A Sunday afternoon at the park: chariot races and a French Navy attack submarine

As Sunday is the only day of the week without school and conservatory, we intend to do something recreational every Sunday. This week, we visited the parc de la villette. La villette is the largest park in Paris. Really, it is a super-park, unifying several themed parks, as well as museums, theatres, galleries, a science world, the as yet uncompleted Philharmonie de Paris, and many many other things (such as a submarine, but I will get to that).

Some photos:

That thing in the background that looks like a giant bicycle wheel coming out of the ground - that's what it is. Other giant bicycle parts sticking out of the ground can be found nearby.

Chariot races! This looks so cool. Really they are a special kind of tricycle, hinged such that they are steered by pulling on the reigns. The children race round and round in their chariots. Sadly, this was only for small children - I was much to big. Even Jerome was too big.

This is l'Argonaute, an actual decommissioned attack submarine. You can buy tickets and go inside, from one end to the other! There seems to be hardly any space inside for people - hard to believe that it had a crew of 40.

Silke (and Jerome) inside l'Argonaut.
No, she's not talking on her phone, she is listening to the audio guide.

Although small by submarine standards, l'Argonaute is still an immense machine; clearly it wasn't moved here by truck. In fact, there is a canal through the middle of the parc, and l'Argonaut arrived here by sailing up the canal. A canal incidentally that was built by Napolean, as much to improve the water supply to Paris as to provide transportation for industry.

To get from one side of the park to the other, there are high bridges, under which boats can pass, but also, in the summer, there is a moveable bridge, which is basically a motorised dock, with trees. Here is a short video of it in action: