Great Continental Railway Journeys

Michael Portillo's railway journey reaches the naval port of Brest, home to France's oceanographic fleet. He also learns how to make a sweet, buttery Breton cake called kouign-amann.

Michael Portillo's railway adventure reaches Rennes, capital of Brittany. At the Lycee Emile Zola, he hears how the school was used as a military court for the second trial of Alfred Dreyfus.

In Bayeux, Michael Portillo admires the Bayeux Tapestry, the 70-metre-long work of art commissioned to record William the Conqueror's conquest of England and the Battle of Hastings in 1066.

In the apple orchards of the Calvados region, Michael Portillo discovers how the classic digestif has been distilled since 1865 at the Pierre Huet estate.