I spent Friday in Nantes. We went there to catch a ride with Laurent, someone I met while couchsurfing in Brittany a month earlier. We decided to go early to pass the day in Nantes. Alexa kept talking about this elephant she wanted to see there. We left at 10:30, spent some time in the château and the cathedral and then headed towards l'éléphant. While waiting for the exhibit to open, we grabbed a baguette and some grass and ate lunch. I mention this because the weather was beautiful. I was in shorts, not even cold.
After some reading and a nap on the grass, we went to see 'les machines'.
The elephant turned out to be a bigger-than-life mechanical elephant that walked around and sprayed water while making elephant noises. There were places for passengers. Within the exhibit were various other mechanical creatures of the sea, designed to be ridden and driven by visitors. The artwork was pretty cool; it had a steampunk feel to it. There was also what they called the 'heron tree' in design. They exhibit had one branch as a prototype. It had containers throughout the spaces in the branch, all containing drip irrigation and collection basins for the water that drained from the plants, a sort of variation on green architecture, designed solely for allowing people up in the branches. I think the plan was to situate the tree on the bank of the Loire, which runs through Nantes.
As we headed back to the gare, we walked through the city center. Found a used book sale. 8+. I was glad I left some room in my backpack.
We left Nantes around 18h30, heading for Cherbourg, on the tip of the peninsula in western Normandy. The drive took about 4 hours, a bit long and not quite as nice as the train, but much cheaper. There's a website called 'covoiturage' that links drivers and passagers with the same destinations. I'll probably check that out in the future. Anyway, we arrived in Cherbourg around 22h30 and headed for the bar where the rest of the CSers were meeting up. It was a fairly large event, with 50-60 people total for the week-end. People had come from all over the place. I spoke with several from Rouen, Paris, Rennes, and Marseille. There were also a handful of anglophones, some of them with language assistant positions in Cherbourg. I headed to my host's appartement fairly early, with a another couchsurfer who decided to turn in early. I got a mattress for the night and slept like a log.
The next day we headed for a nearby château à la campagne to meet up for une ballade. We wound up getting there late, but so apparently did everyone else, save Alexa. She missed it altogether, unfortunately. We spent a few hours hiking in the Val de Saire region, just east of Cherbourg, near a village named 'La Glacerie'. A fairly nice walk. We met back up at the château for a pique-nique, and then we started a 'rallye touristique', a sort of scavenger hunt/race with Le Val de Saire as our playground. My team was composed of three people from Rouen. Unfortunately, we had no native contentin/e with us, so we didn't do very well. We actually came in last place. But we did see a lot of the region and la côte du nord. Several phares and forts, various reminders of the war, etc.
That evening we had dinner at a restaurant on the quay. A nice restaurant, unfortunately geared toward presenting the best of the region had to offer (seafood). I chose the vegetarian option, which consisted of le plat principal minus the seafood - couscous and vegetables. You would have thought we'd insulted the chef. The vegetarians were trying to explain that fish was still meat. The French wouldn't have any of it. Apparently if you can eat during Lent, it isn't meat. Still, a good meal. I had foie gras for the first and last time. We had a good time.
The following day we had brunch at a bar appropriately named 'Le Sofa'. We brought our own food and ordered coffee or tea. It was cold. I had decided to wear shorts; it proved to be a mistake in the long run. At about 15h, we walked to the quay and took a boat out to sea. It was a small boat for 50+ people but we had a good time. Someone brought a guitar, another a harmonica. Someone started playing 'Knockin on Heaven's Door'. Boy that was a laugh. It was a pretty day. I don't have any pictures, so I'll have to borrow some from Alexa.
After the boat trip, we immediately left for Nantes so we wouldn't miss the last train to Angers. A much more pleasant ride, due mainly to the time change: there was a much more sunlight at the end of the day. It finally did cloud up and decide to rain - the first of the week and not too bad for having spent time in Normandy. Apparently it's not much better than Brittany when it comes down to weather.
Back home now. Back to school. Four weeks until school is out for Easter. Then exams.
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