This is the Elephant of Nantes. He lives on the Île de Nantes, just a three minute walk across a bridge. Marie took me for a visit last Sunday. "He's our version of the Eiffel Tower," she said. "Of course, I'm joking... but not really." There are a ton of other machines just like the Elephant, but the Elephant is by far the most impressive and the most well known. He parades around the island a couple times a day with a backload of lucky kids and their families. Personally, I found it more enjoyable to watch from afar. From my observations, the best part of sitting on the elephant (aside from the free ride) is not getting sprayed by its trunk. His ears move. His eyes blink. And his trunk sprays water every so often. It's the authentic elephant experience.
More Elephant:
and
The island itself is pretty fascinating. It used to be the maritime trade center of the city, as I understand it, but it has since become more of a tourism epicenter. Although fake palm trees line the streets and a novelty carousel clanks away, I wouldn't say the city really did much tearing down and building up to turn the island into a cultural novelty. Using all the old storage hangars as blank canvases, the city of Nantes took industrial grunge chic to a new level, filling them with mechanical wonders, museums, exhibitions, and, of course, bars. Hangar à Bananes is a pretty chic strip of bars and clubs in the big old hangar that used to store (surprise!) bananas. Last night, actually, we went to a reggae concert in one of the clubs called Altarcafé. Although I've been living in fear of predatory European man, things were totally civilized last night. I think we stuck out a bit because we were getting more into dancing to the music than most of the other people around us, but, oh well, I think I tend to stick out when I start dancing anyway. (Think Elaine from Seinfeld.)
In addition to the hangars, the island also sports several large stationary cranes (grues), some of which continue to operate and others which remain vestigial testaments to the city's shipping history. (And, let's face it, when you're meeting up with friends to go to Hangar à Bananes, "the big yellow crane" is a pretty good landmark.) Another, more sobering testament to the city's past lines the edge of the island on the path leading to Hangar à Bananes: a series of rings that light up blue, green, and red in the evenings as a symbolic representation of shackles, forever reminding the city of the shameful part it played in the triangle trade.
I know you know I took some photos of all of this, so here they are. First, two specimens of industrial grunge chic: chez Monsieur Elephant and a little info booth.
Une grue jaune!
A pretty bad picture of the rings. They're way cooler at night.
All of the facts included in this blog post I learned from Marie. She's absolutely the model of self-cultivation. She's interested in art, architecture, science, history, and she goes out of her way to learn as much as she can of the topics that interest her. She has a zillion little binders and journals full of photos, brochures, even pages she's printed off the internet, as a way to remember everything she's seen and learned. And she really seems to know at least a little something about everything. I think she'll be a very good influence on me.
I've already started picking up all the little brochures and info packets from the places we've visited around Nantes. Today: Jardain des Plantes (it's a very original name but I think you can figure it out) and Musée des Beaux Arts. Sadly, no photos, but again, the brochures more than make up for that. This weekend is part of the Journées de Patrimoine, which comprise lots of free events all over the city relating to the culture and history of Nantes... it also means the museums are open for free. Tomorrow: Planetarium!
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