Day 72, Friday 25/5:

After a very pleasant breakfast in the garden, we headed into Nantes with Fanfa. We found a car park, and headed over to the Chateau des Ducs de Bretagne. The Renaissance style palace is surrounded by a medieval fortress and has had many uses throughout its history – namely the royal family at the time. The palace now houses extensive museums while the grounds are utilised as public space. While Philip explored the museums inside, Patsy, Fanfa and I explored the very beautiful grounds. I was able to find a geocache in the grounds and was thus able to show Fanfa the game. We then walked back to the city’s cathedral, of Flamboyant Gothic style. It was indeed a very impressive cathedral. After this we drove to the Ile de Nantes, where we were to meet Jacques for lunch on the quay. This area was once an industrial shipbuilding area but has now been thoroughly redeveloped into a commercial precinct with great success. The quay buildings have been converted into a string of restaurants that have excellent views over the city. We had an excellent lunch on the quay before heading over to ‘Les Machines de L’île’. This is an artistic project, based on the works of Jules Verne, who was born in this city. The complex is situated in old shipbuilding factories, now used for the construction and display of working ‘machines’. These are mainly based on animals, the main attraction being a 12m high, 8m wide and 21m long elephant which walks around the site, carrying up to 40 people at the once. Others include a ride-on stork that flies across the room and blown up examples of microbial life, all fully functional. Their next project is a multi story merry-go-round, which takes passengers on a voyage under the sea. It was certainly a very interesting and different place to visit. It was then back to the city centre where we had a drink in a very nicely decorated art-deco bar. We then went back home, dropping Fanfa off along the way. We were able to have some down time before having a lighter dinner in the garden followed by an early night.