November 7, 2007

After posting the photos of my visit to Les Machines de l’Ile de Nantes, I managed to forget to actually write a post about the visit… Here’s the post that should have gone between Angers and Berlin.

After passing a wonderful few days hanging around in Nantes, visiting the school I attended, taking the tram, and catching up with the Le Henaffs, I packed up my stuff and got ready to hop on the train back to Germany. Rosine and Bernard had told me that I had to see the elephant, and Rosine offered to take me to see it before my train left. Not quite knowing what to expect, we arrived at the old shipyards to see a four story tall hydraulic elephant carrying a crowd of people and spraying water high into the air.

I was like a kid in a candy store. This is, bar none, the coolest art exhibition I have ever been to. In addition to the elephant, which had blinking eyes, a swishing tail, moving head, and the aforementioned lifelike trunk, there was an indoor exhibition of Jules Verne inspired sea creatures. These creatures danced at the touch of 1-4 riders who could pull an assortment of lever, pump pedals, and throw switches that set chains and cables in motion. The motion was amazingly lifelike and beautiful.

These sculptures are built by a collective of artists with a background in theatre sets and special effects. Part of the exhibition includes a visit to the workshop. Guh. Please please please can I move in? I could have spent days, weeks, even years there. Definitely worth a visit.

Posted in just one more eurotrip blog |

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