France
France is the largest country in the EU, stretching from the North Sea to the Mediterranean. The landscape is diverse, with mountains in the east and south, including the Alpine peak of Mont Blanc (4 810 m) which is western Europe’s highest point. Lowland France consists of four river basins, the Seine in the north, the Loire and the Garonne flowing westwards and the Rhône, which flows from Lake Geneva to the Mediterranean Sea. The Population of France is 67 million, language spoken in French. The Capital of France is Paris.
Flag of France
We took a train from Luxemburg to Paris and then onto Brest in France. We had been to Paris a few times before so decided to give it a miss this time around.
Located in a sheltered position not far from the western tip of the peninsula, and the western extremity of metropolitan France, Brest is an important harbor and the second French military port after Toulon. The city is located on the western edge of continental Europe. Unless you like Naval History it may not be your cup of Tea. We enjoyed it although, it seemed a bit empty of people, although there seem to be plenty of residences, the Bars, restaurants and shops seemed to lack enough people to give it a real vibe. We did however enjoy the change of pace.
The Chateau and National Marine Museum is a must see. The chateau has been many things throughout its life, princely residence, a fortress and a prison and experienced the ravages of war more than any of its peers. It stands on a rocky spur at the foot of the town and overlooks the harbour, It is now home to the National Navy Museum. The museum goes way back to show how the Navy started out in Brest and why it was such an ideal place for the Navy, to the present-day activities of the navy. The museum has some amazing model ships, back in the day all ships built here had to have a model one built, so for that reason there are model ships that go back to the 17th century.
Chateau and National Marine Museum
The public transport is very good, with buses, trams, a Cable car that brings you across the harbour and trains. It is a very well laid out city with wide streets for the trams to run down the centre, parks and greenery every few blocks, and very little traffic.
Cable Car and Local area’s in Brest
We did take a trip out to one of their man-made beaches, the beach was not bad but the water was terrible, because there where no waves at all, it seemed like you where swimming in a dirty lake, as you can imagine I did not stay in long. Moulin Blanc Beach (give it a miss).
The Museum of fine art is worth a visit although not very big it has some very interesting works of Art.
Our favourite restaurant was La Chaumiere a French crepe restaurant, 25 rue Emile Zola, Brest 29200, the food and service was excellent, the atmosphere was very relaxing and it was very reasonable priced. It is a little out of the city centre but it is nice to get the cable car across to it.
Our favourite restaurant in Brest
We took a train from Brest to Bordeaux in the South of France, it is a vibrant, dynamic and very affluent city. It has lots of old buildings that have been preserved extremely well. Half of the city (18 sq km) is Unesco-listed, making it a very large urban World Heritage site.
Where Brest is all about the Navy, Bordeaux is all about the wine.
Pictures below of: The City Centre, with its beautiful cathedrals, fountains, old buildings and gateways from the old city.
La Cite du Vin, which is a huge wine centre is worth a visit you can learn a lot about wine not just within France but all over the world, it is a very impressive building and worth a photo.
We visited a number of wineries in the Medoc area, we particularly like Chateau Cantemerle and Chateau Marquis de Terme. It was nice to be able to compare the french wines with the Australian wines. In our opinion Australian wines can hold their own against the Bordeaux wines. (you must book ahead to visit a winery in Bordeaux you cannot just turn up like you can in Australia).
Wineries
I had not seen these stopper things in the wineries in Australia, in France they said by using these stoppers it saves them from opening the barrel to test and check the wine.
We celebrated our 27th Wedding Anniversary this day at the wineries
Rather than doing a bus tour we got a copy of the brochure and did it ourselves, there are about 12 tourist attractions, it included the following, The Grand-Theatre, Eglise Notre-Dame, Porte Dijeaux, Palais Rohan and lots more it only takes about 2 hours to see them all, the trip will take you through cobble streets which have lots of Bars and restaurants to stop along the way. There is also nice gardens in the centre of town that you can go and chill out in.
We had a great meal in L’exquis Resturant 3 rue de Guienne, you can have a 5 or a 7-course meal, it was delicious. It was not as expensive as some place. The French eat late in Bordeaux so if you want atmosphere in the restaurants best to eat later in the evening.
The public transport is great, it cost us 13 euro for a week’s travel, you can get on any bus, train, tram and ferry with this one ticket. It was wonderful to visit Bordeaux we had a wonderful time.