Pummeled By History, Brittany’s Rennes Is Now A City Of Cultural Attractions In France

  Rennes has been tucked into northwestern Brittany for two millennia, yet it only became a city of any real significance after World War II. It was a quiet regional town until 1720 when its largely wooden timbered structures burned to the ground in a fire, and even a century later its population was below 50,000 people. It took World War II to shake Rennes into the 20^th century after the Germans occupied Rennes in 1940, and the Allies took it back in 1944. Owing to it being a transport hub in France, the city was bombed by both factions into submission with great destruction. After the war the city fathers were smart to re-cast its future as a cultural center for tourism so that while its architecture appears Gothic, it is mostly new and the destroyed wooden buildings were replaced with other materials. 

  Now Rennes is a beautiful river city of about 218,000 people. It is well laid out and tidy, and when you enter the old city gate called Porte Mordelaise,  a small section of the oldest quarter is still intact around Place Saint-Anne, with the old, sometimes leaning, half-timbered houses. The Place des Lices, where jousting tournaments once took place, is now a very well-attended Saturday marketplace. Under dozens of red tents you’ll find vendors specializing in wild mushrooms, local cheeses and river and sea fish, along with bargain clothes. (There’s a little bistro on one end where you can get coffee and breakfast before the market opens.)

    Also rebuilt with fidelity is the superb 17^th century Palais du Parlement de Bretagne, designed with a mansard roof by the architect who did Paris’s Palais du Luxembourg. In 1994 a fast-moving fire damaged the palace, but it is now back to its former majesty, as is the  nearby royal   Other buildings of note, done in various styles, are the Cathedral,

the half-timbered Maison des Carmes on the Rue Vasselot, the splendid Lycée Émile Zola (named after one of France’s greatest authors), the baroque Toussaints Church and the Palace of Commerce.  The most spectacular building in Rennes is the 19^th century rounded 650-seat Opéra on the Place de la Marie (the smallest in France), adapted from Rome’s ancient Theater of Marcellus and a glorious Breton ceiling fresco.  It was praised by Stendhal as being a symbol of restorative culture after the great fire had destroyed so much of the city. Rennes is also home to several music venues and the L’Antipode MJC art center. 

       There are three highly regarded universities in the city, two focusing on technology (now the heart of Rennes’s economy), as well as a Catholic University.

       One of the antiquarian pleasures of Rennes is to walk among the city’s  remaining ramparts, built from the 3^rd to 12^th centuries, once providing broad views of the entire territory down to the river, and to the east of the old town are the Thabor Gardens, once an abbey orchard, now laid out over 24 acres with a classic French garden, an English garden, an aviary, a children’s area and a botanical garden containing 3,000 species of plants. 

     Rennes has hotels of every stripe, and even for the best hotels, prices rarely go above $200; others may run for $100 or less. The Balthazar Hotel & Spa is completely modern and as good for tourists as for business travelers. Its restaurant, is run by Parisian Chef Michel Rostang (main courses run $26-$43). The beautiful, elegantly appointed  fairy tale Château d’Apigne is set in a broad, 25-acre park just outside of town offers access to good fishing and its two-dining rooms, Les Tourelles (meals about $46), are among the finest restaurants in the region. An old 16^th century building houses the Marnie & Mister H BnB, and is very centrally located. 

     Breton food is hearty and homey, known  for its many savory and sweet galettes, made from buckwheat flower and various fillings, the best known being King’s Cake, as well as delicate, thin crêpes and the  region’s famous waffles, all to be enjoyed with the local cider. 

      There is a good range of bistros and fine dining rooms (and one awful pizzeria downtown to be avoided). Ima, which takes its name from the Japanese for “now,” features cutting-edge cuisine (fixed price meals $60-$115), while Racine (meals $65-$85), with a Michelin star, under Chef Virginie Giboire, draws on the regional provender to create modern cooking within a bright, white open kitchen space. For more traditional Breton fare, try Le Café du Port (meals about $50) and, the crêperie La Saint-Georges.

    If you’ve run out of pleasures in Rennes, head on down to the Quai Saint-Cyr on the Embarcadero, where you can rent an electric boat or kayak to sail the Vilaine river and through the Ille-et-Rance Canal that slowly meanders into the bucolic surroundings of Brittany.