Excursion à Nantes

Nantes is one of the cities that I went to with the group for an excursion, and it was an interesting experience. We met at the metro stop Villejean near the university and then took a bus to Nantes. Once there, we visited the Mémorial de l’abolotion de l’esclavage which was located slightly underground next to the main river. In the memorial, there were quotes pertaining towards the injustice of slavery from people all over the world. We read the quotes and then visited a smaller room that had a map of the slave trade routes and a timeline marking the end of slavery and major events relating to it that took up the entire wall. After that was Les Machines de l’île where we discovered that Nantes had a giant mechanical elephant that moves and takes passengers!

We rode on top of the elephant and watched as its trunk sprayed water and it made elephant noises. It was so bizarre to be standing on top of a giant mechanical elephant, but it was fun. Next we stopped and got lunch in a restaurant facing the river, and then we had free time. Me and two of my friends had discovered that a pride parade was happening in Nantes at the time, so we found it and immediately joined in.

It was amazing! They were playing music from a DJ on the back of the bus, and people were climbing on and off the pride bus. There was a huge crowd of people, all wearing crazy and awesome clothes, and everyone was super happy. Everyone was singing and dancing, and you could just feel the energy in the air. We followed the parade for about an hour until we got right behind the pride bus. Then, to our delight, we were able to climb up into the bus and stay in it for a while. It was an amazing experience for me, because I had never had the chance to go to a pride parade before, and I am so happy to say that my first experience was in France! Finally, our free time was up so we got off of the pride bus and headed back to the bus. Overall, Nantes was an awesome city to visit with the typical French architecture and vibe, but the mechanical elephant and the pride parade were what really set it apart from the rest in my mind.

Kiara Pelouch

University of South Carolina, Columbia