Brest is a city in the Finistère department in Brittany in north-western France. Located in a sheltered position not far from the western tip of the Breton peninsula, Brest is an important seaport and naval base. The 1999 census recorded 303,484 inhabitants of the Brest metropolitan area, while the population of the city itself was estimated in 2004 to number some 146,000.
Nothing definite is known of Brest before about 1240, when a count of Léon ceded it to John I, the Duke of Brittany. In 1342, John de Montfort surrendered Brest to the English, in whose possession it was to remain until 1397. The importance of Brest in medieval times was great enough to give rise to the saying, "He is not the Duke of Brittany who is not the Lord of Brest".
The advantages of Brest's situation as a seaport town were first recognized by Cardinal Richelieu, who in 1631 constructed a harbor with wooden wharves. This soon became a base for the French Navy. Colbert rebuilt the wharves in masonry and otherwise improved the base. Fortifications by Vauban (1633–1707) followed in 1680-1688. These fortifications, and with them the naval importance of the town, were to continue to develop throughout the 18th century.
Brittany's most famous local delicacy, the Breton crêpe, is the main culinary feature apart from seafood. There are many crêpe restaurants (called crêperies). Breton apple cideris often featured. Traditional biscuits include Traou Mad, which is a full-fat butter biscuit, similar to Scottish shortbread.
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'Jean Genet's novel 'Querelle de Brest' takes place in the French port of Brest (hence the title). Genet makes it a claustrophobic place, shrouded in fog, the limited number of characters in the novel know each other and are mostly sleeping with each other. All the men are either gay or bisexual: the tension throughout the book is fuelled by this. It's a testosterone-filled mini-world: the sailor Querelle is the object of lust, mostly coming from the male characters.
----'Edmund White, in his invaluable biography of Genet, on whose novel 'Querelle de Brest' Fassbinder based his film, points out that the setting of Brest had particular significance for the author, and that the specificity with which he paints aspects of the city's architecture and history are intended to resonate on a variety of levels:
Brest recalls Genet's fascination, dating back to early adolescence, with ports. Many of his memories of Toulon, a naval center, were transferred to Brest, where he had been in prison and which he undoubtedly selected […] for its historic associations. Since Brest had been destroyed by bombardment during the war, it could be a subject for instant nostalgia.' -- Bright Lights Journal
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Le Quartz, our work space
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Beatrice Dalle was born in Brest, France. She was working as a model when she met filmmaker Jean-Jacques Beineix. Beineix cast her in the lead role in the 1986 film 37°2 le matin (later released in the United Kingdom and United States under the title Betty Blue). She went on to appear in a series of major roles in French films, including the 1989 film Chimère, which was entered into the 1989 Cannes Film Festival.
----She made her debut to American audiences in Jim Jarmusch's Night on Earth in 1991. In 1997, she was cast in The Blackout, her first film made in the United States. In 2001, Dalle appeared in the controversial film, Trouble Every Day, in which she played a cannibal. More recently, she starred in À l'intérieur, in which she played a cruel psychopath stalking a pregnant woman.
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The city of Brest does not have much remaining historical architecture, apart from a few select monuments such as the Castle and the Tour Tanguy. This is due to heavy bombing by the Allies during World War II, in an attempt to destroy the submarine base the Germans had built in the harbour. The city was totally destroyed during the Battle for Brest in 1944 after the Allied invasion of Normandy, with barely more than three buildings left standing. In the 1950s, the town was hastily rebuilt using a large amount of concrete.
Brest before its destruction by bombs in 1944
Brest under siege in 1944
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Yann Tiersen was born in Brest, France, in 1970 and received classical training at several musical academies, including those in Rennes, Nantes, and Boulogne. In the early 1980s as a teenager he was influenced by the post-punk culture of bands like The Stooges and Joy Division. He rose to domestic fame upon the release of his third album, Le Phare, but remained relatively unknown outside France until the release of his score for Le fabuleux destin d'Amélie Poulain ('Amelie') in 2001, which was a mixture of both new and previously released material. Tiersen favors the piano, accordion, and violin, but is also known for his experimentation and use of obscure and found instruments like the ondes martenot and the typewriter. His 2005 album, Les Retrouvailles, featured vocals from Stuart Staples of Tindersticks, Jane Birkin, and Elizabeth Fraser, formerly of Cocteau Twins.
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Built on a rocky outcrop, Château de Brest dominates the Penfeld River and the harbour. It stands on a major strategic site whose importance as such was recognised as early as the 3rd century, when the Romans set up base there to protect the province of Armorique from Frankish and Saxon pirates.
----In the twelfth century, the counts of Léon restored the old bases left by the Romans and a small town surrounding a chapel was established within its walls, a town that grew into the Brest we know today! During the Hundred Years' War, the castle was occupied by the English and besieged by Duguesclin. Anne of Brittany also stayed there in 1505 during a pilgrimage.
----In the seventeenth century, under pressure from Richelieu and Colbert for Brest to become the French Royal Navy's major arsenal on the Atlantic coast, it was decided that the castle's defences needed to be improved. The architect Vauban then transformed it into a veritable citadel, and the town grew below it. In a town that had to be almost entirely rebuilt after the fierce raids of 1944, the castle is the last remaining testimony to centuries past.
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Alain Robbe-Grillet was born in Brest, France) to a family of engineers and scientists. He was trained as an agricultural engineer. During the years 1943 and 1944, Robbe-Grillet participated in compulsory labor in Nuremberg, where he worked as a machinist. In 1963, Robbe-Grillet published For a New Novel (Pour un Nouveau Roman), a collection of previously-published theoretical writings concerning the novel. From 1966 to 1968, he was a member of the High Committee for the Defense and Expansion of French (Haut comité pour la défense et l´expansion de la langue française). In addition, Robbe-Grillet also led the Centre for Sociology of Literature (Centre de sociologie de la littérature) at the university of Bruxelles from 1980 to 1988. From 1971 to 1995, Robbe-Grillet was a professor at New York University, lecturing on his own novels. Although elected to the Académie française in 2004, in his eighties, he never was formally received by the Académie because of disputes regarding the Académie's reception procedures. Robbe-Grillet both refused to prepare and submit a welcome speech in advance, preferring to improvise his speech, as well as refusing to purchase and wear the Académie's famous green tails (habit vert) and sabre, which he considered outdated.
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'The size and thinness of the Brest crepe -- more popularly known as the Breton crepe -- a food that has been popular since the Middle Ages, distinguishes it from crepes prepared elsewhere in France. In all the creperies in Brest, a scant half-cup of thin batter of buckwheat flour, egg and milk is spread with a small wooden paddle over the entire surface of a large, round heated black griddle. As the batter sets, it is brushed with butter, flipped over, a filling is added, and the finished crepe is folded to make a flat, square package. It is brushed again with butter and served. The entire preparation takes less than five minutes. A good crepe is delicate, yet lightly crisped around the edges, and the filling is well seasoned.
'There are two kinds of crepes on most menus. Those called crepes are made with wheat flour and usually have sweet fillings such as preserves, honey, fruit or elaborate sundae-like combinations of ice cream, liqueurs and whipped cream. Wheat flour is also used for dramatic crepes flambees.
'Savory crepes with fillings of cheese, sausage, ham, vegetables, eggs and the like are made with more flavorful buckwheat flour, also called ble sarrasin or ble noir. They are usually, but not always, listed on menus as galettes. The quality of the creperie is more easily determined by sampling the galettes than the crepes.' -- NYTimes
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from Fassbinder's 'Querelle'
'In Fassbinder's Querelle, the "setting" is nominally Brest, but the set design bears little resemblance to that small port town in Brittany, France (or, for that matter, to the Brest of Belarus.) Fassbinder's Brest is, instead, an exotic and absurdly eroticized architectural pastiche, an implicitly mythological locale that serves primarily to represent the fantasy of the visiting sailors, who talk in hushed tones of Brest's legendary brothel La Feria, and of the depravity and debauchery that await them there. His Brest is no longer a French city, but a city of absolute Otherness, a kind of postmodern Circe's Island.' -- Bright Lights Journal
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Josselin Paris 'Projet Brest en BD'
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'Astropolis has taken place every summer for the past 15 years in Brest, at the westernmost point of the Finistère region. Born out of the rave parties of the 1980’s, this festival, one of the last sole survivors, is still alive and kicking. Astropolis is just as exciting as ever, and strongly reflects the music generated by turntables over the last couple of years: Manu le Malin, Laurent Garnier, Justice, Birdy Nam Nam…Twenty thousand teknival-goers share the dance floors during the month of August at a dozen or so different venues across the town: from the Port du commerce to the Cabaret Vauban, the Astroclub or the Manoir de Keroual. And with the next generation of techno lovers in mind Astropolis has even created an Astroboum techno party for its younger visitors.' -- astropolis.org
Richie Hawtin
Laurent Garnier
Cocorosie
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p.s. Hey. Today, the French/German TV channel Arte is here filming the 'TIHYWD' rehearsals, doing interviews with us, and etc. all day and evening, and I have to be at the theater earlier than usual, so I'm going to need to move through the p.s. really quickly this morning, and apologies in advance for my skimpiness. I'll be more leisurely again starting tomorrow. ** Dogboy, Hey, man. Thanks much. Really loved the new writings on your blog this past weekend. ** Syreearmwellion, Hey. Even worse than that, I was actually going to title my second book of poems 'The Bible, Part II' until every friend I had at the time talked me out of it. Don't know what the fuck I was thinking. I got the email/post, thank you a lot! I'm going to check the post out today or tomorrow, and if there are any issues, I'l let you know. Otherwise, I'l write to you with the launch date soon. Really appreciate it, man. ** Bernard Welt, Ha ha, yes, I sure do remember Donald telling that tale, and, you guessed it, it wasn't me. I treated visiting sex clubs like I treated visiting porn movie theaters, and you remember my stand-offish studiousness in that regard well, I think. ** Tomkendall, Hey, Tom! Really nice to see you! Are you able to get writing done at the moment? ** David Ehrenstein, Nice Keanu/Thumbsucker clip indeed. I need to see that film. That Tobias Wong story was really fascinating. Thanks for for the alert! ** Oscar B, The Bal sounds surprisingly kind of interesting. Yeah, very busy here, yikes, but I think we're rounding the final bend in pretty good shape. Looking forward to getting home though, however briefly. That's for damn sure. ** Empty Frame, Hey. Things are going well, I think. No clue at all about what the reaction will be. Really just clueless about that. I was interviewed in the last, maybe still current Another Man. Butt interviewed me, but it hasn't run yet. The mag with the awful pix is Matricule des Anges (or something close to that name anyway). I don't know if that's been published yet. ** Kiddiepunk, I'm actually among the most well behaved of the 'TIHYWD' crew by miles, believe it or not. See you pronto! ** Changeling, Nice dialogue there, ha ha. Sounds not unfamiliar to me too. I did get the email this time, yeah! Victoire! I haven't had any time to open it and read your piece yet, but I'll get there asap. Thanks a lot! Oh, and I loved your new writing on 'Floored', and I'll talk to you about that too as soon as I get through this insane 9 am to 11 pm theater work spurt. ** Alan, Thanks for promising to be on- and in-. Nice weekend, I hope? ** Stan_cz, Hey. Yeah, your blog is building up beautifully. Gosh, I fear I'm one of those who think 'Mommie Dearest' is a campy laugh riot and not much else, oops. ** David, Hey. I'm in such a hurry today, I don't even have time to do my usual linking thing. Everyone, David says go check out Flit's blog -- Re-blog.blogspot.com -- and I agree that's a great idea. If you can get a post out of the list, wonderful, of course, and thanks. ** Killer Luka, I'm busy for sure and, mm, well enough. I'll have to check that wonderboy/ link out later 'cos I'm deadlining here in the p.s. today, but sounds good to me. ** Pilgarlic, Amazing Commander Cody anecdote. Yeah, that was awesome. Thanks. ** Steevee, Hey, S-Man. ** Mark Gluth, Hard to tell if it's coming to Paris. No sign of that. If it does, it'll probably play for a week in a couple of tiny art houses unless I'm wrong. ** Heliotrope, Hey, M. Yeah, real sad about PQ. I just read something not two weeks ago where Ray Davies said Dave was just about well enough for The Kinks reunion, and that it should happen soon, ugh. The Kinks/Stones talk was lovely, man. Got my day off on the good foot. Love to you guys. ** Pisycaca, Hey, pal. Yep, we're working our asses off here. It's intense, but I think it's paying off. I'll give you fair warning when the Paris tickets are going to go on sale, or maybe I can get you guys in behind the scenes. Love from me. ** Paul Curran, England out too. Go Japan! ** Ken Baumann, Hey, Ken! Gosh, sure, if you think that blab by me would be of interest over at HTMLG, I'd be really honored of course. How stuff? ** Christopher/ Mark, Oh, that's sad about Sonnenberg. Grand Street was a pretty great magazine for a while. I can't remember if I was ever in an issue or not. I think they asked and then rejected what I sent or something, ha ha. ** Bill, Oh, no, the hounding isn't coming from friends, just self-styled VIPS who think their being in the audience is a gift to us from God or whatever. Got the email, thank you! I should be getting back to you with the launch date and etc. in the next day or two. ** No more teenagekicks. Got it, and everything's fine and dandy! I'll write to you today, if I can manage any down time. Thanks a ton, Mark. Everyone, courtesy of NMTK, a further Keanu Reeves thing: http://gawker.com/5557791/keanu-reeves-almost-unbelievably-nice. Sorry for the lack of direct linking. My speed today prevents it, urgh. ** Dooflow, Thanks a lot! ** JW Veldhoen, Moustache, really? Interesting. Take a self-pic. I've got to see that. ** Postitbreakup, Hey. Oh, if an idea springs to mind, awesome. I'm sure anything will be good. In any case, I'll write to you really soon with the launch date for the great post you sent me. ** JoeM, Hey, Joe! Really good to see you! How's everything? ** Sypha, Howdy, James. ** Kier, Kier! So great to see you! I've missed you, man! Sad Keanu Day was a smash hit, obviously. Thank you a ton for it again. I go back to Paris on Wednesday, four days there, then off to Avignon. I'm so sorry about all the recent scrambling of you by the meds. I really hope everything levels out right away. Apart from the lack of internet so far, how do you like your new place? Are you Kierizing it? No, The Omen were deliberately not based on any real band. Not using a model ended up being harder than if I had, I think. I'll find Fecteau images asap. I haven't seen the last two or three seasons of Battlestar apart from stray episodes during my LA visits, so I'm way, way behind. ** _Black_Acrylic, Hey, Ben. First, everything is A-okay with the post now. Thanks a lot for the extra help. I'll write to you with the launch date right away. I can't do direct links today, but ... Everyone, _Black_Acrylic stepped up to the plate and did a Sad Keanu, and you can find it here: http://0black0acrylic.blogspot.com/2010/06/sad-keanu-day.html. Very cool, man. ** Schlix, Today's the job interview/meeting, isn't it? If so, very best of luck. And very best to you in any case. ** Nb, Same here. In France, I mean. Maybe there aren't any gays in Brest 'cos you could have heard a Barbie hair pin drop on Gay Pride Day. Glad you kept your head down, man. ** Misanthrope, Having kids does seem to have that curious effect, yeah. Interesting. Yeah, got the email/Day, and the latter is way more than doable. Thank you, buddy. Email from me in that regard asap. Ha ha, sure, I'll accept your nephew's FB friendship, and since I never post shit over there, I won't even scandalize him. This week on the answer for sure, no? ** Joseph, Hey. The more you say about DC, the more sounds like LA's long lost twin. When horror movies are really terrible, I do tend to love them. Bad habit or something, ha ha. ** Justin, Really, really glad to hear you're feeling bright. That's superb news! ** 'Stoopid Slapped Puppies', Hey, Nick! Wow, yum on that England match commentary. The English do S&M like nobody else. I think I've mentioned already that in my trawls of slave sites for those monthly posts, maybe 80% of the masters and slaves are English, and maybe 80% of that 80% are slaves. What does it all mean?! ** Well, I managed to get through that in time to make my early appointment with the TV crew. Hopefully not at too much of a cost to you kind people. Oh, the post today ... I don't know, I just thought maybe knowing a little more about Brest might help your future cocktail chatter or something. In any case, make of it what you will, and I'll see you in a less rushed form tomorrow.
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