The Best of Brest
Monday 5 June – we arrived in Brest, and are staying in the city centre so it was an easy walk down to the port where there is plenty of action.
Like Saint-Nazaire, Brest is an important harbour and the second French Military Port (since 1631) after Toulon. It has been the seat of the French Naval Academy since 1830 and was the debarkation point for US troops during World War I. It has one of France’s most important harbours and every four years it hosts “Les Tonnerres de Brest”, a spectacular maritime festival celebrating traditional sailing from around the world.
In the Second World War, the Germans maintained a large U-boat submarine base in Brest as well as for some of their surface fleet, giving them repair facilities and direct access to the Atlantic Ocean. In 1944, after the Allied invasion of Normandy, the city was almost totally destroyed by bombing raids and the city centre was completely rebuilt after the war – and to be honest, after visiting so many beautiful towns on our trip, it was very boring seeing so many utilitarian granite and concrete style buildings, with tiny prison-like windows, not much character here at all!
Tuesday 6 June – we were up early this morning as we wanted to go on a boat cruise around part of the harbour and the only time to do it was at 10.00am this morning. We arrived at the commercial port in plenty of time to get on our Brest Ouest boat named Le Brestoâ (that’s a bit of a mouthful) for our cruise around the Rade de Brest. We sailed out from the harbour past numerous fishing vessels, tug boats and the naval base which houses the submarine base and was used by the Kriegsmarine from the end of 1940 (the second one we’ve seen in two days!). This served as a base for the 1st and 9thflotillas as well as several German battleships such as the Prinz Eugen. Although it was actively bombed by both the Royal Air Force and the US Air Force, it suffered little major damage as the roof is more than 7 metres thick in places.
Brest is also an important research centre, mainly focused on the sea with, among others, the French Research Institute for Exploitation of the Sea Centre, the Centre of Documentation Research and Experimental on Accidental Water Pollution and the French Polar Institute is based here. We sailed past the Oceanographie vessel “Pourquoi Pas (“Why Not”), which was built in 2005 and is equipped with deep multibeam sounders and has a team of 40 scientists and technicians. It is used for many different campaigns in environmental science in the Atlantic, the Mediterranean and as far as the Indian Ocean.
A huge white ship was anchored just past the naval base with a very interesting story. It’s a missile tracking radar ship, and from its mooring in Brest, is capable of detecting a $2 coin dropped from the top of the Eiffel Tower and can predict, within millimetres, its exact landing spot. It uses a dedicated satellite to track missiles and objects. We were told it is currently used to track the flight path and landing of the missiles that are being tested by the French Navy (however, I am sure that they are using it for a wider purpose than that!). There are apparently only three such vessels with this capability in the world, the other two being in the US and China. The computing power that we have developed for applications like this is unbelievable
Next up were two lighthouses, Phare du Porzic and Phare du Minou. The tides around this part of Brittany are famous, the rise and fall is up to 20 feet which creates huge eddies and currents as you can see from the photos around Brest Harbour.
Out in the harbour we passed the French Naval nuclear submarine base and saw one of their nuclear submarines in dock. Similar to the British Trident, these submarines spend up to 90 days at sea and indeed, can spend that full period under water, the object being to keep their location secret. They have enough nuclear explosion to be 106 times that of the Hiroshima bomb! I managed to snap off a few photos before the guide on the boat said they weren’t allowed! We could also see some of the navy exercises taking place in their rubber boats nearby.
The Château de Brest is the oldest monument in town and located at the mouth of the River Penfeld. It has over 1700 year of history and was classified as a Historic Monument in March 1923. It stands opposite the Tour Tanguy, which helped to defend the entrance to the Penfeld. It is also home to the National Maritime Museum. We spent a fabulous few hours (mostly on our own in this incredible old fortress).
It was interesting to see the cutaway models of a 62 metre, 3 masted fighting ship, with 72 canons which was manned by 750 men. It didn‘t look like there were too many creature comforts available for those guys who spent many months at sea cooped up on board, although it was interesting to note in their supply list that their daily rations included 10 times the amount of wine as it did water! It was also interesting to learn the history of the involvement of the French Navy in the American War of Independence, the French predictably supported the Colonists against England. When England blockaded the French support ships leaving Brest, a battle took place a few miles off the continent where the French defeated the English Navy. I suppose any enemy of England would be a friend of France!
There was also a section on the Jules Verne Trophy which is the prize for the fastest circumnavigation of the world by any type of yacht, and refers to the Jules Verne novel of “Around the World in Eighty Days” in which Phileas Fogg traverses the planet (albeit by railroad and steamboat!) in 80 days. It departs from Le Créac’h Lighthouse off the tip of Brittany and finishes at Lizard Point in Cornwall. The trophy was first awarded to the first yacht which sailed around the world in less than 80 days and one of the most interesting things is the progress of technology, as the same course originally sailed in 80 days has now reduced to almost half by technological improvements enhancing the performance of the boats, to 40+ days. The videos showing the recent huge trimarans flying through ocean conditions at 25 – 30 knots were scary, they looked to be continually on the brink of disaster! The Jules Verne Trophy is a hull made from highly polished aluminium and is free floating in a magnetic field inside its glass cabinet which is only opened to be inscribed with the names of the next record-breaking performance. After having abandoned their attempt in 1993, the late New Zealander Sir Peter Blake and Englishman Sir Robin Knox-Johnston in ENZA New Zealand, crossed the finish line a year later recording a time of 74 days, 22 hours, 17 minutes and 22 seconds, beating the previous owner of the title, Bruno Peyron’s record by almost 5 days. The current record holder is IDEC Sport skippered by Francis Joyon in 40 days – breaking the record by half in 30 years!
We had a drive around the city and over the Pont de Recouvrance which crosses over the Penfeld River. It’s a vertical-lift bridge and replaced the swing bridge which was destroyed by the Allied bombardment in 1944. Each pylon is 70m high and the span is 88m long. We actually had some great views of this and the Penfeld Quay Military enclosure, which was founded in 1752, with its navy ships and tugs and support boats, from standing above by one of the towers in the Château.
A nice city square provided a good people-watching spot to enjoy a G&T and glass of wine, along with some tapas and then we called it a day. Off to Nantes tomorrow.