Warning - bunkers ahead

 We are approaching Brest which was the scene of a bitter battle in 1944 as the Allies tried to capture the port to use for supplying their armies in France. It's seldom easy to visit big cities in a motorhome so we've decided to scoot around and maybe come back. It was all blown up and rebuilt anyway.

So, we started with a drive around the coast but stumbled on a very large Observation Post that I had to investigate. J had a look over an old abbey of St Mathieu while I was doing my thing. 

This was the OP for the 'Graf Spee' battery which we drove around the countryside trying -  unsuccessfully - to find. Looking at GE just now three of four are covered in bush and the fourth is behind buildings so it is perhaps not surprising we didn't find them.

Tomtom was up to his accustomed tomtomfoolery again, taking us down some pretty small and windy roads. We had two near misses, the first as a local came speeding up a narrow lane and only managed to stop a yard from us. I think he thought no other vehicles could be on his road. The second time was weird: an old fella was driving down the middle of the road and even as we approached he didn't pull over. We had to dive into a drive way to avoid him! It was like he just didn't see us in our big white box.

Next stop was a lighthouse and fort west of Brest at Minou. It was an ancient fortification but done up by Vauban himself, then 'enhanced' with German concrete as part of the Brest defences. 

J reads up on the fort's history.

Looking across the bay to the Crozon peninsula where our stop for the night awaited.

Beautiful clear water, though getting a bit cold. There were still people swimming though.

Getting arty with a fisherman

A reminder that Brest is the French Navy's second largest port.

We (well, I) tried to visit another museum but found it closed. A shame as it told the story of the attack on Brest so would have found it interesting. However...  Tomtom took us through the centre of Brest which may end up being all we see of the city.

The citadel was the last hold-out of German troops in Brest. It now houses a maritime museum (though reviews said it was more on the castle than on the sea), and was closed for Covid anyway.

Then around the coast and on to the Crozon peninsula where we plan to stop a few days. We passed a couple areas that had been pixellated on GE so we were intrigued to see what they might be. One was a Naval airbase, but the most interesting is a huge naval storage base "possibly connected to the French nuclear submarine base" nearby. We could see several storage areas dug into the side of a hill. MAybe they store their nukes there? No photos of course...

When we finally got to our campsite it was closed. That is, the gates were but we had no card to gain entry so we have parked up outside. No services, but no cost either.

After dinner we wandered into the port town of Camaret sur Mer. Hardly a breath of wind, and a clear sky. Lovely.