Brest, France

 

On Tuesday, April 19th we docked at Brest, France.  The day had a rough start.  They provided shuttle buses to take us the 20 or 30 minutes into town, but there were not nearly enough buses.  So, they just kept cramming more and more people on in a standing room only bus/ shuttle. It was miserable.  I got so hot and my back hurt so badly standing, getting jostled.  We survived the trip and were so grateful to get to the drop-off point.

A government building in Brest across from where the shuttle dumped us.

Studying the map to figure out where we wanted to go after getting off that horrible shuttle!

There was a tourist information center about a block away where they(sort of )spoke English.  Ken got them to call a taxi for us.

Fabionne came.  She spoke pretty good English and gave us a nice tour.  I could tell she was very nervous.  They hadn't had cruise ships come for a couple of years and her English was rusty.  But she was pleasant and eager to please.

She took us out to St. Matthew's Lighthouse and Monastery.

It was an absolutely beautiful place on the coast.

The crumbling monastery from the 1600s was amazing to see.

I love this picture post card picture- one of my favorite from our entire trip.

Ken and Don spent time birding at this site.  Here are some of the birds Don photographed:

Gannett

Pipit

Stone Chat

Ken and I both took lots of pictures of this amazing site.  It was a beautiful, perfect day.

Fabionne then drove us around the French countryside and villages. It was beautiful and fun to imagine how the people live.

I'm so glad  I took this picture.  This was one of our favorite desserts- Raspberry Pavlova.  I found a recipe online and am going to try to make it.  

Refurbishing or repairing a ship at this port.  That is a sight you don't see often.  This picture was taken from our balcony.

On our balcony after we got back to the ship.

This was another of our favorite desserts- lemon meringue cheesecake.

The view of Brest from our balcony