THE COOLEST THING WE DIDN'T DO

 One of the strangest things in Europe is being overloaded with options, "Should I go to this place? that place?, or just...be still?". 
 Last summer the Terrys were holed up in a tiny medieval town.  Our ten days in Brittaney, France offered numerous possibilities.  

 Every city has something to sell and Nantes has Jules Verne.  For years one could walk by his birthplace or visit a little museum, then several years ago, they rolled out the Big Guns.  Someone said,"Our dear science fiction writer imagined fantastic things.  Why don't we hire people to build them.  Maybe tourists could even ride them!"

And so it was.  Machines de I'ile was born.

 Who wouldn't want to ride a giant mechanical elephant (it can carry 40 people) or straddle a squid on the ultra-amazing Marine Carousel? 

 Five years in development, this under-the-sea extravaganza made its debut July 15.
 See it all by going to www.lesmachines-nantes.fr . 
 To see a video of the awesome elephant, google "video giant elephant, nantes".

  Sadly, by the time we learned about les machines we were making our way to our next destination.  (happily, that next destination was Venice, Italy... more on that later)



We'll have to ride the elephant, crabs, and tongue-flicking sea serpents some other time.