France 2001

I made a little detour that took me to Nantes

Primarily to find the home of this guy: Jules Verne, but not until right now I made a new observation. It's now 2014. If you look at the stamp that was published by Monaco in Verne's honor, you can see a mechanical beast on the left. When in London in 2006 I encountered such a behemoth in the streets over there, carrying a French band. Awesome, sure, but I still did not realize then that there was this connection to Nantes: a) Jules Verne's mechanical elephant, and b) that French band and their elephant. I just read that there now is a popular theme park in Nantes that has a number of these robotic creatures in it, for the public to enjoy.

So, I knew his place would be in or near the older part of town and from the station I wandered past the Ducal Palace

The courtyard of the Duke's Castle

I am sure that there once was a drawbridge over the moat

And past the Duke's castle, a charming old city center to get some food and to wander around in, Not looking for it then, I did not know about the great and flawed cathedeal of Nantes.

Finding Jules Verne's place took me to the harbor, where, at long last, up a hill, I saw what I was looking for

The former home of Jules Verne, restored and converted into a museum, even better now than back in 2001

There, among some other displays, was a model and Verne's drawings of the Nautilus submarine

One of the more talented museum curators made this drawing of the craft (Internet source)