MORE FROM ST.NAZAIRE - BRITTANY

I was surprised yesterday when I phoned no.1 son in St.Nazaire that he had the day off work (well half day - he only works afternoons) 'You're still on halloween holiday????' - no, now he was off for armistice day - in France??? when we don't get a day off here, how bizarre. Anyway I can only think it's just a St.Nazaire thing with their close associations with the second world war. This pic is of a walk way through the submarine pens in the city, several line one side of the estuary and are currently being redeveloped with the installation of a roof top arboretum which is quite an interesting project transforming what is essentially a dirty great mass of very thick ugly concrete. On the opposite bank a further pen still has a submarine in it which we did the guided tour off, it was O.K, already having toured a submarine in Cherbourg that tour was more interesting - quite the submarine connoisseurs we are!


So I was looking at tickets for flights to Nantes, the closest airport to St.Nazaire and was quite surprised to find as well as good old Ryanair, Easy jet and Flybe go there from various U.K. airports. I would heartily recommend it for a mini break; a couple of nights in Nantes, train to St.Nazaire (takes 40 mins, 18 euro return) for a look around the harbour front and then on to La Baule for a night or 2. It's another few minutes along the coast either by train, bus or even a hike if you had the time and there you can peg out on the huge beach of this very chic resort. A good mix of shopping, history, cuisine and exercise if desired, maybe doesn't score too highly for art tho'.