I do complain about Mother Nature once in a while… okay, often enough.

But I must admit she can be surprising in a good kind of way, and she knows how to put on a show.

On August 15, I took Mark for a picnic on the Île de Nantes, the site of the former shipyards. Plenty of people come to eat and drink on the grass in the evening. This is a great spot with lovely scenery—the Loire River, crooked century-old quai de la Fosse buildings on the other side, the Machine de l’Île creations, and traces of the city’s industrial past, like the giant yellow crane.

Eating a cucumber salad and a pizza sitting on the grass was exciting enough, especially for Mark.

But suddenly, the sky lit up and turned orange, then bright red.

I wasn’t expecting such an amazing sunset.

It was a hot evening and there was no wind at all, which is rare in Nantes. We started walking towards Daniel Buren‘s 18 rings lined up on the quai des Antilles, and it kept on getting better and better—the light, the reflection in the river, and the never-ending sunset gradient changing every minute.

One of these magical evenings, and a complete surprise.