As we came out on deck on day seven of our P&O cruise on board the Oriana, we were travelling in to Brest in North western France.
As we breakfasted in the Conservatory Restaurant, Oriana passed by many lighthouses and islands on the way into our berth in Brest. We berthed at 09:15am, the weather was good the location lovely a promising start to the day.
Brest is France's main navel port. It has many fine examples of maritime history many of which may be found in its Musée de la Marine, located in the Brest Castle.
Photo courtesy of S. DÉNIEL
As we disembarked we found that there were various stalls set up on the quayside selling typical Breton wares and souvenirs.
We again used the complimentary bus service provided by P&O to explore Brest.
The journey in was short the bus stopping at various points of interest along the way to allow passengers to get on and off depending what they wanted to see.
The City Hall or place de la Liberté dominates the central plaza in Brest. Normally fountains would be seen in the plaza with water cascading down the slope from the City Hall. Unfortunately during our visit these had been switched off as they were setting up for an event set to take place there that evening.
Just up from the City Hall was a lovely cafe with a large selection of coffees, and patisseries.
We chose a large raspberry cream tart each and sat watching the people of Brest go by, very nice.
Brest town centre was undergoing some major construction works whilst we were there to beautify it with fountains and gardens running down the length of the main street.
We caught the bus service back to Oriana's berth at approximately 2:00pm stopping to get a few souvenirs from the stalls before boarding.
After enjoying a late lunch on the rear terraces we opted to just enjoy the sunshine in a secluded spot at the very front of the ship. There were various activities available to do but on this occasion we chose just to enjoy the sunshine.
We set sail back out passed the lighthouses and picturesque scenery at 4:00pm. The sea was perfectly calm the weather was gorgeous and hot and sunny. A very nice afternoon.
Dinner this evening in the Oriental restaurant was smart casual. The food again was excellent served by our waiter John and his assistant Ismail. We were presented with a presentation folder of our menus of this last week as a memento of our holiday which was a very nice touch.
The evenings show was a musical extravaganza in the Theatre Royal. Great visually and musically, a nice way to spend the evening.
After the show we migrated to our usual spot in the Crows Nest lounge to while away the rest of the evening listening to good music whilst supping coffee or Mocktails.
We had visited Brest before, but it was good to return to see it again as it is a lovely part of France.
A great day helped by beautiful weather.
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