Wednesday, 15th May Nantes

 Heavy thunderous showers all day.

Train into town centre to the history museum and the memorial to the slave trade.Nantes was the major slave port 1.3 million enslaved Africans arrived to be dispatched to French colonies to work on coffee and sugar plantations as part of the Atlantic Slave trade.Nantes quickly grew rich on the proceeds.

Walked down to the river harbour where there was a moving memorial dedicated to all those enslaved and to those who fought to abolish it.

Noodles for lunch 

Then we went back to the Island Machines workshop where we got to watch a  mechanical heron fly  and a lizard  and caterpillar crawl along a branch. We worked a staged fight (courtship) between two birds of paradise for the amusement of the audience. 

We went to the cinema ( expensive and comfortable) to stay out of the rain . Back to Black biopic of Amy Winehouse 

Everywhere is walkable 

This heron will eventually live in a suspended tree outside 

Venus fly traps and other exotic plants will decorate the branches 

Sheltering from the rain next to the workshop hangar

The  mechanical tree branches have already started to sprout 

Haussman style architecture in Nantes is similar  to Paris . Very attractive city centre as a result 

The memorial  inscription down by the river 

Quotes from anti slavevabolitionists