It was a rainy day on the coast but knowing home in California is so hot and smoky, we did a rain dance and went out and enjoyed it. Hoping our rain dance worked and California can get some rain soon!
So today (Sunday...I am a little back logged due to service), we drove to the next city of Saint Nazaire. The city is in a great location as a port so it was one of the first French cities completely taken over by the Germans in WW2. They built these huge bunkers along the waterfront in 1940-1942 where they would build their U-boats to be able to launch them towards the US and other countries.
You can see inside how many ports and docks they built encased in concrete. The Americans tried bombing the baracks once we entered the war but they were impenetrable.
Once the war was over, the French has put them to good use by using them to build their own submarines, aircrafts, and cruise ships.
We toured this submarine which was used in 1960s to be the first French sub to explore the North Pole under the polar ice. It was extremely tight quarters for the 85 men who sailed the 45 days without ever seeing the sky.
This was the whole kitchen which served the 85 men. So tiny!
We also toured a museum dedicated to the building of cruise ships. Here in the harbor you can see one being built by either Carnival or Royal Caribbean.
At the end of the tour it was really cool because they put us all into lifeboats and lowered us down to the next level. We were also attacked by a photobomber, lol.
After our tours we went to find some lunch which was a little more difficult than you think on a Sunday afternoon. All grocery stores and boulangeries are closed on Sundays in France. We found a mall nearby with a few restaurants. The first one was pizza and we were turned away because they were closing in 15 minutes. But then we found this cute little galette and creperie. Galettes are the savory type crepes and are used with a special flour only here in Britany region called Blé Noir (black wheat). They were all filled with deliciousness!
Of course we had to get a crepe too. Ally and I shared this one filled with apples and caramel, topped with ice cream and chantilly cream. They take great pride in their crepes that the waitress said this crepe didn't turn out as beautiful as she hoped so she would give us a discount. Umm, it tasted pretty beautiful to me!
85% of the city of Saint Nazaire was destroyed to rubble during the war. It had to be rebuilt so the city looks like a retro-modern city straight out of the 60's. At first one may think it is not a very pretty or charming city, but when you think of how it came to be that way you can feel humbled with compassion for the people who were here at the time. This is what I love about traveling: the feeling I have today while walking through the city is nothing that can be taught in a history book!
It was our last day in Cholet area so we stayed home and caught up on laundry and some rest. Eric enjoyed Badonk (Bocce Ball) with the boys in the afternoon.
We rested up for the final grand show at Puy du Feu which started at 10:30pm since we have to wait until it gets dark here. It is so hard to go to bed early here when it is so light out. Often dinner isn't until 8pm which seems to be normal customs here (at least in the summer). Here is Ally and Gaëlle getting ready for the show.
It was quite a spectacular show with over 400 actors and so many animals telling the story of French history, primarily all the wars and battles that took place in this region. We had translated stories through our phones, somerimes we couldn't figure out what exactly was going on but it was a Spectacular show.
Tonight was a blood moon eclipse but was cloudy until just after the show. Caught just a small glimpse of it. Then we head home at 12:30am and getting through all the traffic took us an hour to make the normally 15 minute drive. We finally got into bed at 2am.
But then we were all up at 8 to pack up and clean to head out on our next adventure. New adventures equal new views. We arrived at the largest beach in France at their Grandmother's condo. Excited for the week ahead in La Baule in the Britany region. New region also means all new food specialties!!!
Just a little tartlett that came with our sandwiches for lunch. So delicious!
We don't have wifi this week so will do my best to post as often as I can. The pictures will also be screenshots so I can get them to load with my slow data. Hope you can still enjoy them!
Today we were excited to go see Mamma Mia 2 since it was just released in France yesterday and we had watched the first one with Gaëlle last summer. Luckily they had a showing in English with French subtitles instead of the other way around.
As we looked for a pizza place in the city of Cholet near the theater for dinner, we found the closest to be named Mamma Mia Pizzéria...
The menu options are much different than in the states so we just had to trust the chef and go with their Mamma Mia pizza combination. The toppings are best left in untranslated because otherwise never would have thought of putting tuna on pizza but we might as well try something new, and it was delicious!
I ordered a calzone with artichoke cream sauce, cheese, and salmon. It was very tasty.
Eric ordered a 4 cheese pizza and it was super thin, crispy, and delicious blend of cheeses.
The interesting thing about restaurants in France is that there are no doggie bags and everyone must order their own meal, no sharing! I am assuming they meant you could share as long as you paid for a full meal for everyone, but it still felt a little scandalous trying each other's food. But it was fun seeing Mamma Mia 2, Mamma Mia Pizzéria (3), and Mamma Mia Pizza (4).
We walked though the city center of Cholet and found this beautiful church.
We just love all the cute storefronts and apartment flats above.
We hope to explore the city a bit more tomorrow before we head to the beach on Saturday.
The last two days we spent the day at Puy du Feu which is a historical reinactment theme park based on aspects of French history. Eric first heard of the park while watching the Tour de France when it passed by in 1999 and has been on his bucket list ever since. So this was a super fun treat to be able to go. Tickets for this place go on sale 9 months in advance when they start selling day specific fast passes which give premiere seating for each show. Laure was super lucky to get us midweek passes and it made the experience so enjoyable (minus the heat so on day 2 we came better prepared).
This is the Puy du Feu...
Loaded into the Roman Colosseum for the main event.
We had a better plan the second day which got us great seats center stage in the shade while everyone else was lined up to enter...
Let the show begin! The story line showed how the Gauls (French) began to embrace Christianity and didn't want to take part in the cruel and violent ways of the Roman empire and all the bloodsport. They were told that if they could survive the wrath of the gladiators that they would be allowed to worship their own god.
First the parade of Animals
The gaggle of geese cracked me up while mixed in with "vicious" animals.
Let the chariot races begin! The Gauls are in the white chariot.
The Gauls have won the race and Caesar tried to go back on his word. He sent his beasts to attack the Christian Gauls but their peaceful ways rubbed off on the lions, tiger, and hyena refused to attack and they were granted their freedom.
One of our favorite shows was the bird show. There were 200 birds that flew overhead as part of a storyline of a girl who dreamed she could fly. The birds were amazing and were often within reach over our heads.
Check out this wingspan, the amount of wind created as it flew overhead was amazing.
We walked through the viking village and saw artisan creations of that time period as well as the contraptions they built to stoke a fire.
The Vikings Show was cool as they depicted villagers fighting off attacks of the Vikings
There was a show about King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table. The sets are so cool here how there is always a surprise coming out of the water.
I think our favorite show based on story and entertainment was the Secret of the Lance which was Joan of Arc who was off to fight off the attacks from the English and entrusted a woman with the responsibility for defending the castle.
My favorite part was when knights were competing to show off their horsemanship to be able to fight with Joan. Unfortunately my phone save the video sideways so I will save you the crooked neck, but such cool tricks they performed on a running horse.
We walked through the medival village with craftsmen and women working on carving stone figures, leather, calligraphy, wood carving, stained glass making, etc.
The Musketeers of Richelieu
Their use of animals, water, and beautiful sets are amazing.
The water, lights, and music show at the end of the night was beautiful and a great end to another grand adventure.
We will come back Friday night for their grand show which only runs on Friday and Saturday night, we are so excited based on what we have seen so far!
Puy du Feu is like no other park we have been to. It is the second largest visited theme park in all of Europe behind Disneyland Paris. It gets 2 million visitors a year.
There were many exhibits that I failed to get pictures of because I was so mesmorized on how elaborate and cool they were. One that surprised me was a walk though the Verdun trenches which really gave you a feel of what it was like and gave us all an appreciation of the sights and sounds of war. Ally says halfway through, now I can see why veterans have PTSD. An impact I also felt was that we were going through French trenches and felt the same compassion for their soldiers as we would the Americans. In war it is often forgotten that those on other sides also have family and friends. My favorite part about travel is realizing that we have more in common with those on foreign soil than differences.
After being in a theme park we also noticed that there are many similarities in human behavior as at home. There are people who don't know how to park properly, people that stop in the middle of a pathway blocking traffic, kids who throw tantrums, and people who have no respect for personal space. But the tantrums are much more entertaining when they are in another language because you don't know what is being said but the tone of voice, body language, and facial expressions are the exact same in every language.
