13th_Europe_Report -- 12_BrestNavyBase_main_entrance.jpg
   We are embarrassed that we did not take a good photo of this "Porte Caffarelli" gate.  It is one of the main entrances to the French Navy Base, especially the portion where the WWI US Naval Air Station was located almost 100 years ago.  This image is "borrowed" from Google Maps "street view".  It would be later in the day that we would meet our new friend Monique here (her husband Alain had another obligation across the Bay).  The 3 of us would then enter this gate to meet Commander Bruno Nicol, obtain our clearances from the Base Police (building left of the entrance).  Base Commander Nicol took a generous portion of his Friday afternoon to drive us through the Base to the far southwest end where the huge WWII German submarine "pen" still stands.  He and Monique pointed out some of the areas where Harry StClare Wheeler possibly took some of his photos so many years ago.  Patrick and Keith were honored to be taken inside the still standing submarine pen structure to see where repeated Allied bombing finally broke a hole in the thick reinforced concrete roof.  We were then taken up to the bluff above the submarine pen & where the US Air Station had been located.  While only farm fields were here in young H.S. Wheeler's time, the French Naval Academy (École Navale) was located here between wars.  It was relocated across the Bay after it was destroyed by WWII bombing. Now the modern Naval Training Centre of Brest is located on this high bluff.  We ended our Naval Base tour with a drive upriver along the bank of the Penfeld River to near the Recouvrance lift-bridge.  We then returned to this gate to present copies of H.S. Wheeler's old photos and related historical material.  Commander Nicol stated that he would make this material available to Base personnel.  We are so, so appreciative of Commander Nicol and the French Navy for this very memorable tour of their base and helping the Wheeler family better understand their history and connection to this location on the globe.  Our thanks also go out to Monique and Alain without whom this could not have happened.

   When Patrick and Keith visited this gate earlier in the day, they would drive up the road on the right of the gate, the "Route de la Corniche" which runs southwest below the bluff but mostly above the Naval Base which stretches along the Brest Bay shoreline.  The next few pages in this album will try to describe more of this stretch of land that holds so much of our interest.

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