Brest, France - 06 April 2002 My photo album of Brest
	Brest lies on the most northerly of Brittany's 3 Finistere peninsulas, with one of Europe's finest natural harbours. It was heavily bombed during WWII, but is a small modern clean city today with ancient maritime traditions. The oldest parts of Brest date back to the 14th Century. Coastline of Brittany The coastline is very scenic, lots of inlets, lighthouses, tiny fishing harbours and old fortifications. The landscape is sparsely populated, mainly farmland and moors. It was foggy upon arrival early morning so we didn't see much of the coastline and it was windy and rough, but sunny when we departed. Océanopolis Although we only had 4 hours in Brest, the Tourist Board did an excellent job. They had laid on free buses doing a continuous loop every 20 minutes, around the main attractions, covering the Océanopolis, a sea and marine sciences Leisure Park, the Botanical Gardens, three different shopping areas in the city-centre and Brest Castle which is now a French Naval Museum with a fine collection of model ships. Top I took Howard to the oceanarium, while Dave and Beverley went into the town centre. The idea was that I would spend an hour at the Océanopolis before going for a quick walk round the town centre and then on to the castle. However Océanopolis really was excellent, and we didn't have enough time to see everything, even with leaving to catch the second to last bus back [I didn't want time it for the last in case we missed it!]. Walrus Model   The Tourist Board had set up wooden chalets on the quay with various bits of tourist information and leaflets. Also some sample goodies, and local products and food to buy. By the time we returned from our sightseeing the wind had really come up and some of the 'props' were being blown over, it was hard to walk against the wind; but at least it was sunny. There was a Bagad [Celtic Music Band] serenading our departure. It really was quite a lovely city, and well worth another visit. The Chalets - Plant and Carpet [why not red? :) ] taking off It was windy and quite rough after departing Brest so the pools had been emptied. People were however lounging around on deck reading in the sunshine, ....that is until we passed the corner of France into the Channel! It really was quite amusing; the wind hit with a wallop, all at once, with deck chairs flying, spray everywhere and quite a list. Finistere Top Trying to Play! Everyone immediately got up and moved inside, while the crew scrambled to pack away all the chairs. They only lost one cover over the side in the wind. One of the big thick crew coats took off as I was passing heading for the rails, so I grabbed it and hung on. Eventually the crew member returned in haste looking for his coat wondering if it had gone overboard, he was quite thankful to find me standing there holding on to it. [He'd left it with his paint pots while he ran to save the chairs.] Top It remained rough all the way across the Channel, but the wind shifted so we were at least level. Every few minutes we crashed back into the waves with a resounding bang! Our cabin was 4th from forward and Howard kept asking how deep the water was :) Through our cabin windows, every time we crashed back into the waves with a loud bang, all we could see was the white spray for a minute or so. The external doors were tied shut, except on Marquee Deck where you could stand behind glass. At the show the singer was about to sing the theme tune from the "Titanic" and commented that perhaps it wasn't appropriate in these circumstances, but she couldn't change the repertoire at this late stage. She did however comment that she had had personal assurance from the captain that there weren't any icebergs on route :) Howard then wanted to know if there really weren't any icebergs in the area, and surely we were in the Atlantic, and the Titanic had sunk in the Atlantic, and we could only see white out the window. I think he got quite worried :) happy once I had explained to him! Back at the Mayflower Terminal Due to the whether we could only make 10 knots, so were warned we weren't going to make Southampton on time the following morning, but would be about two hours late on arrival. This didn't really make a lot of difference, just meant we could have an extra lie-in and leisurely breakfast without rushing.

	The Itinerary
	The Ship
	Cruise Intro
	Photographs