Rade de Brest

The Bay of Brest is an impressive water feature akin to Narragansett Bay, San Francisco Bay and  San Diego. We have located to the Hotel Belevedere for a couple of days.  CJ stayed here nearly 30 years ago when it had recently opened.

 

 Down near the Naval Base, sitting high on the cliff is what amounts to air traffic control for the Bay.

 Coves and lighthouses (phares) dot both sides of the coastline.

 

 

 

 

The facility has aged but the most disappointing feature is the growth of trees between the hotel and the Bay.  A once magnificent view is now almost totally blocked.

In his first and last visit he had the surreal breakfast experience of watching a three-ship German squadron steam into Brest.  Seemed so bizarre given Brest's war history of German occupation and near total destruction by Allied bombing and the siege of Brest.

The only things in Brest that survived allied bombing were the facilities carved into the hills below the city and the impregnable submarine pens, still used by the French military.