A beautiful one elephant carved in wood and iron, tall 12 meters is heavy 50 tons, that suddenly starts walking around the city while chirps e spits water, you succeed to imagine it?
To see him gigantic and quiet in his garage was quite impressive, I won't tell you when he started walk! The children literally went crazy (you can even get on it) and the desire to follow him was immediate, it came to everyone. We felt like attending the cinema shows of the late nineteenth century, or being in one of those circuses of the past ...
The elephant is the most striking example of Machines de l'Ile, together with the sea monsters, the creatures of the abyss, the great heron: they are real machines Animated, colored e in movement.
The idea of ​​building the Machines came to the brilliant artists François Delarozière e Pierre Orefice, who have carried out this great project and designed every single machine. The style is that of the sketches of Leonardo da Vinci, inspired by the world imagined by Jules Verne (born in Nantes!) and his fantastic universes of Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea. It's amazing how they managed to create an atmosphere and a world of flavor super-technological and together Retro.
Each copy it's a masterpiece engineering and art: you can visit the entire creative path and the workshops where the machines are made, which are the former shipyards of Nantes, as we are right on the quays of the Loire.
You can also try the rides and carousels instead of the classics "horses" they host splendid sea monsters (we just admired them!) and for the bravest, you can even get on the mega-elephant ...children will appreciate.
Each attraction has its own ticket office, and costs around 5-7 euros. Personally I would visit the galleries and I wouldn't get lost the elephant, which goes out for its walks several times a day: at the entrance to the ticket office you will find all the times of the show - which change from day to day. Very cute and colorful too bookshop, with many little objects inspired by the world of Jule Verne and the Machines.
In the galleries you will also see the next projects in progress, such as the large animated tree, and you can try to “fly” with the prototypes of the machines. I don't know if you guessed it, but Les Machines de l'Ile in Nantes thrilled me, and that's just one of the many surprises Nantes has in store.
