Brest,France, France

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. Although Brest is by far the largest city in Finistère, the préfecture of the department is the much smaller commune of Quimper.