Arrival of the German and Polish students all over the day. Most of them arrived in the late evening after a long journey. Germans came by car and Poles by airplane. First meeting with their French hosts in front of the ENSA Nantes architecture school.

Discovering Nantes. Our tour was guided by Igor-Vassili. He showed us very beautiful places like the château des ducs de Bretagne (Castle of the Dukes of Brittany), the memorial de l'abolition de l'esclavage, Passage Pommeraye, place royal, the cathedral Saint-Pierre-et-Saint-Paul, Jardin des Plantes (botanical garden), Jardin japonais de l'ile Versailles (japanese garden) and at the end the Brittany tower with the great bar 'le nid'. But the most exciting thing was to see the parade of the amazing giants. They told over several days the story of an old lady and a little boy. A really impressive atmosphere catched the whole city.

Trip to Saint-Nezaire. First stop on our way was paimboeuf to see the jardin etoilé. Next stop was in Saint-Brevin-les-Pins to see the bridge de Saint Nezaire and the sculpture of a huge serpent lying on the beach.

In Saint-Nezaire we were visiting the harbour area around the Bassin de Saint-Nezaire. On the top of the roof of an old bunker built during the second world war we were able to see an Anamorphosis (a picture that assembles out of many pieces spread all over the city, but can be seen from only one point of view). Vis-à-vis was another bunker for submarines. We explored the garden 'du Tiers paysage' on top of the roof. After this we were going to the beach and some of us swam in the atlantic. When we came back to Nantes, we went to the machines de l'ile and visited the elephant who was already sleeping. Late in the evening we walked through nantes by night to find appropriate places for our light project on the ile de nantes.

First we got some input about the history, effects and facts of light. Bruno, Laurent and Stephan held lectures and showed us some characteristics of light in small experiments. Our first practice was to make a portrait of each of our group by setting four projectors in a way to emphasize the traits of each face. That followed the ideation for a small project that was supposed to announce the workshop by a light signal. After a long discussion we found out that the 'hertbeat' was the most possible idea. In the same evening we build up the installation that was illuminating from the second floor of ENSAN.

Collecting ideas for the main light installation. The students showed more than 20 ideas in a little presentation. Those were filtered and sorted by main topics. Now the groups could assemble, discuss and develop their projects while going to the sites. Three bigger and one smaller project remained. In the evening they were presented to the chief technician of the public services. He first showed us how the city lights work and how the bulbs are connected and switched. Then he gave us some feedback and advices how to realize our projects. In this evening the smaller project with the 'lighting balloons in the Loire' was tested. But unfortunately the effect that was requested didn't work out as it was expected.

Discussion about the projects with a group of technicians of the public services in the big conference room of the ENSA Nantes. We made the decision that we focus on only two projects that will be realized. That followed the preparation for the first light test in the evening. One part of the groups tried to find adequate material for the installation and created an example. The other part of the groups met with the light technicians to prepare the electrical supply on the sites. After sunset we had the first test of our light installation with a long group discussion how to realize the final project.

Transformation of the sites.One group wrapped the upper side of a bridge with clingfilm for a fluent reflection. Underneath the bridge they placed colourd lights irradiating the plants below the bridge and the bridge above. The other group produced chains with sparkling leaves made of aluminium foil and acrylic glass to put them into the trees. They placed and prapared to plug the lights on the site 'jardin de l'Estuaire' hoping that the high tide of the Loire wouldn't go to far.

All the students had dinner together at the ENSAN architecture school barbecue. When the day turned into night we could finally see our final projects:

the LUMINOUS BRIDGE and the MYSTIC FOREST! A lot of visitors came and were impressed.

The Polish, German and French students spent their last night and had to say goodbye.

We want to say a very big thank you to all the people who made this excursion so absolutely wonderful! Thanks to our academics Laurent Lescop, Bruno Suner, Stephane Bazoge, Bernd Dahlgrün and Anke Jurleit.

A very big thank to the public services nantes for supporting us and making our projects possible!

Thank you to Igor-Vassili Pouchkarevtch-Dragoche for organizing and making the trip beside the workshop a very special journey through a very unique place.