Inside the French city that gave us sci-fi legend Jules Verne
In Nantes, France, amazing mechanical animals and museum artifacts celebrate the world-famous author of 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea
![The Machines of the Isle of Nantes, including the Great Elephant, bring visitors to Nantes, Frances](https://smartcdn.gprod.postmedia.digital/ocanada/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/greatelephantnantes72.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&w=288&h=216&sig=CSTQXs9ZjvNir8Q8HtYChA)
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I swear I’ve never done drugs. But right now, a mechanical elephant is lumbering toward me. The passengers on board don’t seem to care that I could get crushed by this beast, which stands 12 metres tall and weighs 48 tons.
I turn and hasten off toward an equally towering triple-decker carousel, which confronts me with a giant crab and ferocious squid. Is there no escape?
This isn’t a nightmare or a music video created by Metallica and Pink Floyd. It’s real life on the Isle of Nantes. The five-kilometre-long island – situated in the Loire River bisecting Nantes, France – celebrates the legacy of Jules Verne with extraordinary automatons. It’s a magical place.
![French author Jules Verne wrote 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea](https://smartcdn.gprod.postmedia.digital/ocanada/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/julesverneportrait72.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&w=288&sig=qyeKmIt1MjTNH9crAdsFlw)
Verne, often heralded as the father of science fiction, wrote 19th-century classics like Journey to the Centre of the Earth and Around the World in Eighty Days. He is reportedly the world’s second most-translated novelist after Agatha Christie.
2020 marks the 150th anniversary of the publication of Verne’s most famous novel, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. I’ve come to his hometown of 300,000 on a Loire River cruise with CroisiEurope, Europe’s biggest river cruise line.
It’s my first visit to this region near France’s northwest Atlantic coast since Francois Mitterand was President. And I’m delighted to discover there’s even more to the Loire than viewing castles and sipping sparkling wine.
![Giant mechanical spider in Nantes, France](https://smartcdn.gprod.postmedia.digital/ocanada/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/spidermachinenantes72.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&w=288&sig=e61gdPKz84Y_BSYOAlgcSg)
The Machines of the Isle of Nantes aren’t limited to the Great Elephant, which was inspired by Verne’s 1880 book The Steam House, or the Marine Worlds Carousel, which takes its cue from 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. I pay 8.5 Euro ($12.30 Cdn.) to enter the Gallery of the Machines.
This capacious atelier with a steampunk aesthetic is somewhere Leonardo da Vinci would have felt utterly at home. Stupendous sights abound, reflecting the genius of designers Francois Delaroziere and Pierre Orefice.
![Giant mechanical heron in Nantes, France](https://smartcdn.gprod.postmedia.digital/ocanada/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/heronmachinenantes72.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&w=288&sig=ajESAPLrL_XU05cunpQG4g)
Guests can ride in the wicker-basket feet of a wood-winged heron that soars over the photo-snapping audience below. The Taupe Foreuse, or “Drilling Mole,” grabs my attention with its grotesque, sadistic beauty. I also spot what appears to be a giant Minotaur under construction.
Things get even more surreal when I venture outside on the branches of the Heron Tree, which is like a banyan tree on steroids. Still being built, it’ll ultimately become the world’s largest hanging garden, with gigantic hummingbirds and geese. It offers a fantastic view of France’s sixth-largest city, including the central Gothic cathedral.
The Machines of the Isle of Nantes debuted in 2007. The attraction replaced the city’s old shipyards, which were shut down in 1986. Frankly, this is a great example for other cities historically known for their industrial zones that want to reinvent themselves as hubs of culture and sustainability. Gargantuan mechanical animals aren’t something you can just find anywhere – unlike, say, friendly people and farm-to-table cuisine.
I leave the Isle of Nantes to pursue my Verne-themed pilgrimage. After crossing the Pont General Audibert, I climb a rising slope to the 1978-founded Jules Verne Museum.
![Captain Nemo sculpture in Nantes, France](https://smartcdn.gprod.postmedia.digital/ocanada/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/captainnemosculpture72.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&w=288&sig=2n6o0_pqobNVr1bQGxIyFg)
Outside, I check out Elizabeth Cibot’s 2005 bronze sculpture of a telescope-wielding Captain Nemo, the Nautilus submarine commander in 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. He stands in front of Verne, depicted as a child, seated on a bench and gazing over the water.
If you want to stop procrastinating and start producing, hearing about Verne’s work ethic is a great kick in the posterior.
![Jules Verne Museum in Nantes, France](https://smartcdn.gprod.postmedia.digital/ocanada/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/julesvernemuseum72.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&w=288&sig=S9981MQpRamZGdcqco_F5A)
Inside the museum, I listen to an imagined audio monologue by his wife Honorine, lamenting the obsessive drive that saw him produce close to 30 novels, writing daily from 5 am to 11 am. He never lived in this building, but it features a replica of the salon where he received his admirers, with an 1875 oil portrait of him on the wall.
I learn about the impact that editor Pierre-Jules Hetzel, who also published Balzac and Victor Hugo, had on Verne’s success. They enjoyed a lifelong collaboration, and Hetzel’s input on everything from colourful book bindings to promotional posters helped make Verne’s titles best-sellers.
An entire room is dedicated to 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. There are classic movie posters, including the 1954 Disney version starring Kirk Douglas. I admire a vintage deep sea diving suit, like the one Verne saw at the Universal Exhibition in Paris and inserted into his storyline.
![The Jules Verne Museum features his famous science fiction books.](https://smartcdn.gprod.postmedia.digital/ocanada/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/julesvernebooks72.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&w=288&sig=ymQpbyTh1FyCrWkV7eODbw)
I’m also fascinated by a February 5, 1969 letter on NASA letterhead from Apollo 8 commander Frank Borman to Jean-Jules Verne, the author’s grandson. The letter discusses the huge influence that Verne’s visionary novels about space travel had on Borman’s career.
I have fun playing with a map where you press buttons to light up the international destinations where Verne’s books are set. And for anyone who might think, “Man, this sounds pretty old-fashioned,” when you notice the Finding Nemo DVD in the gift shop, you’ll realize you too have been living in Jules Verne’s world all along.
Even after Verne relocated to Paris and Amiens, he came back to Nantes regularly to visit his extended family. This port city fueled his fascination with seafaring and adventure. He rode the SS Great Eastern, an iron sailing steamship, from Liverpool to New York in 1867.
![Cruise the Loire on board the MS Loire Princesse](https://smartcdn.gprod.postmedia.digital/ocanada/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/loireprincess72.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&w=288&sig=PYO7mDg2HyA0AleAmwzumQ)
I reflect on how Verne contributed to my own wanderlust as I return to the MS Loire Princesse for the evening. The sleek boat, designed and built by CroisiEurope, offers a comfortable and value-priced environment. My double-occupancy cabin includes a bathroom with hot showers. Food ranges from custom-made omelettes for breakfast to venison with mashed potatoes for dinner. It’s genuinely nice.
Still, wouldn’t it be awesome if the boat suddenly transformed into the Nautilus and we lived out 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea? My inner 14-year-old says: “Oui!”
– To book your next French river cruise, contact CroisiEurope. Before you go, learn more about the Machines of the Isle of Nantes, the Jules Verne Museum, and tourism in France.
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