Ok so after a long day of walks and visits to some historical monuments and eating some good chow, finall gotten to our appart hotel, got a good night sleep,and ready for the second day of activities;;;;;!
La Rochelle was wonderful on our first full day there, and the second day was no exception if better.
We had plans to visit the aquarium as my boys love them, so we hit that first right off opening time at 10h (10am). http://www.aquarium-larochelle.com/en
This was at 15€ per person a bit too much, the place is nice , spacious, and good education but the price tag is a bit high and no discount for families. We walk into the main section where an elevator takes you down to the Atlantic cell, then more Mediterranean, Oceanique, to the amphitheater , and up again by walkways (there are elevators too) ; you see the corals, the indo pacific ocean, the lagoon, the Caribbean the sharks, go around the cornish and the tropical jungle, then out back out to the boutique and restaurant on the top floor with great views of the old harbor or vieux port. The site tells you 2 hours are ok but we took 2h30 to see it all. Nice but again the price is a bit high me think.
We went back to our appart hotel Odalys area and just around the corner there are two museum , the automates and the reduits, these are great value both muséums for 11€! and you see in the Automates figurines of old publicity periods in working order and they move, they sing etc. You are thrown back to another era with walks by Montmartre. We go out and into the reduits museum this one is of scale models of boats, like the Titanic, the trains, the planes, the cars and motocycles, very nice indeed as it relates more to our adult life. The official site in French here, http://www.museeslarochelle.com/index.php?resultat=automates/automates.php
The tourist office has more in English here ; http://www.holidays-la-rochelle.co.uk/what-to-see-and-do/discover-la-rochelle/museums/123305-musee-des-automates-et-modeles-reduits
We had our tour of the town again, and again, we walk all over, wonderful town full of old wooden houses, and old historial buildings even now used as concert hall like the Oratory or Oratoire where Richelieu gave the first Catholic Mass after taking the town back from the Protestants.
We did enjoy the rock scene at the Christmas market by the cours des dames near the vieux port.
Another nice museum is the naval museum or musée Maritime ,this is a wonderful home grown museum that shows the sea life in this area typical of the region and France. The sea is everywhere,and this is a seafarer town par excellence!
