The main square in Poitiers...A grand church, featuring Tom....
A futuristic building at Futuroscope....
Saturday we spent the day in Poitiers, a lovely city with lots to see. Poitiers is important for a number of reasons, but the most important is that it was here in the 8th century that the Moslems were finally stopped in their conquest of Europe. If it had not been for that battle, we might all be speaking a very different language.
The tourist bureau has color coded the city, with three colored lines designating three different circular tours which handily start and end at the tourist bureau. We did two of them, stopping for lunch in the center of town. We ended the second tour in a 4th century baptistery that is reputedly the oldest religious structure in France – unfortunately, no pictures allowed. Oddly, the church in the center of town is the most renowned, while the church merely three or so block away is far more spectacular.
We then made our way to our new hotel, which was somewhat more comfortable, with all of the modern conveniences, except, of course, that the wifi (pronounced weefee) did not work, and since it was the last weekend before school starting, the place seemed to be full of families, with kids up and running around until well after midnight. The receptionist suggested that we visit Futurosope in the evening, getting a discount rate and enjoying the fireworks. And so we did.
Futuroscope is supposedly a futuristic park based on communication. We found it mostly about what you can do with a camera – 3D movies, Imax movies, and a bunch of others we did not get to see, since most were either closed or fully booked by the time we got to them. We know it is a favorite of our friend Barbara – and Barbara, we tried, we really tried, but we don’t get it! But the finale was more than worth the price of admission. It was held in an amphitheater around a pond of water, where fountains began to play with water, colors and music. There was a large movie screen and a meaningless plot about rescuing a scientist who had a special plant (trust me, it made no sense at all). But the really amazing effect was when the pond emitted a mist of water, and the figures of the characters in the story were projected into the mist, and really seemed to be walking and running on the water – with the added effect of water splashing as their feet moved. Then the whole thing exploded into fireworks, also emitted from the pond, and bursts of flames, as well as colored water of various kinds. It was spectacular.
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