Finally, I get to the end of the earth.

August 3, 2019

Bike path out of Brest. You be the judge.

Today I had a plan to get to the very end of the Breton peninsula. There is a marked bike route from Brest to Le Conquet and I figured that I could ride out and back at a leisurely pace without hassling with traffic. It was a tough start, though as the route clung to the coast and ran behind the naval base over a lot of short steep hills. This was very tiring right at the start, but after clearing the military zone, the trail turned inland and became flatter. A separate bikeway ran alongside the main highway west to La Trinité, then continued through back alleys to Plouzane and Locmarin. I must have missed a sign there because I ended up on the main road, but I quickly got off and wound through the streets of Plougovelin picking up the trail once agin. Almost to Pointe St. Mathieu I stopped at a German bunker turned

Life on the Atlantic wall as represented by mannequins eating.

The museum included a sound and light show of the bombing of Brest, which depicted the everyday horror that the civilian population suffered during the occupation. Virtually all of Brest was destroyed, which is why there are very few old buildings in the city. But despite all the efforts, the German submarine pens were never put out of action. At the end of the war my dad was in training to develop a new method of bombing to try to put an end to the submarine base. Luckily for me, the war ended before he could be sent out to see if it worked.

The view from the top of the bunker is superb. The guns that were used here had a range of thirty kilometers, and effectively prevented ships from entering the Rade de Brest.

At the tip of the peninsula is the lighthouse of St. Mathieu next to the ruins of the ancient abbey of the same name.

The end of the earth. West of here America.

A couple of kilometers north is the village of Le Conquet, where I got a coffee and later a sandwich which I took back to eat in the ruins of the abbey.

Le Conquet is still an active fishing port as you can see with all the boats anchored in the harbor. The ferry to the île d’Ouessant is boarding on the quai.

On the way back to Brest I didn’t miss any signs, and the entire ride was uneventful. A shower, a nap, and some work on the journal and I was ready for dinner. I had oysters and hake fresh out of the sea.

Today's ride: 72 km (45 miles)
Total: 346 km (215 miles)

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