Pettite Two a Pret

The morning started with looking for a breakfast spot and as a last day here, I wanted croissants, so I went to Arno Bakery the one I went on the first day. There was a queue and so many mouthwatering pastries, I bought croissants, but If I could, I would have bought more, but I can’t eat too much.

Photos of the bakery:

I bought two types of croissants – buttery and with strawberry jam. These were the best croissants so far I have tried in the city, but I would say that some Dublin bakeries have the same if not better croissants. (I think I need to visit more French cities 🙂 

After fulfilling breakfast, I was ready to explore the city.

The previous day, I read that there was a Garden type of park with a waterfall not so far from the city center, so I decided to go walking and explore that part of the city. This was Le Jardin Extraordinaire.

I was walking next to the river and come across this interesting place, which on my way back was full with people having lunch:

Didn’t realize that the Garden was actually across the Le Machine de LiL’s. It was about a 40 minutes walk, I could probably take the tram but it was nice to see the city walking.
Just a few minutes before the Garden, there was an interesting structure coming out of one of the walls and I found out that this is part of a museum, the Jul Verne Museum. 

And here is the Le Jardin Extraordinaire.:

Part of the Garden is still under construction, but they had left the public to use the part that is ready.

When you go to the top you find another small park overlooking the garden.

From the top is a great view over the river and the city:

From the Garden I saw a white tree and I thought it was a part of the Jul Verne museum but it appears is part of a private home. 

I reached the Jules Verne museum but didn’t go inside, instead decided to go on the other side of the river where the Les Machines de l’île was. The attraction could be seen from this side of the river.

Here are photos from the ship type structure which was next to the JV Museum:

The area looked different, with hills up and down and some rusty buildings. Here are some photos from the surrounding area:

I headed up to the other side of the river. As I didn’t really stop walking for the last couple of hours, as soon as I crossed the river I sat down in the small green space enjoying the sun and a quite place.

After about a 30 -40 minutes, I started walking again to see if I can go the Les Machines des Lile and buy lunch from somewhere. I was getting hungry.

The area was an island and I started walking towards one end of it.

 

I found the Carrousel des Mondes Marins, part of the Les Machines de Liles but decided to skip it and kept walking toward the end of the island.

If you turn around you could see the city. As well here they had a big rings sculpture, I thought they were installed for the Olympics, but they were installed back in 2007, created for the Estuaire contemporary art festival.

The island has quite different architecture more modern and in some places artistic: 

I forgot about the food and although there was quite a big food market and some coffees which looked empty, I decided to visit the Les Machines de l’île and see if I could buy a ticket as online was showing me not available. They did had spaces on the guided tour of the Galerie and even you could book a ride on the elephant, but I didn’t want to.

So here a few photos of the Galerie: (quality is not really good as for most of the time I was using my phone)

Les Machines de l’île is an artistic project, created by François Delaroziere and Pierre Orefice, and is kind of crossroad of the “invented worlds” of Jules Verne, the mechanical universe of Leonardo da Vinci and the industrial history of Nantes, installed on the former shipyards.

It is a quote interesting project and tourist attraction. These machine were moving and even people could try them with one of the guides.

Here is the website if you want to read more about the project.

After that was finally time to search for food hehe, I was getting more hungry, although somehow still feeling half full from the morning croissants.

Here a few more photos from the area around the Island :

I found this interesting coffee shop, very artistic architecture, like everywhere in the city:

Looking online for Galettes (pancakes) saw most of them are closed:( but found one that had good reviews. Somehow, I got lost looking for it but found a small street that was full of similar coffee shops and restaurants offering Galettes. What, I was looking for are salty pancakes which were called Galettes. So when I was ordering specifically ask for salty and by the look of the waitress at first I thought I will get something else. Well it was exactly what I was looking for 🙂

and it was very tasty. Now writing wondering can I prepare this at home 🙂

The small street with the restaurants and the area.

After my afternoon lunch/dinner started walking around the city center. My plan was to do a bit of shopping.

In the morning and afternoon as I was wondering in the city center, noticed a lot of shop had put a stand in front of theirs shops and staff on sale.

It was Friday, so I guess was some kind of Sale day. It was interesting and strange to see some small and big ships doing this, but in a way maybe is better as this way they avoid shopping mess. (referencing the shops in Ireland- when there is a sale such a mess inside).

A few more photos from here and there:

Walking around, I didn’t realize there was another side of the city center which I haven’t explored so far. So I made a plan to buy something sweet go back and explore.

I wanted to buy one of those tasty-looking sweets from Arno Bakery so I went back.

Walking back to the square I felt so tired that I instead went back to the hotel, thinking I could rest a bit and go out around 8 for a last walk around. But my tiredness has overtaken my wish to go out, so I ended my day here with this delicious sweet cakes.

It was a lovely trip, with quite a lot of food, history and walking. The city is very artistic, well maintain, not loud and walkable. It is a good experience especially if you want to avoid the tourist rush. I would say the city is not a must-visit, but it is great if you have the opportunity to, especially if you want to see how French people live outside of the capital and if you love history.

After this trip I want to visit more French cities 🙂

For now bye France, to next time maybe from Paris 🙂