Playing the tourist

             I'm on the move. Four weeks after arriving home, it was high time to begin traveling around again. So many places to go, so many people to see, and a hectic schedule. Not helped by the fact that I have no car, that intercity buses don't exist in France and that train is way too expensive here.

              So, on Sunday afternoon, I took a ride with my brother to go to his home in Nantes, some 300km away. It's considered to be the former capital of my region in its historical definition (because nowadays Nantes is not even in Brittany - damn French department borders !) and I had never been there.

              After one day buzzing around in the appartment, doing nothing and everything, I went out on Tuesday. Nantes, here I come !!

View from the castle, with the St Pierre cathedral in the background

             The town center is really nice, a little historic-looking with some cobblestones streets and Haussmannian buildings. Bakeries at every corner, passers-by walking everywhere but not really rushing. I didn't look too closely at people, it's considered rude in here... People walk looking at their foot, seemingly lost in their thoughts. Smile to them and they're lost : what does she want, do I know her ? But it's fun and I used it a lot to put a little sunlight in the cold day :)

Passers-by, unconscious of the others around them

Reading under the stare of Anne de Bretagne

Even in winter, those cobblestone streets still manage to keep a summer feeling, with people walking, taking their time and coffee shop with students chatting the time away on the terraces

A typical French city with these Haussmannian buildings

Another particularity : all the roofs at the same level

            I think France is one of the only countries where people built castles wherever they felt like it. Thus every sizeable town hides a castle. Even my 4,500-habitant village :) But Nantes' one is a little more important in History than my own little castle. It was home of the Dukes of Brittany, as well as a defense against first the French (bloody French...) and then, after the annexation, against the Protestants during the Religion Wars. So... wanna visit the castle who host Anne de Bretagne, the one who sold to the French ?

Roof view

All around the surrounding wall, a small path lead you around the moat while telling you about some structural elements of the building, such as the coat of arms or different additions by the successive owners

Here, for example, the darker part is a reconstruction. The walls from the Middle Age are on the left side, where the builders alternated between blocks of granite and lines of slate. In 1800, the wooden floor of the tower gave way and fell on the ammunition room : everything exploded and the collapse of the tower killed 60 ppl.


And on the walls... sentinels !
I am fascinated by gargoyles - or waterspout for the not-funny name

The bony one

The crazy dog

A little more devil-like

But as soon as you enter the courtyard, the fortress feeling gives way to a warmer and welcoming promenade, where you could almost imagine nobles taking a stroll


With the huge well next to the main residence

Cold day, week day... I managed to get the castle almost for me alone

On the Dukes' roofs

              My hand got really cold when taking all these pictures but the Sun decided to show up a little and that was the time when I left the castle to wander in town. Totally aimless walk, with the only direction being the one of home, some 40-minute away. Got back just in time for Obama's inauguration. Perfect timing :)

              Yesterday evening, I got a lift to Rennes, one-hour away, the official current main city of Brittany. The town itself is nice, the houses are impressive, but I like the atmosphere of it less. I'm staying at my friend Thibault's place until Saturday afternoon, when I will go to Paris. France tour !! :)