Swede in France.

Frida left this afternoon, and I wandered back alone to the shed to clear up the alarming amounts of facewipes, cotton buds and assorted make-up items which mysteriously appear on every surface in her wake...

It was awesome having her here for a week - it gave her a chance to see where i've been hiding since September, and gave me a chance to try and pretend there's actually stuff to do in Nantes!

Apologies in advance for the photo-laden post, but it's much easier to explain things with pictorial accompaniment:

The first thing we went to see was the castle, where we traipsed around the ramparts together in the rain. It's not the most spectacular castle in the world, as half of it seems to have blown away, fallen down or been replaced. However, it does provide a nice view of nantes' rooftops:


We also went to see the 'Machines de l'Ile' (the huge mechanical elephant), but he was hibernating, apparently. Instead, we wandered around the 'Chantiers Naval', which is the former shipbuilding dockyards of the Loire. I think they're protected by some kind of historical-building-presevation-thing, as there's a lot of open space which they could build apartment blocks on, with a view of the river. Only a matter of time, I suppose...


Another Swedish-hunger excursion brought us to the only KFC in Nantes, which is conveniently placed right next to the Nantes ring-road. To then go to the Atlantis shopping centre, we had to walk over the road on a deserted and foggy footbridge. The looming shadow behind Frida is the 'Zénith' - France's biggest indoor concert venue, which seems to be housing mainly Elton John gigs. Apparently he has quite a following here?


Once we'd crossed the footbridge, and avoided all trolls which were possibly residing underneath, we ended up on the other side, in Ikea, conveniently. I managed to avoid buying any flatpack furniture, but Frida and I both purchased one of these little fellows... Not entirely sure why. Still, at 0,99€, you can't go wrong!


It was difficult prising Frida away from her Kottbullar/Boulettes de Viande/Meatballs:


The last 'touristy' thing that we did was to climb up the 'Tour LU' - not as arduous an ascent as it may sound. The LU Tower was a part of the Lefevre-Utile biscuit factory, which relocated, leaving a shell of a factory and a single tower (there was previously an identical tower aside the remaining one). The building is now known as the Lieu Unique, and is a bar, restaurant, bookshop, and general cultural space for exhibitions, dances, concerts etc... Here's Frida faithfully recreating the exact shape of the tower with only her arms. Remarkable, eh?:


The week went way too quickly, and before we knew it, it was time for Frida to go back to the grey world of Reading, slushy snow, and the Number 17 Bus. Still, it was very nice to see her for a week. Our last three rendez-vous have been in three different countries. We're a truly tri-national couple!