Brest, France

Bonjour!

Originally we were supposed to go to Dournanez, France, but there were some complications happening there so we went to a port just an hour away. Sadly there is not a whole lot of things to do here, but we have made our own fun. We had a one-day sail from England to France and we anchored just outside of the harbor for the night and since it was the Captains birthday and the sun was shining and the water was calm, we got a swim call!!! WE FINALLY GET TO SWIM! They split us up into 2 groups and I was in the first group. We only got to jump in like twice because each group only swam for 10 minutes because of the cold water and lack of time before sunset. I jumped off the boat deck, which is the highest deck you can jump from! As soon as you hit the water the cold finally got to you. Like before you jump you’re so excited because it’s the first swim call, and then mid jump you realize that you’re about to jump into the English Channel in October! It was still such a fun time even if it was only for 10 minutes; it was the wonderful end to a school day. The next day we arrived in France and got shore leave after our classes were over and the ship was clean. The first day we just looked out for bakeries and Internet, which we are deprived of on the ship. As I said before this port did not have as much stuff to do as uor previous ones, but we made the most of it! One of the days we took a city bus our to a beach area by a harbor and brought some speakers and played ultimate Frisbee for a few hours and had a nice picnic on the beach which consisted of a variety of cheeses, pâté, and baguettes.  Then we headed back to the ship to gather more people to go play Laser Tag! We walked about 15 minutes to the place and strapped on our guns and vests and just burned off all of our energy playing the game. I was on the red team, but the blue team won L . Yet it was still fun! Our Port Program for this port was by far the most fun! We went out and sailed Hobie 15 Catamarans. We took out 15 boats with 3 people in each of them, I was with Clio and Grace and we just cruised around on a Catamaran dinghy! 3 of the other groups capsized their boats, but it was all good fun. The water was warmer than the air surprisingly! Our boat almost capsized but we saved it, and at some points we got going so fast that our boat started planning, it was amazing, I was the skipper for most of the time, cause no one else in my group wanted to be! But it was such a cool experience sailing dinghies in French waters! Do not even get me started about the bakeries in France! Almost everything I have eaten in France has contained some form of bread. I have had chocolate croissants, almond croissants (my favorite) and 2 whole baguettes, and a variety of Panini’s. And of course I would not forget to go to a creperie, I bought La Carene crepes which is “tiramisu” style, with coffee ice cream and lots of chocolate sauce! And there is this one ice cream place that only had 2 flavors of ice cream, but there’s something about it that is just so delicious! It’s strawberry and vanilla soft serve ice cream mixed and it is amazing! The weather has also been getting warmer! It was like 35 degrees and sunny here one day, and even though its overcast a lot of the time, it is still so warm! The food and the weather here definitely gets two thumbs up!

Au Revoir!

-Megan