Wednesday for windows...inside out at La Cigale.

 

The stunning La Cigale restaurant in Nantes.

International Friendship Day...

Thank you to our supportive group of friends who have contributed much to making our stay here in France such a great experience.

Last day in Nantes, part II...

 After a fine lunch on our last day in Nantes we headed over to the 'Jardin des Plantes' yet another great asset the city has. 

On a beautiful sunny afternoon we found plenty of places to shelter from the sun during our walk through the gardens .

We then headed back to the hotel for a quick change for our last night 'on the town' which was made all the better by meeting a lovely Irish couple who were heading to the Olympics and a stay in a chateau.

There was a slight touch of sadness as we had our last night cap in a little wine bar we had discovered.

Mon banc dominical / My Sunday Bench- long legs, short legs...

Spotted on our visit to Jardin des Plantes in Nantes. 

Last day in Nantes, part I...

On Thursday morning we headed down to the second river of Nantes the river l'Endre starting at the Monument aux 50-Otages (more on this later) before heading over to the Musée d’arts de Nantes.

We passed the interesting home of the Departmental Council of Loire-Atlantique on the way.

We also took a slight detour through one of the former gates of the city to have a walk around the catherdal Saint-Pierre-et-Saint-Paul de Nantes.

The cathedral is currently having major restoration work carried out so you can in fact only look at the exterior.

Then it was into the museum itself an impressive building with excellent content.

These paintings (above) marked as 'anonymous' reminded me of Loches'  Caravaggio's.

The museum is also currently playing host to an interesting exhibition of 'video art'  by 'Nantes artist Pierrick Sorin until September 1st. 

You can actually have a chat with the artist via a tube coming out of the wall where, once he establishes what language you speak, he asks you to move out of the way so as he can see the painting behind you..très amusant!

After our visit we headed back into the city centre to the 'Passage Pommeraye' where we had a lovely light lunch in the salon de thé 'La Passagère' and at only 13.5 euros for three courses!

What we did on my birthday...

We started the day with a visit to 'Les Machines de l'île' an exhibition and entertainment space located in the Parc des Chantiers, on the site of former shipyards here in Nantes. The 'Machines' include the Great Elephant above),the Carousel of the Marine Worlds and a children's carousel. They intend to increase number of 'Machines' as new creations are made.

We then went and visited the Jules Verne museum which proved a little underwhelming before hopping on the 'Navibus' to take us over the river to Trentemoult a former fishing village on the Loire River, known for colourful housing stock, We did a walk through the lanes to discover a lovely colour palette of homes.   

After our stroll we had a fine lunch at one of the many traditional bistros, creperies and cafes lining the busy Quai Marcel Boissard.

We spent the remainder of the afternoon planning where we should have our evening meal and after searching the review sites came up with the 'Le Lion et L'agneau' which had almost 300 reviews and rated 5 out of 5 on TripAdvisor  We actually visited the place and made a reservation but on the night, although the staff were excellent sadly the food didn't come uo to scratch...which was a real shame but we did not let it spoil what had been a lovely day.