Car broke down 15km outside of the airport. Spent 3 hours on the side of route N165. After about a…read moredozen calls and much uncertainty Sixt arranged for another car through Europcar, but charged full rental, with no compensation for the delay. They are currently trying to claim that we broke the transmission. How do you break an automatic transmission placed in drive mode? Luckily I had two fellow travelers with me as witnesses. I'm a regular car renter. This was my first and last time using Sixt.

It takes around two to two and a half hours on high speed train to get from Paris to Nantes, and…read morewell, that's exactly what we did. The train ride was pleasant. The seats were spacious and they even announced the stops in both English and French. Oddly enough, though, when we arrived to Nantes, the signs were in English, French, and German. All that said, unlike the train station in Paris, the one in Nantes had a parking garage nearby, plus many shops around. That turned out to be great for us as we got picked up quickly and went off to our next destination. Not a bad trip if I do say so myself.

Reviewing a train station feels like a preposterous task, it really does... however... Nantes train…read morestation (or Malakoff/Saint-Donatien de Nantes or whatever you might call it) left a very good impression on an English idiot bumbling around a place where they no doubt speak English better than I, but gracefully put up with my attempts to speak in French. It's a big ol' station and gloriously industrial. It reminded me of a regenerated Northern town train station - incredibly modern but with loads of old character. Buying tickets was an absolute doddle and the staff were incredibly helpful. Just outside the station, should you have to hang around whilst waiting for a train or catching a bus to the nearby airport, is a bunch of painfully great looking surroundings, with a cool little church, a river to sit beside and a great little park straddling it to idle away some minutes. Nantes is a really great city and this train station sits in the hub of it and does it justice. Maqnifique.