We arrived in Brest after our Biscay crossing on Bastille day totally by accident.

Delayed due to COVID-19 Brest’s International Maritime Festival was also happening at the same time after being delayed by a few years.

This meant that not only was the marina in Brest quite full, but also the whole harbour area was extremely busy with classic yachts, ships, music, food and drink.

As we were walking around the festival we kept hearing bagpipes in the background and wondered where they were coming from.

We ended up at the music stage, but there were no bagpipes to be seen initially.

It turns out they were warming up around the corner, but of course quite loud as bag pipes generally are.

When they came to perform, the band was not only made up of bagpipers, but also people that seemed to be playing what looked like a small clarinet, but it turned out to be (we think) a set of practice chanters.

All quite loud, but also enjoyable.

We walked past what seemed like hundreds of food establishments, all of which were jam-packed.

Eventually, we settled on a pizza place right next to the marina jetty that Hannah was moored up on.

They let us know that firework would be happening at around 11pm, so we set on a bench across the road, and waited both for the fireworks and our pizza with some drinks in hand.

We captured the climax of the fireworks display for you to enjoy.

The restaurant forgot to bring our pizza out (probably distracted by the fireworks) but we collected it shortly after they finished, and headed back to the boat, warming it slightly and then devouring it at about midnight.