Nantes

My family on my mother's side comes from Nantes. We spent four days there, combining visiting family and seeing the city, which I have never seen as an adult. It was fun. There's a chateau, which happened to have an excellent exhibition entitled something like L'Archéologie marine des épaves de l'Atlantique. It was extremely well done, with a great section for kids where Declan was able to dress up as a pirate.

The botanical gardens are beautiful, with some 300-year-old greenhouses.

There was also a war ship from the 1950s that one could take a tour of. Lo and behold, my cousin (once removed) has been involved in the association that runs the boat for some 20 years and does the tour. So we had our own private tour, which was also great. And a special treat for Declan, who got to sit in the captain's chair etc.

There's also a sort of park of fantastical machines, the most notable of which is an enormous elephant that you can ride. (One of the pics is Declan looking at the elephant.) As Jeff pointed out, it makes sense to have these in the town where Jules Verne was born.

And let's not forget a rainy picnic on the steps of the big theatre on Place Graslin, near our hotel. After all, we were in Brittany and did get rained on at least once a day.