France Guide
Brittany
Les Machines de Île
Opening time: July– Aug daily 10am–8pm; mid-April to June, Sept & Oct Tues– Sun 10am–6pm; Nov, Dec & mid-Feb to mid-April Wed– Sun 2–6pm
Price: €6 gallery tour, €6 elephant ride
Website: www.lesmachines-nantes.fr
Across the river on Île de Nantes is the town's most outlandish and delightful new attraction. The recently opened workshops of Les Machines de Île offer the flabbergasting opportunity to ride on a twelve metre high mechanical elephant as it paces up and down an old shipping warehouse spraying onlookers from its trunk. A gallery alongside presents more madcap inventions from the team of artist, engineers whose oeuvre draws heavily on the aesthetics of Jules Verne and Leonardo de Vinci.