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Day 156: Rainy day exploration

It was warm enough for us to eat outside in the garden yesterday evening but this morning, we woke up to the unmistakeable sound of rain pitter-pattering down rather ernestly. For a moment or two, I felt like I could almost be in Ireland. Almost. Still, we were now all confined to the indoors until whatever time after lunch when we’ll leave for Paris.

I took this time to properly explore the house that we’re staying in. It is akin to Aladdin’s cave, with wondrous stuff here and there, from a mask made to resemble the face of an owl to really old publications such as this – La Semaine de Suzette (click linky for more info about the weekly paper). There were also vintage hats and Nancy Drew book series and old maps of Nantes and x-ray images – quite a veritable mix, isn’t it?

Day 155: Chirp chirp

We had a visitor this morning and it seems like it has taken to Anne. The tit first approached us when we were having breakfast in the garden, fluttering its way between Chloé, Anne and I. It flicked nervously from one spot to another, and momentarily even landed on my knees and stayed there for a few second. Oh how I wish I had my camera at that point!

Throughout the day, it has been returning every so often to trick Anne into feeding it some breadcrumbs. It is just so adorable, but the lack of bribery offerings on my part means it didn’t come very close to me, boooo. On the other hand though, it gave me opportunities to photograph it, so I guess we’re even.

Day 154: Belfry of Église Sainte-Croix

This is not my first trip to Nantes. I was here once about 3 years back, on Anne’s invitation for her birthday bash. She also kindly played tour guide, showing me around the city and we even went to Les Machines de l’Ile for a (slooooow) ride on the mechanical elephant, which was really cool.

Today, I was treated to a refresher’s tour of Nantes while Anne showed off the city to the rest of the “Brainiacs”. Along the way, we passed the Église Sainte-Croix – aka Church of the Holy Cross – which once even functioned as a prison, ironic given a church’s role that usually provides sanctuary. I wish I could be up at the belfry, looking down the city as these music-playing sculptures are. The view must surely be striking.

Day 153: Monument aux 50 Otages

Wheeeee… long weekend!

My friends and I left reasonably early this morning for Nantes, in an attempt to avoid heavy traffic leaving Paris given the ritualistic exodus of Parigots for destinations all over the country (and beyond?) for the 4-days weekend. For us, we’re off for a much needed quiet R&R weekend in a small village just outside of Nantes and all I anticipate doing are eating, sleeping, chit-chatting and reading. Maybe a bit of sight-seeing.

This monument at Pont Morand in Nantes is a war time commemorative memorial sculpture. In 1941, fifty hostages were captured and executed by German occupation authorities for their pro-communist and anti-fascism efforts. The monument serves as reminder of their resistance against the occupation and it is represented by an central arrow flanked by two women, allegorical for la Résistance (to the right, with a sword concealed in the folds of the cape) and la France Renaissante (to the left, holding an ear of corn).

Ps: pretty blue sky is always a good start to the weekend ;)


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