Nantes: the mechanical elephant and Jules Verne

Birthplace of Jules Verne, Nantes has transformed an abandoned shipyard into a park where enormous mechanical animals come to life in front of visitors.

The historic center is explored on foot; the tram easily reaches the island where the mechanical elephant performs.

At Machines de l'Île, a twelve-meter-tall mechanical elephant carries visitors through the park, while other fantastical creatures populate a former shipyard gallery converted into a contemporary space.

Just steps away, the Castle of the Dukes of Brittany, a fifteenth-century fortress where Anna of Brittany was born, houses a museum on the city's history today.

Moving forward, one reaches the Cathedral of Saint Peter and Saint Paul, whose white Gothic facade contrasts with interiors that remained incomplete for centuries after construction.

As evening falls, the Passage Pommeraye, a multi-level nineteenth-century shopping gallery connected by staircases, closes the day among historic shops and original decorations.

The mechanical elephant of the Machines de l'Île emerged from the idea of reinventing the city's naval industrial heritage by combining engineering with imagery drawn from Jules Verne's novels—the author was born in Nantes in 1828.

The Passage Pommeraye was built across a steep slope, which is why its internal staircases connect different city levels within a single covered building.