After many beautiful, but bustling, cities, we were due for some relax and rejuvenate time. Our port in France was Brest, and we did spend most of our first day exploring there. As a navy base of operations, Brest was largely destroyed during World War 2, so it is pretty modern. And the passage into port was very narrow and interesting to watch as we threaded the needle in. But I can’t really show you any of that though, as it was raining most of the day, so I didn’t take the camera out with me. But there is a beautiful, very modern church with some unusual stained glass that I captured using my phone camera.

In the late afternoon, we rented a car and headed to the Crozon peninsula, which is just south of the peninsula Brest is on. This area of France is called Brittany. We have been to southern Brittany before, which was also gorgeous, but quite flat. This part of Brittany is full of rolling hills and beautiful cliffs. The house we rented looked out over lots of trees and the ocean. This was an excellent place for me to catch up on some work, and Joe to catch up on some schoolwork, and yet also be in gorgeous scenery. The views from the backyard (and the living room) were gorgeous. There is a long hiking trail behind the house that largely follows the coast for many miles.

On our first full day here, Dan and I hiked in one direction along the coast at low tide. This is yet another port where it is so difficult to choose which photos to share. Every twist and turn in the trail showed us another amazing view. 

And there were also some old gun battlements along the way.

We decided to turn around at one of the nearby beaches. But first we had to go down and explore. We found some sea stars, including this guy.

But we also found lots of empty shells and half-eaten sea stars. And we watched this gull lug his sea star leg away from us to eat in peace, all the while shooting dangerous looks at us for interrupting his lunch!

Later that day Dan hiked a lot more in the other direction while Joe and I worked. Then we all headed into the town of Morgat for a crepe snack, a short hike on the southern tip of the peninsula, then back to Crozon for dinner.

The southern part of the peninsula has serious windswept, desolate vibes (Joe loved it), and lots of gorse, which is a yellow flower that smells of coconut and that we have only seen before in Ireland. 

And of course, we ate crepes, Dan drank cider (both are Breton specialties), and we had excellent wine and cheeses. It is France, after all!

Oh, and I thought I would close with sharing a bit of “ship life.” The TV in our rooms has a channel that shows us where we are at any given time, and also shows the rest of our ports. And there is always a view from the front of the ship, which is neat to see as well.

Next Stop? Scotland!