Must-see in Nantes: Les Machines de l’Île

This post is also available in:

Latest update: 31 May 2023

In the French city of Nantes, I dive to the depths of the sea and get on an elephant with the same ease. I enter the fantasy world of Les Machines de l’Île. Are you coming too?

An adventure novel in real life

Do you know the writer Jules Verne? He is the man of Around the World in 80 Days and 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. He wrote adventure novels set in the future, including a scientific twist. Combine his adventures with Leonardo Da Vinci’s penchant for mechanical art and the industrial history of Nantes, and you get Les Machines de l’Île.

The machines are the result of the imagination and creativity of the Frenchmen François Delarozière and Pierre Orefice. Two designers who bring together art and tourism in the old shipyards on the Loire River. The city of Nantes, the Loire region, and the European Union have funded the first phase of Les Machines. Today I visit the machines at the invitation of Le Voyage à Nantes (the tourist office of Nantes).

Demonstrations at Galerie des Machines

The workshop is in the Galerie des Machines. This is where the machines are made: both for Nantes and abroad. From above, I can watch how mechanical structures slowly transform into mechanical animals. The gallery is a kind of exhibition space where the moving machines can be admired before they are used. Employees demonstrate the machines: an eight-meter heron flies over me, a caterpillar crawls past me, and a huge spider moves slowly through the somewhat damp gallery. Children scream with delight, and adults use their elbows to get themselves into one of the machines and take a ride.

New in Nantes: Arbre aux Hérons

The machines shown are all waiting for their new home during my visit. A mega project is to be completed in 2022: Arbre aux Hérons. This is a steel construction 35 meters high with a diameter of 50 meters with two herons above it. Under their wings, visitors can move from branch to branch in a kind of hanging garden and, of course, sit in the machines themselves.

When I visit, Arbre aus Hérons is still under construction. I can see a prototype of the tree where the makers test the structure, but also the vegetation: which plants are suitable for the Heron Tree? The drawings of the project look unreal. This must become something magical!

The elephant, the star among the machines

The machines of Les Machines de l’Île are lifelike and life-size. Or actually even larger than life. The mechanical elephant is twelve meters high. About three times higher than a real one. It weighs no less than 48.8 tons. He goes for a walk several times a day during the summer months. Fifty enthusiasts can hitch a ride with him and admire the technology from the inside. The rest of us gather (packed with cameras and mobile phones) around his feet.

The elephant trumpets and sprays water as it moves at a speed of up to three km/h over L’Île de Nantes (the island of Nantes). Nobody is safe. Me neither; check out the end of the video! Today (2017), it is precisely 10 years ago for the driver that he took his first ride with the elephant.

Carrousel des Mondes Marin

The elephant connects the gallery and workshop with the carousel. He stops to drop off and pick up people. And that’s how you one moment jump off an elephant and the next you explore the depths of the sea. The Carrousel des Mondes Marins brings the underwater world to life. Nantes and its inhabitants are closely linked to water; it’s a port city, so this attraction fits perfectly.

Three levels underwater

The carousel has three floors representing the different depths of the sea: the surface, the depth, and the bottom. The 35 mechanical creatures are placed in the carousel according to that logic. For example, at the bottom, you will find a crab and, above that, a manta ray, and then higher up, a turtle. Each animal has different elements that you can set in motion yourself. Although riding the carousel may be meant for children, I can’t resist participating.

With a big smile in the carousel:

Visit Les Machines de l’Île

Do you want to visit Les Machines de l’Île? That is possible all year round, but the elephant does not walk in January and early February. And sometimes, the elephant has to return to the workshop: it gets a new hybrid engine and servicing. It is worth considering purchasing a Nantes Pass. I got it from La Voyage à Nantes. With it, you get free access to the Galerie des Machines and a discount on the Carrousel des Mondes Marins, or vice versa. A ride on the elephant is not included.

I visited Les Machines de l’Île free of charge thanks to Le Voyage à Nantes. There were no conditions attached to this visit, so what you have just read is how I experienced my visit.

First published: July 2017. Updated since.