First days in Nantes, France

Mark driving the great Euro compact car - we love it!!
Chateau des Ducs de Bretagne - smack in the center of Nantes.


The ducks and turtles held a lot of attention.

The well....
La Cigale - one of the 'must see' places in Nantes. The restaurant has original art nouveau decor.






The sweet shop that was soooo sweet we all had trouble sleeping that night!



The French know how to make a chocolate shoe!
There is so much to see, do and EAT here in Nantes!! If only there were chocolate running shoes then I could snack while I ran!

Camille's Lego Train from Lego Land Finished!

Camille and Coke finished it together.

Two digital video clips form the Machines de L'ile

The Machines de L'ile on the Ile de Nantes (the island in the river Loire)

This is a wonderful place where they make giant hydrologic puppets of wood and steel. The work is wonderful.

This is one of the exhibit halls filled with amazing machines.

This mechanical elephant is 3 stories high and walks around the area that was formerly shipyards.

Most all the creatures have fun operator seats and control levers and dials.

Walnut shell boats.

This one was Coke's favorite.





This boat is one of the coolest mechanical "boat rides" I have seen, complete with wind and wave action.

The operator of this Nautilus sits inside.

Kids operated this fish.





Giant wooden squid.

Recumbent crab bicycle.

Amazing workshop - massive.

They put on spectacular public shows.

And they have the most amazing Merry Go Round were the kids puppet the creatures and things.









This is a model of a giant tree they want to make.

Here are some of the branches of the tree. They stick out the side of the building there.

We later took a ride on the elephant.

As it walked it sprayed people with it's trunk.

This photo was taken from the walking elephant.

Traveling From London to Nantes France

We took the Eurostar TGV through the Chunnel to Paris were we transferred to another train To Nantes.
We stepped out of the Metro underground in Paris to see the Berkeley Hotel to remind us of home. We walked on to Gare Du Nort to catch out train for Nantes. We caught the TGV. It was Friday coach was full of French commuters traveling home - it was quieter than a library - it was as if there was a rule to make no noise. In fact they got mad at Coke and Camille for speaking too loud. It was subtly stressful.
Here we are just off the train in Nantes. If feels mild like southern California. A nice change to summer feeling weather.
Here is Karine and Philip's home in Basse Gouline on the outskirts of Nantes where we are staying. This home-exchange thing is awesome.
Coke and Camille went right to the media center to see if they had the Wii video game.
Here they are figuring out Wii Sports bowling.
Here is Camille in the kitchen. We are finding the most beautiful food in this region of France.

London

First stop - lunch!!

If it's good enough for Snow White....
We really really wanted to see the Queen and Coke was wondering 'why we couldn't just go in'? We seemed to be able to go into every other castle we wanted!!

The gates and guards were pretty exciting too.
Big Ben does look magnificent in real life. We see the icon in so many films that it was good to make sure it still exists.

Mark's dear Friend Wendy, Camille and Me walking in London. And below Gio (Wendy's husband and also dear friend to Mark), Camille and Gio/Wendy's daughter Ava.
and their son - Rico.
Wendy explaining English history - Part I.
Gio doesn't agree?
This is all of us in the bullet ferris wheel. I've never been on anything like this before. It was freaky being at the top of the circle but a good view of all London.
I'm not sure what they're looking at or saying.
The playground was a 'must' after the wheel. Everyone tried the balance challenge.


Churchill Pub - It was amazing with all the flowers.

The original mini !! Love this car. Why can't America have these cute cars instead of big jeeps?