Rennes (Ile-et-Vilaine)

Rennes (Ile-et-Vilaine) mini guide

Rennes is the capital of Brittany. The town centre is extremely pretty, this is due to the Great Fire in 1720 thankfully missing many of the little streets. As a result one of the first things you will notice is the well preserved buildings with architecture dating from the 16th Century.

In more recent times the Parliament itself (today the Palais de Justice) was severely damaged by fire in 1994. It has been restored since then and is a wonderful sight with its fine slate roof and the golden statues. The parliament was re-opened at the beginning of the year 2000 and is now open to the public.

Whilst meandering through the streets and you will find little passageways, courtyards and gardens, often filled with flowers. You will also find architectural treasures from the 18th and 19th centuries, for instance, in the heart of the town from La Place de la Mairie to La Place Sainte Anne and from the Cathedral to la rue Saint Georges.

It has a very pleasant old quarter where you will find a massive Saturday market which is claimed to be one of the largest in France. For adults, the Musée des Beaux Arts (housed in the former university) has some excellent galleries. The Musee de Bretagne is housed in the same building.

There are many parks and gardens to visit. One in particular is the Thabor gardens, these gardens are the former orchard of the monks of Saint-Melaine Abbey, and were designed by Denis Bühler, a well-known landscape architect during the Second Empire. The gardens cover a vast area of 10 hectares and feature a bandstand and an aviary. This is a delightful place with botanical species ranging from Ginkgos biloba to sequoias and many other surprises in store.

Thanks to an age-old, well-devised planning policy in favour of wide open spaces and green belt stretching around the city centre the quality of life has been preserved in the city by avoiding overcrowding. The public transport network in Rennes has an environmentally-friendly, non-polluting policy which aids (according to a national magazine survey) the fact that for several years now Rennes has been voted the town with the best quality of life in France.

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Guide point	Details
Department:	North West France > Brittany > Ille-et-Vilaine >
Location:	In the extreme east of Brittany, about 75km south of St Malo via the N137 dual carriageway.
Public Transport:	Rennes has well developed national road, rail and air links and is two hours by TGV from Paris. Local transport is based primarily on an extensive bus network (38 different lines) and a metro line. The driverless Rennes Metro has 15 stations. Rennes is one of the smallest cities in the world to have a metro.
Tourist information website:	www.tourisme-rennes.com
Tourist information contact email:	infos@tourisme-rennes.com
Tourist information switch board number:	33 (0)2 99 67 11 11
Tourist information address:	11, rue Saint-Yves - CS 26410 - 35064 Rennes Cedex
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