Rennes

Since "must-see" places vary depending on each person's interests, you can find yours on the official Rennes tourism website.

https://www.tourisme-rennes.com/en/

Or even better, in a basic travel guide.

Thank you. I'd like to learn from others what they think is special about Renne in addition to already consulting websites and travel books.

I just spent a day in Rennes after taking a train there and before heading to Mont Saint-Michel—it was not an overnight. But I just liked walking around and seeing all the half-timbered buildings and having a nice lunch at a restaurant on Place du Champ-Jacquet. The place at which I dined was Les Fils à Maman, but there were several other restaurants overlooking the same, pretty square.

We have had several very good meals at Les Pecheurs over several visits to Rennes. Recommended if you like seafood.

Thank you, PharmerPhil and randonneuse!

I've yet to go but am planning to make sure I get there on a Saturday morning for the market, one of France's oldest and largest.

How long will you be there? Where else in Brittany are you looking at? The more I read about the region the more I realize how large it is and how many interesting places there are to visit.

Rennes is a delight! I stayed at the MGallery Balthazar hotel and it was just wonderful.

One absolute must is a tour of the Parliament of Bretagne. Sign up for a guided tour. It was splendid.

Alexander, You are a French speaker. Would this tour be accessible for non-French (or Breton) speakers?

We enjoyed walking the pedestrian-only streets of Rennes, and a visit to Parc du Thabor (take a look at some of the online pics of this park). I think Rennes doesn't get enough attention from US tourists, it is a gem! Get the Michelin Green Guide for Brittany which has good coverage of the city. And these days you can find many videos on YouTube where people film walking tours of Rennes so you can see areas you might want to visit.

So many times people overhype a destination, though so few people on travel boards talk about visiting Rennes that it's definitely not over-hyped.

Still, I feel like I should temper the enthusiasm expressed above. Be prepared for a lot of graffiti. I had looked forward to seeing all the half-timbered buildings in Rennes, one of my great pleasures when we're in France, but there was so much tagging--and it wasn't even artistic--that it took some of the joy away from our visit. I felt like I was in Philadelphia.

We had a good enough time walking around. We enjoyed the bustle, got an excellent banh mi for lunch, visited the Jardin de Thabor, went into the entryway of the piscine to admire the Odorico mosaics, met someone for a drink, went into Galeries Lafayette, bought some bread and pastries, sat in a small park, and then left town before the rush hour.

Part of the reason people may love a place or not is that they are comparing it to another place they don't like, or like more. Or they have nothing similar to compare it with. We've visited lots of towns in France we prefer to Rennes, but you may well have a much better experience. I hope you do. And I remind myself that it took three blah visits to what is now my favorite French city before I fell in love with it. So take my words with a grain of salt and enjoy yourselves.

Crumbs - When were you last in Rennes?

For anyone who has been there in n the last year, say, what has been your experience with the graffiti?

Based on how our plans are evolving, we’re likely to be in Rennes only for an afternoon and overnight before catching an early train to CDG for the return flight home.

We primarily picked Rennes as the final city only to maximize our time in the Mont, where we’ll be for about 2.5 days and probably squeeze in visits to Granville and Saint Malo. Rennes seemed to be the best option to get back to CDG and catch our flight on the same day.

Rennes seemed to be the best option to get back to CDG and catch our flight on the same day.

We all have different levels of risk aversion, but taking a 2h45m train ride the same day of (what I am assuming) is a long-haul flight home would be too risky for me.

Having said that, I was in Rennes for 9 nights April '24. It felt a bit shabby at that time-besides the aforementioned graffiti, plenty of broken windows in various stores (ie, they'd been smashed by vandals), some unpleasant aromas in some side streets, and plenty of demonstrations. Rennes isn't a 'town', it's one of the most populous cities in France (close to top 10), so it has some of the less-desirable characteristics of some large cities. However, I took at look at Streetview, and they have some more recent images, Things were looking better, at least as far as the smashed windows, which was heartening to see. There are some nice areas to walk, with half-timbered homes and other historical architecture, a good fine arts museum, and some lovely parks.

We were in Rennes in June 2024.

This blogger who lives in Rennes has the same complaint that I do. We hadn't seen his blog post before we went, and we wouldn't have canceled our day trip because of it, but when I read this after our visit I thought, "So it's not just me."

https://yofrance.substack.com/p/les-bombes-away

Most of the blog posts on Yo France rave about their life in Rennes and France in general.

I know that not everybody will be put off by graffiti or tagging. Just thought I'd mention it for those who are.

2.5 days in msm is a lot. When we went in June we saw it in 3 hours then drove to San malo for dinner (less than 6 hours total). We base near the port of Dinan where there’s a lot of outdoor activities to enjoy.

bbauders,
I agree with Matt that 2 1/2 days at MSM is way too much. If you are staying on the Mont overnight, then the evening and morning there is plenty of time to visit the Abbey and see everything on the mont (and the sights from it as well).

We visit Rennes several times a year for shopping, for departing and returning at the airport, and for picking up visiting friends at the airport. In a few weeks, we have an appointment there for administrative reasons and are staying overnight to pick up a friend flying in from the U.S. for a visit.

I've spent a lot of time in Lyon, Marseille, and Paris, and I'm a bit puzzled by the focus on graffiti in Rennes. In my experience, it's really no different from other large cities in France.

You can't go wrong with the Jardin botanique du Thabor, though. It's worth a stop.

I'm sorry, but I can't really help you on hotel or restaurant choices. That's not why we visit Rennes. But if you want to know about a good épicerie asiatique, just let me know.

Rennes can be a bit shabby in parts but not shockingly so (it's not Marseille or Barcelona), with relatively high numbers of harmless young vagabonds and their dogs (both affectionately and disaparagingly known as punks à chiens in France), but it is still a pretty city to explore for half a day or so.

Regarding food, I really like "Le Paris-Brest" inside the train station.