Tag Archives: Finistere

Wandering Around Brest – Pt 5 Music and Wine

25 Replies

Wandering Around Brest - Pt 5 Music and Wine

After my look around Recouvrance I crossed back over the river and found myself in the city’s main thoroughfare, the Rue de Siam. Originally called Rue Saint-Pierre, it was the location of an overnight stop in 1686 for three ambassadors sent by the King of Siam to meet King Louis XIV in Versailles. After arriving in Brest, their unusual appearance caused such a stir that they renamed the street after them.

Like the rest of the city centre, the Rue de Siam was rebuilt after the end of the Second World War, but that didn’t make it an unpleasant place to take the weight off my feet for a while, and at the bottom end of this pedestrianised avenue, there were any number of bars and restaurants that had outside tables enticing me to take a closer look. In the end, I didn’t choose any of them because I could hear the distinct sound of Breton music coming from a bit further up the street.

Continue reading →

Originally posted 2024-08-21 14:58:39.

Wandering Around Brest – Pt 4 Recouvrance

31 Replies

Wandering Around Brest - Pt 4 Recouvrance

I’ve had a change of heart: I was going to make this my final post about Brest, but I’ve now decided to break it up into two smaller ones, as Recouvrance and the City Centre are quite different from each other – and always have been.

Being on opposite sides of the Penfeld River, both communities grew up with separate identities: Recouvrance, for example, was Breton-speaking while Brest spoke French, and even though the former was annexed by Brest in 1680, it still retains its own independent character.

Recouvrance, it has to be said, might not be on everyone’s list of places to visit, in fact probably very few, but I was keen to see how it compared to Plymouth’s Devonport and so after leaving the Chateau and Maritime Museum I wandered through the Jardin de Gaulle towards the Recouvrance Bridge.

Continue reading →

Originally posted 2024-07-15 14:56:18.

Wandering Around Brest – Pt 3 How the City Became a Major Naval Port

32 Replies

Wandering Around Brest - Pt 3 How the City Became a Major Naval Port

As I’ve previously mentioned, one of the reasons I came to Brest was to see how it compared to Plymouth as a naval port, and just like its counterpart across the channel, Brest suffered severe damage during WWII. Its heart was literally ripped out during the Battle for Brest in 1944, and therefore any reminders of the city’s past were bound to be few and far between, but after my boat trip around the Rade de Brest, a short walk up from the quay was the Chateau which was one of the few landmarks to survive.

With only one full day to explore the city, and the weather set fair, I really couldn’t afford to spend an excessive amount of time here, but to help make it easier for me, all the information was in French.

Continue reading →

Originally posted 2024-06-10 06:20:22.

Wandering Around Brest – Pt 2 The Rade de Brest

30 Replies

Wandering Around Brest - Pt 2 The Rade de Brest

Now that I’ve told you where Brest is, I should start telling you what’s here, but my arrival on a late Friday afternoon meant that any serious sightseeing was going to have to wait until the following morning, so I did what any sensible person would do and have a wander around the local neighbourhood and look for a convivial bar to unwind in – not that I’d done anything to be wound up about yet mind you.

On the other side of Rue Jean Jaures from where I was staying was the district of St Martin, so I headed in the direction of Église St Martin, which from the outside at least, looked as though it might have been worth a quick shufti – if only it had been open. In fact it looked as though it had been closed for quite some time, so I carried on around the block to Place Guerin instead where I watched some of the locals playing Pétanque before noticing a café on the other side of the square which I thought might be worth closer inspection.

Continue reading →

Originally posted 2024-04-23 07:15:42.

Wandering Around Brest – Pt 1 Where is it Exactly?

45 Replies

Wandering Around Brest - Pt 1 Where is it Exactly?

Brest, for those who’ve never heard of it, is located in Brittany, a Region in the extreme north-west of France, an area closely connected with the Celtic Britons of Cornwall and Wales – hence its name. Since 1532, the Historical Country of Brittany has been a part of Metropolitan France, but as you might imagine, it still retains a strong independent and cultural identity.

The prefecture (capital) and largest city of Brittany is Rennes, with the region being made up of four départements, each with its own prefecture. Brest, with a population of 140,000 (370,000 in the metropolitan area), is the largest city in the département of Finistère, but the honour of prefecture goes to the more traditional town of Quimper.

It’s also worth noting that Nantes, which is now part of the Pays de la Loire Region, was not so long ago the prefecture, largest city and most important city of Brittany. Even though the majority of people in Brittany and the Loire-Atlantique département indicated in a 2014 poll that they wanted Nantes to return to Brittany, the powers that be did what they do everywhere, and ignore public opinion. Below is a map of the départements, prefectures and main towns of Brittany as it stands now – and before the authorities start mucking about with them again.

Continue reading →

Originally posted 2024-03-20 16:00:39.