TINTIN in ST.NAZAIRE

France is currently going Tintin mad with the release of Steven Spielberg's Tintin movie it seems every product is jumping on the bandwagon using Tintin in their advertising campaigns. We are Tintin fans from way back, son Karl has most of the Tintin 'bande dessinee' - the strip cartoon annuals, they were the habitual birthday and christmas gift until Terry Pratchett's Discworld took over. But I really don't like the look of the movie, I'm a luddite; cartoons should be cartoons and people are people - CGI too clever for it's own good, Tintin should be flat with 2 dots for eyes and that's the end of it! If you have to have a movie they should have done a 'Young Sherlock' to it and have an 'Old Tintin' because to me actor Simon Pegg could be the spitting image of Tintin.

Anyways....Herge the creator of Tintin never visited the locations of his little hero's adventures but using photographic source material reproduced faithfully New York, Tibet, the Congo, the Mid West and other scenic backdrops. One location was Saint Nazaire in the Loire Atlantique department and specifically the docks there and so the local council has made the most of this link by displaying the relevant scenes from the strip cartoon around the city - see photo.

Karl has just taken up residence in St.Nazaire and I must say I think it's a brilliant place, any city with a beach gets my vote. Unfortunetly a week after he moved there his bike was stolen, bit of a shame, hopefully I'll get back in the spring and with a bike or on foot I will tackle the coastal path that runs from the docks to the resort of La Baule - about a 20km. hike.