods

We stopped at a restaurant along the river for lunch before returning to Nantes.

After we returned the bikes, we walked around and tried to go up into the Tour LU but it was closed for whatever reason so that was a bummer.

La Tour LU

Wednesday, October 21

We took the train back to La Rochelle today and I did laundry and repacked for our next adventure in Bordeaux! I am going to miss the chateau and the beautiful gardens in Nantes; I really enjoyed this city.