Venue to Brest

You can come to Brest by plane (1h from Paris), by train (3h30 from Paris), by boat (via Roscoff), by bus (extremely long), by car (there are highways from/to Rennes and from/to Nantes).

Locations

The conference is taking place here (on a map it is here). Lunches will be served here (map) and dinner will be here (map).

Transportation

There will be transportation from Brest City Center to the campus and back on both days. Further details will be given soon.

Hotels

You are advised to book a hotel near the Quartz since the bus to the campus will leave from there. Some hotels offer special prices under conditions:

 

  1. Abalys Hôtel** offers the following price: standard room (1 or 2 persons) = 58,50€ (a 10% discount on their regular price), breakfast = 8,50€/pers, tax = 0,95€/pers, which makes a total of 67,95€ as B&B for 1 pers, or 77,40€ as B&B for 2 pers. The promotional code to type on their Web site is travel.
  2. Océania**** and Le Continental**** offer 10% of discount on their regular price, but you have to book before June 1, 2018 (incl.). The promotional code to type on their Web site is GRAFEMATIK.
  3. Mercure**** offers the following special rates: 125€ for one person (with breakfast) 135€ for two persons (with breakfast). Plus taxes: 1.45€ per person and per night. The promotional code to type on their Web site is CTBMERC18.

 

Several hotels told me that that period is quite loaded, so please act quickly.

Weather

Despite the beautiful poem “Rappelle-toi Barbara, il pleuvait sans cesse sur Brest” by Prévert, sung by Yves Montand, it is not true that it rains all the time in Brest. It may rain every day, but a few moments later it may very well be sunny, and even hot. So you are advised to take both kinds of clothes, for rainy and for sunny weather. (This weather statistics site forecasts the weather on June 13 and 14 as “mostly sunny.”)

Local food

Breton crêpes are known worldwide, but if you want to eat a typically Finisterian speciality you should better try kig ha farz as main dish, and kouign amann as dessert. The local drink is cider (from Brittany, of course, not from Normandy!).

Places to see

A beautiful place to see is Ouessant island (and the nearby Molène island). If you come earlier or if you stay after the conference you should spend a day on this visit: take the boat from Le Conquet or from Brest in the morning, travel to Ouessant, rent bikes or walk around, eat the famous Ouessant/Molène smoken sausage (which has a stronger taste when you are on the island) and if you are a gastronom you can try the delicious ragoût d'agneau cuit dans les mottes (reservation 24h in advance), then walk or bike again to digest (there is a lighthouse museum to visit where you can see a trumpet constructed in 1866 to send signals to boats in case of fog) and admire the nature (Messiaen was very frequently in Brest, the song of the Ouessant bird “Courlis Cendré,” Eurasian curlew/Großer Brachvogel, has become the finale of his Catalogue d'oiseaux composed in 1956). The last boat returning to Le Conquet leaves at 17:00 on Saturday and at 18:45 on Sunday.