Nantes elephant.

This is something I had never heard of it until recently.
Has anyone ever been on the Grand elephant ride in Nantes.


http://www.lesmachines-nantes….-elephant/

I know what you mean John. I had a similar experience years ago with a caravan and arrived at the same place 3 times. That was before the age of satnav.

The elephant does look interesting. I see it must be booked online.

Us too, nearly a divorce just to get out of the car park I'd pulled into to try and find where we were on the the map, pre sat nav also. Nantes is a lovely town just not to drive through.

I hate the 2 bridges crossing the Loire [?]

We were in Nantes this year. Stayed at the Petit Port camp site, very convenient, clean and very close to the tramway system. Used the tram to go into what turned out to be a very nice city. Worth a walk around. The elephant and all associated mechanical "bugs" and "creepy crawlies" is very impressive, well worth a look. I would suggest a night or two to see this very unusual piece of engineering is well worth the stop.

Stopped over for 2 nights at the Petit Port campsite - really friendly with excellent facilities. Spent two fabulous days in this lovely city which is perfect for walking around and has a brilliant tram system. We were blown away with the mechanical creations on Ile de Nantes and had an amazing ride on the elephant! Would recommend it for old and young alike and kept asking ourselves why we had avoided this gem for so long. Five stars from us!

This thread was from 2014 when we were thinking about 2015. Weather was not that good in the north half of the country during out trip and we stayed south much longer than usual so never got to see the elephant in Nantes.

With regard to the elephant, be aware that it is withdrawn from service ( for maintainence) for a week in June and again in September (I think). So research it before you turn up in Nantes with the machines as a main reason for visiting .

Davy

Has anyone stayed at the Aire in Nantes (No 144 - All the Aires 2017 North 2nd Edition) and does it get very busy? Would be aiming to get there early pm.

Planning to use it as a stop over on the way back up to Cherbourg in August.

Thanks,

Just to conclude this thread.. we stopped in Nantes on our return leg from the South of France in August. The Aire at Nantes was brilliant and right beside the campsite on the red tram route into the city. Entry to the Aire was €17 as we needed to buy a top-up card (€4 which is reusable at other Aires) so €13 really. I priced the adjoining campsite as we had a bit of bother with the machine not calibrating our new top-up card (and so did everyone else) and they wanted to charge me €44 just for the pitch with no EHU (August rates). We unhitched the bikes and cycled into the centre as the cycle route is brilliant and got to see around more of the city than if we had used the tram. The Aire has access to the campsite's (decent) wi-fi and their bar/restaurant which seemed ok apart from the lady behind the bar. The Elephant of Nantes is better to watch than ride on imo but you will get soaked from the water jets as it moves around at a very slow pace.

We use the campsite on ACSI in Nantes and agree Mark the elephant is better to look at than ride on and kid's love it