Saint Nazaire

Sunday

We arrived in Saint Nazaire around 7pm and found there was a small supermarket just accross the road. Luckily it was open and as we were staying in an apartment, we were able to grab some bread, goats cheese, and ham for our tea.

Monday

We had pre-booked tickets to some interesting attractions in Saint Nazaire, so we headed out on foot to our first destination, Escal'Atlantic.

Many great French transatlantic ocean liners were built in Saint Nazaire, and in part of the old submarine base in the city, there is an immersive exhibit detailing the history of these ships, while being laid out just like you are on board one of them. You can explore the different classes of cabins, learn about how many provisions were needed for a journey and even have a go at managing a ship yourself. On the promenade deck you can feel the wind in your face and at the end of the visit, you climb into a lifeboat and are winched back down to 'dry land'.

The next stop was the Espadron submarine, which we walked through, marvelling at how it is ever possible to live and work in such cramped conditions, and how on earth anyone ever knew which button, lever or valve did anything!

Our third stop was Ecomusee, the museum of the history of Saint Nazaire. The guide was apologetic that there weren't many English translations for the exhibit information but said he would answer any questions we had. Of course, we couldn't think of any when he asked us again, but we had enjoyed looking at old photos of the city, models of the great ocean liners built there and some other interesting artefacts.

This area was very industrial, still with many shipbuilders and also an Airbus factory nearby making plane components. We could see what looked like a huge rig, and later learned that it was where the turbines for offshore windfarms are made. From a viewing platform on top of what was once the fortifications defending the submarine base on the opposite side of the river, we had a good view of the ' Le Pont de Saint Nazaire' which we hope to drive over tomorrow, as well as the sea and many boats and a cruise ship which was travelling up the river.

On the way back to the hotel, we spotted a restaurant that looked good, so after a swim in the hotel pool and a freshen up, we headed there for dinner.

No driving today, however It suddenly occurred to me that if you aren’t a bit geeky when it comes to electric cars like me, none of these figures will make a lot of sense. So, I thought I would compare some figures to miles per gallon equivalent (MPGe)

The calculation of MPGe is based on the energy content of a gallon of petrol, which is approximately 33.7 kilowatt-hours (kWh) of electricity. Determining how far an electric vehicle can travel on 33.7 kWh of energy gives us the MPGe of the vehicle.
So, when I say we achieved 4 m/kwh this equates to approx. 135 MPGe. 5 m/kwh is approx. 168 MPGeRead more