Brest Métropole & Ville
Brest, maritime DNA Brest's salt-of-the-earth identity makes it the port of choice for many sailors in search of the absolute. Brest, the port of records, has a unique maritime history and DNA, which explains why it is so attractive to all those who, from time immemorial, have set off from its port in search, if not of the moon, at least of the adrenalin of a record or a discovery. Brest, land of pioneers!
With 18,000 m² of breathtakingly beautiful harbour, the town has been a haven for extreme adventurers since the end of the 18th century, when researchers and scientists set off in search of El Dorado. Setting course for the New World from the most westerly point of Northern Europe... Since then, the city has never ceased to be a port of welcome and departure for all those who, in one way or another, have chosen the sea as their horizon. Commercial sailors, scientists based in research institutes such as Ifremer or IUEM, military personnel on mission or in transit, extreme sailors too.
At the end of the 1980s, Olivier de Kersauzon and Philippe Monnet made the port of Brest the starting point for some of the world's greatest sailing records. Since then, the adventure has continued, ever more magical, faster and more spectacular. Round-the-world sailing, the Jules Verne Trophy... Here, records are legion, and the plaques of the heroes of the seas, engraved in the ground of the aptly-named Quai Tabarly, are a daily reminder to the strollers of the commercial port! At the Moulin Blanc harbour, sportsmen and women are not to be outdone, with the French Sailing Federation's two French centres, which have taken five Brest-based athletes to the podium at the Olympic Games! So Brest is the capital of the oceans in more ways than one, and for a long time to come! And finally, Brest is the natural home for this new ocean race, which promises to be yet another page in the history of a city that will forever be an ocean city!
