Today, we drove the one hour to Nantes to see an amazing sight! A 12-meter high and 8-meter wide robotic, walking elephant! It was fantastic. It was created by a group of artists to celebrate the works of Jules Verne who was born in Nantes. Here is a video of the elephant in action. It can hold 35 passengers as it walks for 45 minutes. It goes at the speed of 1/4 km per hour! But, the eyes blink, it makes jungle noises, it's tail wags and it's trunk moves and sprays water.
The workshop, warehouses and gallery surrounding the elephant are part of the Machines de l’Ile.
We spent a very entertaining couple of hours in the gallery, watching the artistic machines in action. There were giant squids, a flying machine, some huge fish, and the beginnings of an enormous tree which will be the home of some mechanical birds. Max and I were selected from the audience to ride on the storm boat where we were tossed around, sprayed with water and generally felt like we were really on the rough seas!
Taba was selected to help another girl make the giant squid move.
We all loved it!
After a quick lunch at the gallery, we headed into the heart of the city of Nantes to tour the Castle of the Dukes of Brittany. Parts of this castle were built in the 14th century, all the way up to the 18th century.
We enjoyed walking next to the moat and along the castle walls. We then headed up the cobble-stoned streets to the Cathedral of Sts Peter and Paul. This Cathedral was begun in the 13th century and completed 450 years later! It is absolutely beautiful and strikingly bright inside with it's many and big stained glass windows.
After showing Marc all of the best places in Nantes, we headed home to pick up Calvin from a full day basketball tourney. Calvin and his team played five games today and won them all, taking home the big silver cup for their team.
Calvin had a great time. The tournament was actually sponsored by Hill-Rom, although we did not know this until after Calvin came home.
No comments:
Post a Comment