Short answers, pulled from the story.
Brest, France is known primarily as a major French naval port. Cardinal Richelieu established a harbour there in 1631, and the city subsequently grew around its arsenal for centuries. The Académie de Marine was founded in Brest in 1752, and the city remains home to France's nuclear-armed ballistic missile submarine base at Île Longue, opened in 1972.
During World War II, the Germans maintained a large U-boat submarine base in Brest and used the port to shelter and repair elements of their surface fleet. In 1944, following the Allied invasion of Normandy, the city was almost totally destroyed during the Battle for Brest, with only a tiny number of buildings left standing. After the war, the West German government paid several billion Deutschmarks in reparations to Brest's civilian population.
Brest had 142,346 inhabitants as of 2023 and forms western Brittany's largest metropolitan area, with a total population of 370,000 in the greater area. The city provides services to approximately one million inhabitants across western Brittany.
Les Tonnerres de Brest is an international festival of the sea, boats, and sailors held in Brest every four years. It gathers tall ships and old riggings from around the world. The most recent edition before the COVID-19 pandemic was Les Tonnerres de Brest 2016.
Yes, Brest has hosted the Tour de France Grand Départ on multiple occasions: in 1952, 1974, and 2008. The 2021 Tour de France also started from Brest on the 26th of June 2021, and Stage 6 of the 2018 Tour de France departed from the city.
Notable people born in Brest include the writer and filmmaker Alain Robbe-Grillet (1922-2008), the musician Yann Tiersen (born 1970), the actress Béatrice Dalle (born 1964), the footballer Gonzalo Higuaín (born 1987), and the political figure Benoît Hamon (born 1967), who was the Parti Socialiste presidential candidate in 2017.