Not so impressive Nantes

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Well, today was busy, though perhaps not so interesting. I decided before heading out this morning from the hostel that I would get the Nantes 24h pass which allowed free transportation on any of their tram or buslines, and free entry into a bunch of places. For 16 euros, I thought I had better make it worth my while. I wound up going to the castle first, and going through the museum. Not being a big museum person, I was getting bored about halfway through. I had hoped that there would be rooms in the castle set up like they would have been in the past, but instead it was a bunch of displays of artifacts from Nantes through the ages, from about Medieval times through today. It was okay for the first half, but once we reached about 1800, I was running out of steam. They also had the museum set up in such a way that you HAD to go through every room to get out of the place. Also had to climb up a bunch of stairs and then down all those stairs. What a workout! As if I'm not getting enough exercise!

Next I decided to take the little train tour around Nantes. I'm a little embarrassed to say that I fell asleep while riding on it. Not so asleep that I had to be removed from the train or anything, but I know that I was nodding off as we went.

I also went into the Cathedral and a couple of other churches, and then hit the Tourist Office after lunch. I found out that I could take a river cruise along the Ersle (?) river, and after a bit decided to do that. Boring! I fell asleep riding that too. For a cruise that was only supposed to be 1h 45min. I was not too impressed to see that we returned to the dock about 2 hours and 10 min. later! Next I decided to go up LU tower (for any of you who know French cookies, LU is a huge name over here). Also not impressive. I had to climb 4 flights of stairs to be in an enclosed dome that was STINKING hot! Needless to say, I didn't stay long. After that I went to the Ile des Machines where there was supposed to be this humongous elephant that would carry people a certain distance, as well as a bunch of other strange creations. By the time I got there (a good 1h 15min. before it closed) the elephant was already motionless and lots of other things were closing down.

It was a strange day and I'm quite tired. I think I may try to go to sleep early, though I do have 2h on the train when I can doze off if I want to.

Strange thing I found here though.... Orange Diet Coke! Not as good as Lime, Lemon or (of course) Cherry though!!!!

Off to Rennes tomorrow and to meet Ade, a friend of a friend! Wish me Bonne Chance when speaking to her in French!!!! (Actually, my French has been quite well received here. Very little English spoken my way, thank goodness!)

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Comments

[Shelley]

I guess I won't be going to Nantes..
.. it sounds kind of dry... but at least they had orange diet coke. For me, it would be worth the drive to Nantes!