Pornic – 60 Min from Nantes

We finally made it to the beach. It was a beautiful sunny weekend. It was still low season and so not everything was open and running.

Pornic is not your typical touristy destination with a huge sandy beach that goes for miles and miles. Pornic has an uptown and a downtown with a church, a castle, a few restaurants and shops and of course ice cream parlors!

We ate lunch at the harbor, right near the water. The restaurant was called “Le Chateau“. The food was good but the service was extremely slow (the poor waitress was working alone). We tried the mussle-fries dish, the salmon with “gratin de courgettes” and potato and the entrecote steak. For dessert, we had ice cream and the “Ile Flottante.”

We walked along the water. There is a path and you can go down to sandy areas and rocky areas. You can climb on rocks and look for shells. Mussels and old oysters. The view is beautiful.

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Pornic is easily accessible from Nantes. It’s about an hour away by train.

Musée de l’Union Compagnonnique

Today, we visited a cute little museum, located in the Hautière Manor. It is owned by the city of Nantes but used by the “Compagnons du tour de France des devoirs unis” to display some of their masterpieces.

This museum is a craft guild museum. For more info in English, you can read about its sister museum in another city: here. If you more information in French, click here.

The purpose of this group is to help young people go into certain trades and become masters in their field. The goal is to learn a job they will love and cherish and pass on their knowledge to others.

You can see nice pieces of work made out of all kind of metals, wood, stone, glass and even sugar. We were the only ones and got our own guided tour. Our guide was very kind and took the time to show us and explain everything we were looking at.

The museum is only open on Saturdays. It is free. it is located on the C1 bus line and also not far from the Du Chauffaud tram stop (line 1).

 

Clisson – 30 min from Nantes

Clisson is a beautiful small medieval town, 40 min from Nantes.

It is known for its old castle (in fairly good shape) and its vineyards (Muscadet). It also has a farmers market on Fridays and a few restaurants and shops.

Our good friend Mariette, offered to take us and play tour guide. We checked the weather and picked a sunny and clear day, at least according to the weather app… It ended up being cold (40 degrees F –  1 C), gray, foggy, and without any sun!

It was still beautiful and the fog kind of gave the entire visit a unique feel to it. We were on the look out for a ghost or spirit to come out from the fog, or up a staircase in the castle but they must have been too cold to come out and greet us.

We also stopped by a memorial on the way to Clisson (Le Pallet) for two famous historic people: Abelar and Heloise. You can read more about them on the blog Guardien du Passé, and in English here.

Here are some pictures:

We had a nice lunch in a restaurant in Clisson called Le Croque Mitaine

Food was decent and prices affordable. Ate my first Ile Flottante in years!

And finally some pictures from the castle. We will go back on a true sunny day with perfect blue sky but for now, here it is!

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La Gallerie des Machines

We’ve been on the elephant and we’ve been on the carousel before, but we had not done the gallery yet. it’s an amazing place. It’s a museum, but they like to call it a laboratory. It’s more a demonstration than just a visit. You discover a few great pieces of art: the machines. The latest one is the spider and they are working on a huge tree that will be 35 meter tall with animal-machines on it.

It is located on the Ile de Nantes. There are also playgrounds (including a mini zip line), basketball courts, an area to do you own grilling in the summer (just bring your meat), Restaurants, concert halls, night clubs and much more. You can also bring a book and relax on a long chair. Plenty of room to do roller skating as well.

You can’t visit Nantes without stopping there.The carousel is a piece of art and engineering like no others. it was named the most original attractions in the world in 2014.

Here are some pictures from our visit to the gallery:

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And from the carousel:

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Trentemoult

Small village on the other side of the Loire in Nantes: Trentemoult has many cute colorful houses and a few good restaurants. On Sunday mornings, there is an organic market as well. You can take the boat to cross and use your regular tram/bus ticket for it. You can take the boat near Gare Maritime on the green (1) tram line.

 

We had lunch at “La Reine Blanche”. The service was a bit slow but the food was good.

Sailing

As part of the elementary schools’ curriculum, many students get to go swimming and then sailing during school time. It counts as their physical education class.

The great thing about Nantes is that two (even technically three) rivers pass through the city. For the kids, sailing on the river instead of the ocean, makes it less frightening and a lot of fun.

Individuals and families can use the same facilty to rent boats and sail as well.

http://www.cvannantes.org/

http://www.nantes.fr/base-nautique 

Tsuki Karate Club

Looking for some martial arts classes for the kids, and for the grown ups too?

Tsuki Karate Club is “the place to be”!

It is in Reze, right outside of Nantes and easily accessible by tram and bus.

For more information check out: Tsuki Karate Club.

Parc du “Grand Blot”

We finally got the chance to visit the “Parc du Grand Blot”, as the locals call it.

The Parc du Grand Blottereau is a huge (22 hectares), urban park with exotic and tropical plants, such as banana trees. It has big green fields, shaded areas where you can have a picnic, a play ground and a little pond. It has green houses and so much more. You can see an ice house used in the Middle Age to conserve food.

There is a big plant festival taking place each first weekend of September.

It is accessible by tram (1) and bus (12, 58, 75, 82, 92) and happens to be walking distance from our place.

Here are our own pictures taken there.

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Le Jardin des Plantes

Beautiful botanical garden right across from the train station. It is a huge park right in the city with a playground, botanical gardens, all different kinds of trees, a playground and a “pataugeoire” where kids and grown ups can get the feet wet and splash.

There is a enclosed section with goats and chicken that you can pet and feed.

Depending on the season, you may see different flowers in bloom.

You can also watch birds in their bird house and feed the ducks by the water.

So far, this is my favorite park to take the kids to.

Le parc de Proce

This park is one of the biggest parks in Nantes. It has flowers, and grass everywhere. Depending on the season you can see magnolias,dahlias, fuchsias, and many other colorful flowers. What I like about it is that you are allowed on the grass. There is a playground for the little kids and a “pataugeoire” where you can put your feet in the water and kids can play. They are also seven sculptures and statues.

You can easily access it by tram or buses 22 and 56.

Note- Dogs are not allowed.

We had a picnic there under a tree. Very relaxing and quiet.