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ENBREFS
All you didn't know you needed
to know about Nantes Open |
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View from the Venue |
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Discovering an 'Intelligent & Humanist'
Nantes
One of the greatest
gifts of travelling on
the PSATour is you come to discover well, even your own country.
I had never visited Nantes before, and to be frank, I'm
completely under its spell. What an original, stress free,
clever, humanist and intelligent city this is.
With around 300,000 habitants in the heart of the City,
going up to 700,000 with the "Nantes Metropolis" around it, it's
one of the biggest cities in France - along with Bordeaux and
Toulouse for example.
What strikes you is how different this town is conceived. For
example, how many occidental cities do you know with "jardins
gourmands" in the heart of it, as in areas when tomato
plants, salads, fruit trees, and so on are cultivated? I kid
you not!!!
 Also,
a "Green
Line", not as dramatic as the Film, OBVIOUSLY, and much
more fun, as it's a 12km journey through town - painted mostly
by hand believe it or not - that takes you from a point of
interest to another one!
I love the idea, and I'm
told that one of the main instigators
of the event, François Le Jort, is very much implicated
in both Jardins Gourmands and the Green Line. You won't be
surprised then that the event last year was not a normal 10K,
with a 100,000 euros budget and a HUUUUGE success here.
Back to the Green Line, it's easy,
friendly, at your own pace, no guide needed, just a good pair of
shoes.
I found kids everywhere too. It was Sunday afternoon when I
arrived, and I found that kids were having fun well, pretty much
all over town really! From the "Galerie
des Machines"
to the "Carrousel
des Mondes Marins", the "Jardins
des Plantes", or the "Water Mirror" just in front
of the Castle, kids are just, well, being kids.
Priceless. |
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 Mathieu
Fort, one of the main "Têtes pensantes" of this amazing
event and owner of the club
where we are doing the Men's qualifying and most of the Women's
draw up to the semis,
welcomed me at the train station, 2h10m from Paris Montparnasse,
easy and fast TGV, along with Christophe André, French
player who will try and qualify today against Lance Beddoes...
We walked to the Hotel, a whole 5m really, dropped my luggage,
and off we went to see the Nantes Wizard. All walking if you
please...
First stop, the astonishing Jardin des Plantes,
a style of Kew Gardens
in the middle of the town really. You could walk for hours, and
still wouldn't see it all.
Three centuries of botanical adventures, aided as much sailors
as by green-fingered gardeners have made the gardens what they
are today I'm told.
The botanical gardens host over 10,000 taxa, which places it
among the top 5 national collections. Som of these have been
cultivated on-site in one of the elegant 19th century
greenhouses.
Of course, it wouldn't be a French Garden without its café, now,
would it. The Orangerie welcomes visitors in the afternoons...
 I
personally loved seeing goats, ducks and other animals roaming
around the place, for the delight of kids and adults together.
One small minus for me. As often in France, you are not allowed
to walk or sit on the grass.
Shame I say. |
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Off quickly to have a
glance to the 'Cathedrale St Pierre
& St Paul'. Incredibly, it's higher than Notre Dame de
Paris, the white-stone tower front raising to a full 37.5m! No
wonder I was having trouble taking a picture of it!
First stones laid in 1434, and one of the oldest religious
constructions in France, not finished before 1891! How many
generations is that, I wonder.... |
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A site that has been chosen to
host future PSA is the "Cour
du Château des Ducs de Bretagne", if you please...
Five centuries of Medieval history in those stones.... It takes
you from the 15th to the 18th centuries.
 Building
started under François II, the last Duke of Brittany, and then
completed by his daughter, the famous and iconic Anne de
Bretagne - of Brittany - twice queen of France, whose role
still is alive in Today's Brittany, as some of her decisions are
still protecting the region, would you believe!
The castle houses a royal palace of elegant Renaissance facades,
and hosts a lot of exhibitions, plus the kids just seem to enjoy
the moat a lot for some reason, and so do fish and turtles!
But I must say I can definitely see a glass court in there...
Can't wait!
A little walk across, and we find ourselved in the "Water
Mirror", place John Kennedy. Covered by 2cm deep layer of water
reflecting back the castle.
Its 208 nozzles can create a refeshing mist billowing across the
surface, or a further 32 sprays can fire vertically up to 150m!
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MACHINES DE L'ILE
We finally take the car and stop for a few seconds in front of
the Opera House, that will probably host the PSA in the coming
years -if they find a way to get the glass panels in that is!
 And
we arrive finally to the heart of the city and probably the most
original of what I saw, the "Machines de l'Ile". Scary,
astonishing, mesmerising. You name it, you'll feel it...
A team of mad builders led by Pierre Orefice and Francois
Delarozière (Compagnie la Machine) have set up their workshop
under the warehouse.
Their imagination has run wild exploring the tree-tops, the
savanna and the bottom of the deep blue sea while their
menagerie of machines roams free - I was personally chased by a
giant Elephant!
It was a zone where Ships were build and after that market
collapsed, so now they make monumental mechanical animals that
kids can run and ride - ok, the older people can have fun as
well...
Gallerie des machines
 An
imposing 8m heron carries passengers and flies over the Galerie.
The Giant Ant has been scurrying accross the gallery, with four
passengers controlling its legs, head and mandibules.
And before you ask, NOT ON YOUR LIFE I WOULD GO IN THERE!!!
Apparently, they just added a spider to the Mechanical Menagerie.
Oh Joy. It can take up to three people in its abdomen, and rises
above the spectators using its web....
RUN!!!!!
 The
Grand Eléphant...
When we arrived, it was sort of asleep in the main hall. By the
time we parked and all, it was moving towards the main
esplanade, and of course, we needed to have a pic of my two
guides.
The bleeping thing just moves well, just like the real thing!
The passengers on board can see what makes the engine and moving
feet tick.
And the trump is working too, believe me, as it just splashed a
few spectators - yes, Mathieu and Christophe too...
The Caroussel
des Mondes Marins
That is weird, I tell you. I tried and took some photos, but
they don't give it justice really,
you have to watch the video.
Imagine a three floor "caroussel", round structure, with stairs
going up all around it, and entrance to the machines on the
ground, first and second floor.
All See Animals inside wich you swim in the air, plus on the
third floor, a "normal" Merry Go Round, with even more animals....
A plus, the view from there is just pure breathtaking, and I
took my life in my hand - I got vertigo, and I've got it bad -
to take a pic of the scenery... |
WATCH THE
VIDEO!
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 Lieu
Unique
It literally means "Unique Place",
and it was there the event was staged last year, with a huge
success and more than 600 paying spectators for the final, for a
10K. Not bad for a first attempt....
As we drove back to the venue for this year, "La
Cité des Congrès", we parked in front of the "Lieu
Unique", an old biscuit factory at the center of the
city. It was founded by Jean Blaise and is now directed (since
January 2011), by Patrick Gyger.
The 'lieu unique' is the national center for Contemporary
Arts in Nantes. Opened on January 1st, 2000, it a very warm
and welcoming Art Centre, a great café where you can sit inside
or outside, looking at the river passing by, minutes from the
Train Station, and about 200m from the Cité des Congrès where
the Glass Court has been erected.
 As
we sat to have a drink with some of the organisers of the event,
Christophe André bless him, asked if there was a masseur
available, as the walk around the city had literally killed his
poor legs.
Yes, one thing you've got to know about squash players all over
the world, boys I mean: they run for hours, but they just do not
walk. And that's a fact. Apparently, if Christophe loses today,
it will be all my fault... |
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