Took the 'luxury' of a sleep-in and a hotel breakfast before leaving Cognac and a few more photo's of landmarks in the town. A quick detour to Jarnac and the Courvorsier factory, a lengthy wrong-turn in the hillside town of Angouleme...and 45 roundabouts later we were on our way back to Lignac! Then disaster ...... low on fuel we stopped at Magnac Laval, just 40k from Lignac only to find that our debit-card won't work in the petrol pump...no worry we'll use cash...

Time for a look around La Rochelle before we continue south and before the throngs wake up. Little drive through the park and then down to the harbourside fortifications.......wait a minute...is that a Kiwi accent I hear? And a bit further a couple pointing at a globe sculpture at where NZ should be! "You're along way from home" Ian said......and sure enough, he was right and the couple were not only Kiwi's but from Wellington as well! Living and workin...

Up early to get in the queue for tickets at the Ile des machines for a ride on the huge mechanical elephant. Fantastic place to visit, in what used to be the Nantes shipyards. Being redeveloped and this place is the star attraction. They took some 18 months and 8 million euro to bulid a monstrous mechanical elephant. It is 12 meters high and weighs 42 tonnes. It really is somehting to behold, along with the faces of not only the kids but the adults alike. Those...

Explored Nantes today, visiting the cathedral first, as we'd parked underneath it. Undergoing exterior restoration - nice to see the original pink stone colour emerging. Also been rebuilt a bit since a major fire in 1992. Further down by the Loire river banks was the Chateau des Ducs de Bretagne. Free entry and you can walk around the grounds and ramparts. Built in the 1400s by Francois II and his daughter Anne (later Queen of France) as a fortress during the st...

Visited the Resistance Museum near the town of Maletroit before heading any further south. Musem was very interesting and had a good range of exhibits about the formation and operation of the Resistance, mainly in Bretagne. Passed through St Nazaire after a quick drive around - a bit depressing for a seaside town. Arrived in Nantes mid-afternoon and (luckily) got a motel just down the road from a huge shopping centre called Atlantis, that incorporates an Ikea. ...