Nantes

Docked at Cherbourg, drove to Nantes and checked in at our B&B Hotel with relatively little fuss and stashed the car in their weird basement parking lot. We walked over to see the Machines de L’ile – the elephant was getting a service and a coat of oil but you could still walk round and pay your respects – and sheltered over coffee from a shower before heading back into town to the Chateau des Ducs de Bratagne via the Abolition of Slavery Memorial, the Arcades, some cool street art and a nice big branch of Uniqlo. We had a turn round the ramparts and dodged the parties of French school children. Afterwards we stopped off at a studenty bar (another well-timed shower) and later on we went out for gallettes and crepes (I say ‘we’ when in fact I manged to demolish a supposedly shared dessert smothered in cream, ice cream and caramel sauce pretty much single-handed…!)