Brest, France: Largest wooden boat gathering in the world features Norwegian boats

Mark your calendars!

July 13-19,2012 is the next Brest Maritime Festival in the region of Brittany, France. The festival features more than 2,000 historic ships from 30 nations and expects 700,000 spectators. I was warned by friends who attended the last one to plan ahead if you need to use the toilet. Lines were 2 hours long at times! A little challenging for you beer drinkers:) I'm going to do my best to be there and hoping others from USA and Canada will be there too.

Here's a Google Translate version of the story announced in Afterposten Norway today for fellow English speakers: I'm sure my Norwegian friends can improve this translation, but it's the best I could do this morning.

Norwegian Culture a Hit in France! 1100 years after Rollo made the landings in Normandy, Norwegian sailors again shut down the French coast. This once peaceful - in the coastal city of Brest

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Wooden boats in France

Northern France is ringed with coastal communities built on rich maritime heritage.  I love Normandy's northwest peninsula farmlands, port cities like Bar Fleur, Cherbourg and St. Vaast and the wild coast with their layered history, stunning light and open spaces. Hon Fleur, where the Impressionists gained such great inspiration (and painters still paint the harbor daily) is a special favorite.  Thankfully, I've got family friends in the region who are excellent "local" tour guides, game to explore backroads and patient translators.  Together, we've driven many country roads, walked beaches, explored marinas, hedged farm roads, dark forests and historic castles. Yesterday, while in St. Vaast, I was struck again by how many people stop and take photos of wooden boats.  With such a close proximity and long history of boating (both fishing and pleasure craft) in this region, understandably, there are a majority of steel and fiberglass boats in the marinas and on the tidal flat moorings. 

But as we walked the docks, there was the "last 3-masted wooden ship" Marite and several smaller boats that look like traditional fishing boats, but empty of gear as if ready for tourists.

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