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Rennes is a much nicer visit; good for a couple of days, especially if you like to run. Rennes is a big university town - 60 000 students, 200 000 permanent residents - and an old university town at that. I found guallic churches and crooked medieval taverns walking about.
As for stuff to do - there's a wonderful garden called the Place Thabor (I might be wrong on the name). It's a French garden rather than a Victorian one - all the landscaping is obviously landscaping - and there are lovely avenues of trees, wonderful roses and a massive, Chinese style bird garden.
There's also a pretty decent hostel, which had yoghurt and cereal at breakfast, so, score!
Plan your visit though; my greatest regret on this trip is that I seem to have gone about just the week before or week after some great festival (see the Baloon festival in Bristol, which I missed by five days). Rennes has a number of concerts on offer over the summer, some amateur theatre and the like, so check the tourism sight to see what's on when. I myself went to a Russian chant in one of the churches Tuesday night.
The country is also lovely to run through; one can get out of the downtown core in about a thirty minute walk if one isn't weighted with one's life in a bag, and then running along a country canal in France at sunset is a pure pleasure.
When I got here, the asparagus was nearly done; now apples and pears and hazelnuts are just starting. One aspect of the French culture that I have mixed feelings about is their practice of collecting food. It's fine out in the country but I wouldn't collect nuts from the side of a busy road. Still, they get good, fresh food.
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