{"id":13794,"date":"2023-06-15T06:57:18","date_gmt":"2023-06-15T10:57:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/aleta.life\/?p=13794"},"modified":"2023-06-15T09:23:13","modified_gmt":"2023-06-15T13:23:13","slug":"brest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/aleta.life\/index.php\/2023\/06\/15\/brest\/","title":{"rendered":"Brest"},"content":{"rendered":"
Position: 48\u00b022’36″N 4\u00b029’34″W<\/a><\/h6>\n
Tonnerre de Brest!<\/h6>\n

<\/p>\n

Twenty miles offshore and heading for Brest in the thick of a thunderstorm, Captain Haddock\u2019s<\/a> expletive, Tonnerre de Brest<\/em><\/a>!<\/em> (Thunder of Brest) became reality. Rain lashed the dodger and our radar circled colourfully, highlighting the storm\u2019s cells. The dim, grey clouds moved slowly, shattering the rain’s pitter-pat tablas with jagged bolts of lightning. …four one thousand, five one thousand… at least six seconds off. That\u2019s okay. The wind shifted to our beam and Aleta picked up speed for ten minutes. She moved happily along on her best point of sail, when the storm moved off and took the wind with it. After three days at sea, sailing across the notorious Bay of Biscay<\/a> from La Coru\u00f1a, Spain, we were ready for a sheltered anchorage. Thus I fired up the iron jenny (engine) and motored the last six hours to our destination.<\/p>\n

Naval Gazing<\/h6>\n

Sir John Betjeman once wrote, \u201cCome friendly bombs and fall on Slough, It isn\u2019t fit for humans now, There isn\u2019t grass to graze a cow,\u2026\u201d[1]<\/sup><\/a> He might have been writing about Brest. Except the indignities put upon Slough were the result of rapid industrial expansion in the 1930s, while Brest was flattened by the Allies in World War II. In other words, Slough chose it’s fate, Brest did not.<\/p>\n

Brest\u2019s big natural harbour<\/a> means it has served as a strategic naval base for almost 400 years. The British successfully blockaded the port during the Napoleonic wars, and it served as a staging post for inbound American troops during World War I. The Germans, under the Vichy<\/a> government, used Brest as a base for its U-Boats and naval repair operations. This despite its being within easy reach of the RAF.<\/p>\n

Rue Saint-Malo<\/h6>\n

After D-Day<\/a> and the invasion of Normandy, the city was almost completely destroyed in the aptly named \u2018Battle for Brest\u2019. Only one of Brest\u2019s old streets survives in a state of semi-preservation, the Rue Saint-Malo. Nearly bulldozed in the 1980s, a group of concerned citizens banded together and raised enough funds to keep the pretty, hand-built stone houses from collapsing altogether. It gives you a good sense of how modestly people would have lived back in the day.<\/p>\n

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