Accommodation
For a small town, Roscoff is well equipped with hotels, which are accustomed to late-night arrivals from the ferries. However, many close for some or all of the winter. There’s also a hostel on the Île de Batz.
Bénodet
South of Quimper, no longer restrained into a narrow canalized channel, the Odet first broadens and then twists through successive tight corners to reach the sea. The southern coast here, and especially the string of wonderful beaches between the family-friendly resort of Bénodet and La Forêt-Fouesnant, is the most popular tourist destination in Finistère.
Bénodet, in particular, is a much-developed resort that comes alive in summer, when its many hotels and campsites are filled with holidaying families. The long, sheltered beach on its ocean side, perfect for children, is packed day after day.
Brest
Set in a magnificent natural harbour, known as the Rade de Brest, the city of Brest is sheltered from ocean storms by the Crozon peninsula to the south. Now home to France’s Atlantic Fleet, Brest has been a naval town since the Middle Ages. During World War II, it was bombed to prevent the Germans from using it as a submarine base and when liberated in September 1944, after a six-week siege, it was devastated beyond recognition. The architecture of the postwar town is raw and bleak and despite attempts to green the city, it has proved too windswept to respond. While it’s reasonably lively, most visitors tend simply to pass through.
Brest’s fifteenth-century château, perched on a headland where the Penfeld river meets the bay, offers a tremendous panorama of both the busy port and the roadstead. Not quite as much of the castle survives as its impressive facade might suggest, though new buildings in the grounds house the French naval headquarters. Three still-standing medieval towers, however, hold Brest’s portion of the Musée National de la Marine. Collections include ornate carved figureheads and models, as well as a German “pocket submarine” based here during World War II, and visitors can also stroll the parapets to enjoy the views.
Accommodation
Used more by business travellers than tourists, the vast majority of Brest’s hotels remain open throughout the year, and many offer discounted weekend rates. Only a few, however, maintain their own restaurants.
Eating
As well as several low-priced places near the stations, Brest offers a wide assortment of restaurants. Rue Jean-Jaurès, climbing east from the place de la Liberté, has plenty of bistros and bars, while place Guérin to the north is the centre of the student-dominated quartier St-Martin.
The Crozon peninsula
A craggy outcrop of land shaped like a long-robed giant, arms outstretched, the Crozon peninsula is the central feature of Finistère’s jagged coastline. Much the easiest way for cyclists and travellers relying on public transport to reach the peninsula from Brest is via the ferries to Le Fret.
The main town on the peninsula, Crozon, has a nice little stone-built core that serves as the commercial hub for the surrounding communities, and plays host to a large-scale market on alternate Wednesdays. As it’s also, unfortunately, a traffic hub, its one-way traffic system distributing tourists among the various resorts – and in any case it’s set back from the sea – it’s more of a place to pass through than to linger in.
Morgat, 1km downhill from Crozon, makes a more enticing base. It has a long crescent beach that ends in a pine slope, and a sheltered harbour full of pleasure boats on the short haul from England and Ireland. The main attractions are boat trips around the various headlands.
One of the loveliest seaside towns in all Brittany, the sheltered port of Camaret nestles at the western tip of the peninsula. Its most prominent building is the pink-orange château de Vauban, standing at the end of the long jetty that runs parallel to the main town waterfront. Walled, moated, and accessible via a little gatehouse reached by means of a drawbridge, it was built in 1689 to guard the approaches to Brest; these days it guards no more than a motley assortment of decaying half-submerged fishing boats, abandoned to rot beside the jetty. A short walk away, around the port towards the protective jetty, the quai du Styvel holds a row of excellent hotels.