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This is our last day in France. Tomorrow we’ll drive to Nantes, then fly to Paris, then to Atlanta, and from there to Portland. I’ll post another entry when we get home.

We went to the cruise ship museum in St. Nazaire today. We went there last time we were in France, but it was still really cool because it’s located in a World War II Thing/Structure, there really is water (which they also keep the submarine Espadon (Swordfish) in), and the inside is made to look like a cruise ship. There was even an engine room:

a real bar:

and other storage space:

At the end, you go into a small theater where it shows different clips from cruise ship films (including the Normandie burning on its side in the New York harbor), and then after five minutes, the lights start flashing, you hear rumbling sounds, the screen goes off, and someone comes in and hands you your lifejacket. You follow him to the lifeboats, get in, and are lowered down to the water level, where you step out and go through some doors into a hallway, which then takes you to the giftshop.

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By the way, I found a shrimp in my swim suit yesterday after going to the beach.

We went to the aquarium in Le Croisic today. It was really cool; it had a tunnel going through the fish tank (like at the aquarium in Newport, Oregon, if you’ve been there), and lots of other stuff, but the coolest part was the shark tank. The sharks were huge — not just four foot long sharks like you sometimes see, but full-size ones. I would have taken more pictures of the sharks, but flash photos are prohibited and it was a dark room. So I only have one shark picture, which was actually an accident, because I didn’t think my flash was working:

We also saw a lobster try to attack a crab several times:

And then there were the turtles (I know you would have liked this, Adam):

There are lots more photos, but it would take too long to upload them all on a dial-up connection, so I’m only posting three.

We arrived in Batz at about 3:30 yesterday, after a five and a half hour trip. Not very much has changed since last time we were here, except some stuff has been renovated. The house has four stories and two backyards. It is also right next to a pizza place, and within walking distance of the beach. And it’s right in the middle of the town, so if we can find a broadband internet place, I can walk there.

We’re leaving tomorrow to go to Brittany for the last two weeks of our trip. The town we’ll be staying in is called Batz (silent ‘tz’), and it’s the same place we stayed in our last time in France, five years ago. It will be about a five hour drive.
The greenish marker on the map is where we are right now, and the purple one is where we’re going. (But it won’t be a straight line as the map suggests, obviously.)

We met some English people at a restaurant on my birthday, who invited us to their house a few days ago. They’re only here five weeks out of the year, so they let us use their pool while they’re gone.
The pool is built in to the Deck-Like Part of Their House, and it’s about ten meters long and five feet deep in the deepest part. It’s also covered by a rounded plexiglass roof. It’s really cool.
I tried to get a workout in, but it’s kind of hard when you can’t see the wall (the wall was the same color as the floor and there were no shadows). So we lined the bottom of the wall with little pebbles and leaves to make it more visible.

Well, today’s my 14th birthday, and we’re going to an internet place for lunch! My main present was the 3D Weather Globe software, which is really cool.
So far, I have eight emails (it’s 10:30am here), and most of them look like birthday greetings. One was even automated. I haven’t gotten to read them yet since our dial-up connection is being so slow right now, so I’ll wait until we go out to lunch.

On another note, I’m almost finished learning C++. Next is Objective-C.

We went to Rocamadour yesterday, a medieval town built partly in a canyon and partly on a huge rock. The part built on the huge rock is a plaza surrounded by seven churches, and up above that is a castle, 1600 feet above the ground level. Pilgrims used to come here as penance.
On the ramparts of the castle, there is a view point (which obviously wasn’t originally a view point, but it is now) looking out over the cliff. It’s so high, you can look down and see a flock of birds. Oh, and it was 104 degrees (farenheit) out.

Looking up at the cliff from ground level. You can see the view point in the top left.

Looking straight down from the view point. You can see one of the seven churches on the left, and then the ground level in the center. There are two people down in the bottom right (the specks behind the car).

One of the doors in the plaza. The sharp rivets make it look like a torture device.

By the way, we found a human bone in a cemetery a few days ago.

“Stay off the sidewalk if you don’t like my driving…”