Okay, so we’ve established that Michelle doesn’t like stairs or hills. And so far Brest isn’t winning any friends due to the abundance of both.
We’ve also discovered that Brest is more like Mount Isa than the Sunny Coast. Nothing is open on Sunday. Not a single grocery store or bottle shop. Luckily a cafe was open for breakfast (there appear to be very few cafes, and even less open), and we found a bakery open for lunch.
What are open on a Sunday in Brest are markets. And I’ve never seen so many stalls. I’m not sure how many markets there officially are, but there appeared to be two separate markets, one was commercial traders while the second one was sort of a flea market.
I noted on our wanders last night that there were big concrete blocks closing all the roadways off in the centre of town, which was odd since there were no apparent works underway. Obviously this was in preparation for todays markets, which run for several blocks.
In conjunction with the markets, some shops along the main drag also had trestles out, with stock all over them. Not sure if this is an every Sunday thing, or a special event.
We meandered through these markets, without buying anything, before deciding to go down the hill the waterfront to see what the large crowd was doing down there.
This turned out to be the flea market and ran forever, with two, sometimes three rows of stalls. These were definitely not commercial traders. Most stalls seemed to be secondhand clothes or kids toys. Some of the clothes looked like they’d been dragged out of the laundry basket. We agreed that it was much more flea than market. They are fun to wander through regardless.
When we eventually came out of the flea market, we wandered down to the Musee National de la Marine. This is in Brest Castle, or Chateau de Brest. A fort since Roman times, the castle has been a maritime museum since 1955.
It describes itself as ‘not suitable for wheelchairs or strollers‘. That’s an understatement. It has got plenty of steps, so many that Michelle thought I needed to know her opinion about steps and steep grades. I thought it was clever and engaging to follow the museum’s curated displays higher and higher into the tower, before ascending again and going into the next tower. She didn’t.
Anyway, we finished up there about 2pm and wandered back out into the flea market. This was still going strong, so obviously lasts most of the day. I wanted to buy an Asterix the Gaul figurine but buckled under scrutiny, so we eventually came away from the markets almost empty handed. Almost, as I did manage to snaffle some fresh cut ham and a bag of roasted chat potatoes from one of the more impressive commercial stalls.
Stephen and Michelle
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