Brest

Mileage: 158784

When we arrived in Brest, the plan for the day was brief and clear. We wanted to buy tickets for the Océanopolis for the next day and then head to the Château.

Ines had chosen a parking spot at the marina and a bus line that would later take us to the Château.

Once we had obtained the tickets for the lively marine museum, we boarded the bus of the ligne bleue as planned. After a few minutes, a young man with a large DSLR camera sat down next to us and asked where we were from. Perhaps our hats gave us away as tourists. He explained that he worked for a newspaper, was from Paris, and wanted to conduct an interview with us about tourism in Brest. We had the time and inclination, so we started chatting. We learned that the bus line “La Ligne Bleue” was a new invention, ran only in the summer, and functioned like a sightseeing tour without commentary. The stops were strategically placed along the city’s attractions, and it operated with open-top double-decker buses. He took a photo of us, and in the end, we gave him the website address of our travel blog and promised we would definitely write something about our stay in the city. (Which is exactly what is happening here. 😄)

At our stop, we got off right in front of the Château. However, before we went into the marine museum located there, we took in impressions of two more attractions nearby. The Pont de Recouvrance and Tour Tanguy were very well visible from up here.

The bridge was the significantly larger structure of the two, built in 1954, was one of the largest bascule bridges in Europe, and a landmark of the city, as it connected the two parts of the metropolis divided by the Penfeld River.

The tower from the 14th century, on the other hand, appeared somewhat smaller. It once served as a watchtower over the harbor and today houses the museum about the history of the city.

After we took some photos, we finally entered the castle and thus the Musée national de la Marine. When Ines asked at the entrance if one could visit the castle without going into the museum, she was unfortunately disappointed. The museum extended almost over the entire grounds of the castle and was fully integrated into the individual towers and bastions. Grinding her teeth, she begrudgingly agreed to enter the museum with us. Yuck!

After we had learned about the history of shipping around Brest and the whole world, we took a short break at a harbor café and then took the ligne bleue back to Gary.

That evening, we finally wanted to enjoy some local cuisine again and not cook ourselves. At the marina, there were a whole series of restaurants, but since it was Monday, most of them were closed. The only establishment we could go to was a bar that offered a small selection of fries, mussels, and fish alongside drinks. We got full and returned to Gary around 10:00 PM.