Two Nights in Brest

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I decided to do one blog entry for our time in Brest. Mainly, the first day we didn’t’ to much by drive yere, have lunch on the way, and dinner. Today, was also pretty short. It is yet another long weekend here in France, with Monday being Victory Day. They are much more about celebrating World War II events than we are back home. But then, there country was bombed and invaded by the Nazi’s early on. The allies did their share of bombing of France as well. In Fact, many cities in Brittany were completely rebuilt after the was since there wasn’t much left. This makes Brest much more modern, that traditional French.

Saturday started like every day in France, we went down to breakfast, then got ready for the day. Breakfast was better than the other days, because we were the first things in the breakfast room. They had made some special treats for the weekend breakfast, mainly sweets, so I didn’t really eat any of them. We ordered our scrambled eggs, but this time had chives, ham and cheese added to them. The coffee was good and hot, and I finished with a double shot of espresso, because of the upcoming 5-hour drive.

Is La Rochelle in the running for retirement, short answer is yes. There are neighborhoods that we would enjoy and as I said in the last entry, the market is fantastic. We enjoyed our time in La Rochelle, but it was not without some difficulties, and I don’t just mean the canal swim. We have travelled a lot and have stayed in a variety of accommodations from private mansions with shared bathrooms, to 5-star hotels and pretty much everything in between. The one thing that is always consistent is the star rating system is not consistent. Example the hotel in La Rochelle was 4 star and was half the size of the three star in Millau. The AC did not work, and they did not replace any of our towels on any day we were there, even though we placed them in the tub as requested. The breakfast, while simple, at Hotel de Champ du Mars, is twice as good as any that add scrambled eggs. Fortunately, in La Rochelle, the hotel did end up comping all of our breakfasts, gave us a half bottle of champagne on our last night and took 84 euro off the bill. So, service was certainly 4-star, the hotel not so much.

Back to our drive to Brest. It was a beautiful clear and cool day, perfect for a long drive. Most of the drive was on smaller roads and just about 60 minutes on the fast A toll road. The first part was not to bad, three hours is really my limit these days for driving in one sitting. We stopped in Vannes and had lunch. I picked this place for the name alone “Le Hommard Frites.” We both had Lobster Rolls and fries. These are not your Maine lobster rolls, which are either lobster and warm butter on yes, a hot dog bun, or lobster and a touch of mayonnaise and herbs, yes on a hot dog bun. Here, the lobster was made similar to a tuna salad, not with a ton of mayo, but the lobster was diced pretty fine, so it was like a pink tuna salad, but still with nice lobster chunks throughout. No hot dog bun here, a very nice thick cut of brioche. It was very good, was it the best lobster roll I have ever had, no, as much as I hate to say much positive about New York, the best lobster roll can still be found at Ed’s Lobster in SoHo.

After lunch it was back on the road. The next two hours were grueling. It was very hard to stay awake, so the windows were down to keep the cold fresh air blowing on me. Even the shot of espresso at lunch did not help. We did manage to get there without an accident. Lucky for us, because of the upcoming bank holiday, all street parking was free through Monday, so we parked about 1 block from the hotel, after we unloaded it.

Driving into Brest, I did not have a favorable impression, it is a very large port down, and that is what you drive through (the port) as you head for the city center. The city itself has few 17^th or 18^th century buildings left almost the entire town is quite modern. It was also a very cloudy and dreary day which made for a bit of a depressing impression, not unlike our trip to Victorio in the Basque region of Spain.

Our hotel was right on the main street running north to south through the city center. The street also had a very modern streetcar that ran from one end of the city to the other. Check in was pretty easy, the woman at reception spoke perfect English, she was a bit frantic, but her English was excellent. The hotel was pretty full, a woman’s basketball team was also staying in the hotel, never felt so short.

We did manage to have a dinner reservation, and the woman that checked us in, said it was one of the best in the city. Jerry unpacked, as he always does, we had champagne, I ordered ahead so it was in our room, as I knew this was going to be the running point home of our trip.

The Walk to Dinner

When I was at the front desk asking her if she could please call and confirm our reservation, I also asked if it was walkable, your lips said yes, her face said no. We walked anyway. Going was fine, all downhill, the final steps to the wharf did almost put an end to me, pretty slippery with moss, but we safely made it. Going back was not as easy, because yes, it was all uphill and to save time and distance you had to use the several flights of stairs, what ever I ate for dinner was worked off by the time we arrived back at the hotel.

When we arrived, I was already hot, it was very humidity and fog was rolling in, so I was not overly comfortable, then we went to our seat, upstairs, crowded space, hot plates everywhere, I am sure I lost 5 pounds at dinner, it was not comfortable, not even for the staff, our server was sweating, not that she let you see it. We know because we had a brief conversation with her, in French. It may have been extremely uncomfortable, but the food was outstanding. Jerry started with bay scallops in a really light, yellow curry sauce. Scallops were cooked to perfection and the curry was worked so well. I had foie gras, with bay scallops, langoustine and mushrooms in a sauce you could just swim in.

Brittany is known for a few things, Lobster and seafood, butter (best ever) and a certain lamb that grazes on salt marsh, so as Fodor’s said it tenderizes itself while still alive. I have not had the lamb yet, but two more days in Brittany, but the butter, dear god, and it makes the best beurre Blanc sauce you are ever going to have. Combined that with the grilled blue lobster I had for my entrée, as Ann Richards (former Democratic Governor of Texas) would say “put a fork in him he’s done!!! Jerry had grilled cod with wild garlic sauce and oh yes, the Beurre Blanc. Everything tasted fantastic and the food was hot, even the plates were to hot to touch. All of which is great for keeping the food warm but does nothing for the unbearable temperature in the place. We later discovered they even had the windows open. We had a wonderful bottle of White Chateauneuf with our meal.

Funny story about the wine, the server showed us the bottle, and I didn’t think it was right, I asked her if it was Blanc, she didn’t really understand, ok, my French is bad, but really Blanc, you don’t understand Blanc? When she poured it, oh it was not Blanc but very Rouge. We all laughed, she had to go back and get the wine menu, and all is well that ends well, we got the right wine.

Back to the lobster, it was hands down the best lobster I have ever had. Sorry Maine, but OMG, this was cooked perfectly and the flavor, sweet, delectable, I was thinking oh how much better this would make my lobster bisque. They even brought him to me before they cooked him up, so I was sure I liked his looks.

The meal was excellent, next time just eating outside even if it snows. We couldn’t do dessert because it was just so warm, so we finished our wine and made the long uphill trek back to the hotel. I was drenched when we got there.

Brest Day 2

We knew it was going to be a short day, so we slept in and went down to breakfast at 9. Standard breakfast, bread is very different here, croissants, why bother, but the other bread was pretty could, a lot of nut bread. They also had my new must have kitchen toy, the three-minute egg machine. The water was not hot enough, so my egg did not turn out. They also had crepes. The other thing I failed to mention above, Brittany is the homeland of all crepes.

After breakfast, finished getting ready and were off for the day. The surprise of the trip was there was this create and huge outdoor food market in the street just a block from our hotel. So many vendors and not just selling food, but arts, crafts, etc. It was packed, and the lines for the cheese guy and the rotisserie meat guy were long. Oh la la, the rotisserie, this is what dreams are made of. Chickens, ham, lamb all going round and round, there wonderful dripping falling on the slowly roasting potatoes below. The pre-made pans of dauphinoise potatoes, I just ate breakfast and was ready to start digging in again. We spent about 30 minutes walking through the market, before we got back on track for the day.

Really not much to say here. We took the sky tram from the city center up to the newly renovated les capuchins area, then took the street tram back and to the end of the line. On the way back into the city we got off to check out one section of the city we might be a potential spot we would live, but no, Brest is not going to make the list. It is a nice place to visit, and definitely the place for seafood, but to live, not us.

On the way back to the hotel, we stopped at a creperie and had a galette for a late lunch. La complete plus (not the real name, but I can’t remember it now.) In any event, it was a galette filled with ham, Emmentaler, mushrooms, caramelized onions and a Sunnyside egg. Really, good but not the best we have had, three other places jump to mind, one in Arcata, CA, one in Portland, OR and one in Quebec City.

That was the entire day and a half in Brest. There is nothing open for dinner and we had a horrible time finding anything so we are stuck with the hotel restaurant, our expectations are low, so while the dish of the day for yesterday is clearly the grilled lobster, today, may not get one. We shall see.

Dinner

We were fairly skeptical about dinner this evening; you never know what to expect in the hotel restaurant. Sometimes, it is great like Pazzo in the Kimpton at the Vintage Plaza in Portland (which in there absolute stupidity decided they need to close) and other times it is horrible like the restaurant in our hotel in Cork, which I have promptly forgotten. Tonight, we got somewhere in between. Was it the best meal I have ever had in France, no, but it wasn’t the worst either.

We started with the French version of a Scotch egg, the difference no sausage. It was a perfect egg inside, the wasabi sauce it was accompanied with lacked any actual wasabi bite. We then took a huge leap and ordered a Caesar, French Style. It was decent, clearly needed more pepper and less lemon. It was a big salad, so it was a good thing we split it.

The entrées, Jerry had a pollock with a spelt risotto and cream sauce, and I had steak with a green pepper sauce. Fish cooked adequately; steak fairly tough but still had a good flavor. A bottle of red Sancerre. Again, was it the best meal, no, but we didn’t walk out and the staff was quite friendly.

So ends our time in Brest, one more night in Brittany in St. Malo. Only two and half hours of driving with lunch in a village called Dinan. We are now in the home stretch, but we do have quite the ending planned in London.

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Photos

Britone Lobster
Dish of the Day
May 6. 2023

French Scotch Egg
Dish of The Day
(if not for the perfect egg)