Got up early, sun was shining, so packed up and left the hotel and walked to the harbour to take pictures in the sun.
Hopped on a bus and we got to the station in about 5 minutes, could have walked but you never know how far it is, plus we had the cases and I don’t like to drag them too far.
The trains in Europe are generally very good (unless you’re in Italy and need to be on time). The wifi is really good and they have a portal on the French ones that shows you where you are and how long to go.
Weather was still nice when we arrived, got a tram to the hotel, then dropped the bags and went for lunch. I searched for seafood restaurants and there was one almost next door to the hotel in a square, which turned out to be one of the places to visit in Nantes, an Art Nouveau style restaurant. The interior was elegantly decorated with colourful tiles and mirrors.
Song had a seafood platter and I had cod on spinach with mashed potato. Both meals were excellent. I also had a glass of white wine (we’re in the Loire region now) and a lemony tart for dessert, Song had a hot chocolate.
Cost 95.60 Euro ($174). Ouch. The day after Trump announced his beautiful tariffs and the AUD dropped. But it was very good, we’ll probably go back before we leave.
Went for a walk to look at some jewellery shops, but didn’t find anything Song liked, so went back to the hotel. I was pretty tired and nearly fell asleep, but we decided to go out again, to l’ile de Nantes, an island in the middle of the river. We walked past one of the churches and had a peek inside, the ceiling had a blue dome which was interesting.
Carried on to the island – it wasn’t very impressive – we expected old buildings, but they were all from the 1980s. It was also a bit industrial with rough ground. One of the main attractions of Nantes is here – the Machines of the Isle – huge mechanical animals that you can ride. But they were in a warehouse and you had to pay to get in, and we weren’t really that interested. There is an Elephant that strolls around the area, but there are no times mentioned on the website, so it’s luck if you happen to be there. We may try again another time. As we were walking around, Song twisted her ankle on the rough ground, so we went back to the hotel. Neither of us were hungry so decided to stay in.
We have 2 more full days in Nantes and the weather looks to be nice, so we’ll be out and about assuming Song’s ankle is OK.