Équipe Brest 2019: Week 4 - last excursion in Bretagne

For our last excursion in Bretagne, Noëmie let me plan it, and she made the connections. The weather report said it would be clear and sunny, so I planned our first stop for Pointe des Espagnols. This is a point overlooking the Brest harbor with ancient fortifications. Of course, it began to rain as we arrived. It was 55 degrees. The city of Brest was five miles away, and we couldn’t see it.

But the kids were kids. They made the best of it and didn’t seem to care that they got wet.

Next stop was Pointe de Pen-Hir, a rocky outcrop of cliffs overlooking the crashing waves of the Atlantic (actually, la mer d’Iroise). The students think that climbing high cliffs and jumping from point to point is fun. The teachers spend the entire time making sure no one falls from a high point. It is kind of like herding cats.

Even though our students wanted to put themselves in harm’s way, we kept them from it and headed to our next destination, Locronan.

Locronan is a village that dates from the 13^th century. There are only about 700 people who live there – about the same as in 1400. It has an amazing church. But we go there for the demonstration of how to make the classic kouign aman. This is a pastry that is 1/3 dough, 1/3 butter and 1/3 sugar. It is absolutely amazing – and probably really bad for you. Here is the link to the video: kouign aman.

We also wandered around the village and had lunch there. Next, it was off the Middle Ages city of Concarneau. It’s a walled city located in the middle of an estuary. Today, it is kind of touristy, but there is great ice cream!

We ended our trip in the city of Quimper, known for its cafés and its crêpes. Several of us visited the amazing fine arts museum. We walked the pedestrian streets of this old town, which was untouched by the bombs of WWII.

It was a great way to finish our last excursion, in the late afternoon sun in a quaint Breton city.