Elephant in Nantes!

I once saw a man walking a camel on a leash down the street in Paris.

I'm not kidding. It was a chilly morning in 1998. I was on Spring Break from my tour with Up With People, and my friend Kelli and I had decided to spend a few days in Paris. On the day we headed to the Père-Lachaise Cemetery (this site has a very cool virtual tour, by the way), we saw the man -- and his camel -- as they passed in the other direction on the other side of the street. Just out for a leisurely stroll, I'm sure.

But why am I talking about camels in Paris??? Because yesterday, Philipp and I (along with his cousin Véronique) went to see the Great Elephant in Nantes!

On an island in the Loire River in the heart of Nantes, you can find the historic shipyards. Rather than allowing this area -- now past its heyday -- to fall into disrepair, the city is refurbishing it into a trendy restaurant area. Also on the island, you can find an innovative endeavor that evokes the futuristic industrial musings of Jules Verne: Les Machines de l'Ile. (Check out the site for further explanation.)

The clear highlight of a visit to the Machines is ... of course ... the Great Elephant! Here's a little video I made of it. (unfortunately, I accidentally erased the video where you can hear the elephant's magnificent trumpeting)

And to get an idea of the scale:

And if you know Philipp, you can guess that he was most interested in how it works:

We also saw the scattered parts of a giant spider that is their next project. And there is also a really cool merry-go-round that seems to be very "Jules Verne-y". You can see it below. And in case you're wondering ... Jules Verne was from Nantes. There's also a Jules Verne Museum, but we didn't get to visit it. Perhaps next time my parents come to visit ...