I must have passed through Rennes very quickly during my adolescence, but I don’t remember it very well. My first real discovery of the Breton city was with my favorite photographer in April 2024, when we stayed for a little over a week. This gave us the chance to truly get a taste of life in Rennes. The city made a really great impression on us; we found it very vibrant, the old town has a lot of charm, and there is a certain easygoing lifestyle in the air that made us think we could genuinely imagine living there… That goes to show how much we fell in love with the city! We were also particularly won over by the quality of the city’s food spots, but I’ll tell you a bit more about that in another special article dedicated to the best places to eat in Rennes.
Rennes is therefore a Breton city and is also the capital of the Ille-et-Vilaine department. It is located in what is known as “Haute Bretagne” (Upper Brittany), which is the eastern part of Brittany.
Practical Info :
- Getting there by train from Paris: allow only about 1 hour and 30 minutes from Paris via the high-speed line departing from Montparnasse station.
- The insider tip: if you need to drop off your suitcase for a few hours while you explore the city, note that bag storage (which also includes 3 lockers for suitcases) is available for free at Les Champs Libres cultural center, located right next to the train station (we took full advantage of it, which is why I’m mentioning it)!
Destination Rennes Tourist Office
11 rue de Saint-Malo 35000 Rennes
Table of Contents
What to see and do in Rennes?
Rennes is a mosaic city with multiple facets (cultural, festive, gourmet, natural, historical…) and is also the capital of Brittany. Its history began in antiquity when the Celtic tribe of the Redones founded Condate la Rouge (Red Condate), named for its strategic location at the confluence of the Ille and Vilaine rivers. The Gallo-Roman city also gained importance due to its geographical position as a “gateway” to Brittany. The establishment of the Parliament of Brittany in Rennes in the 16th century marked a turning point in the city’s history, which revolved around this assembly. In fact, thanks to this, Brittany retained a degree of autonomy against royal power right up until the French Revolution.
It is also the Breton city with the highest number of half-timbered houses, boasting nearly 370 historic buildings, mostly dating back to the Renaissance. Yet there could have been even more, because a third of the upper town (above the Vilaine river) was devastated by a fire in 1720. This fire, which lasted a week, destroyed many monuments but also greatly shaped the city. Much of it was rebuilt after this tragedy, giving certain neighborhoods the look we know today. Engineer Isaac Robelin had redrawn the city plans, but wanted to apply this new urban planning to the entire city. In the end, architect Jacques Gabriel took over and proved much more flexible regarding the reconstruction. The current city hall was built at that time, featuring a belfry and a large dome. Below, as is my habit, I’ve put together a small selection of things to do and see if you come for a stay in Rennes.
Also not to be missed:
- The Couvent des Jacobins, dating from the 14th century, which now houses the city’s Tourist Office.
- The Portes Mordelaises, former fortifications built in the 15th century.
- The Saint-Pierre Cathedral, which houses many treasures and whose architecture is inspired by St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome. As is often the case, the cathedral was built on a religious site dating back to antiquity.
- Place St. Anne: the lively heart of the city, featuring the famous “rue de la soif” (thirsty street) well known to students, and also where second-hand booksellers set up their stalls outdoors when the weather is nice.
- Place St. Michel with its pretty colorful houses (which serves as the cover photo for this article).
- The Odorico mosaics: this family originally from Italy settled in Rennes in 1882, and their expertise spread across the entire Greater West region, primarily in Rennes, which has the highest concentration of their mosaic works.
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Visit the Museum of Fine Arts
This museum is dedicated to art and archaeology. Its collections started from works seized during the revolutionary confiscations carried out in 1794 from religious and civil buildings in the city of Rennes. Visitors can discover paintings, sculptures, Egyptian, Greek, and above all Celtic antiquities, art objects from all continents, and an exceptional collection of drawings featuring Leonardo da Vinci, Botticelli, Dürer, and Rembrandt. The current museum is housed in Rennes’ former university palace. Since admission to the permanent collections is free, I highly encourage you to take a look around this wonderful museum!
Museum of Fine Arts of Rennes
20 Quai Emile Zola, 35000 Rennes
Open Tuesday to Sunday 10 AM to 6 PM / closed Mondays and public holidays
The insider tip: free admission to the permanent collections for everyone
Temporary exhibition ticket prices: €4 / €2 reduced / free for under 26s
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Visit the Museum of Brittany
Housed in the heart of the Les Champs Libres cultural center—which also includes a library, a science space, an exhibition and meeting venue, and a public square—the Museum of Brittany is dedicated to Breton society and its evolution. The museum offers a wonderful free permanent exhibition (which we partially visited) as well as regular temporary exhibitions.
The chronological exhibition tour begins in the Neolithic period and ends with contemporary Brittany. It primarily features objects that serve as material evidence of social, technical, cultural, or societal transformations, guiding visitors through the history of Brittany and its people. I really loved the modern, sleek museography of the tour and the numerous interactive displays along the way.
Museum of Brittany
Les Champs Libres / 10 cours des Alliés 35000 Rennes
Open Tuesday to Sunday
The insider tip: free admission to the permanent collections for everyone
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Visit Rennes Cathedral
The Saint-Pierre Cathedral of Rennes is a classical-style Roman Catholic cathedral, the major part of which dates from the 18th and 19th centuries. Its granite facade, dating from the 16th and 17th centuries, is particularly impressive. Inside the building, you can admire its beautiful dome, its 16th-century Flemish altarpiece, and its 19th-century grand organ.
Cathedral of Rennes
Rue de la Monnaie, 35000 Rennes
Self-guided and free tour during the cathedral’s opening hours
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Take an electric boat ride on the Ille-et-Rance canal
Les P’tits Bateaux offer rentals of license-free electric boats to discover Rennes from a different angle by cruising along the Ille-et-Rance canal or the Saint-Martin canal. As for us, we headed to the Pier to explore the Vilaine river and the Ille-et-Rance canal. It was a very bucolic ride, and you can even grab an “aperitivo” basket on the boat if you feel like it. A truly lovely little getaway on the water that I warmly recommend during your visit to Rennes!
Les P’tits Bateaux
Prairies Saint-Martin
Prices: 5-seater boat €40 for 1h / €60 for 2h / €80 for 3h – 7-seater boat €55 for 1h / €75 for 2h / €95 for 3h
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Go for a bike ride on the V2/V42 greenway
This 192-kilometer greenway connects Saint-Malo to Redon via Rennes. For our part, we did a very small section, along the Ille-et-Rance canal just above the city. The route is extremely bucolic and perfectly suited for bikes as it is well-marked and secure. We rented self-service bikes from the city of Rennes in the city center and rode all the way to Saint-Grégoire (a commune located just above Rennes). It was quite easy to rent the bikes without a subscription, and it didn’t cost us very much.
Greenway V2/V42
Star bike rental rates: free-floating formula €1 for a single trip (1 hour max) / €2 for 24 hours + €0.50 per hour each time a bike is rented
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Take a guided tour of the Parliament of Brittany
We really loved this fascinating guided tour, which lets you discover the interior of the Parliament of Brittany accompanied by a guide (otherwise the building cannot be visited independently). It was also a great way to refresh our memory on the history of Brittany. In 1532, Brittany was united with France through the marriage of Clothilde of France and Francis I. This also marked the creation of regional parliaments, which served as guardians of the customs of old France. They could administer justice in the king’s name and register royal edicts. The parliamentarians were nobles or bourgeois who had purchased parliamentary offices from the king, which were passed down from father to filho (1/3 of the parliamentarians were therefore not Breton). In 1554, the true Parliament of Brittany was established, and the bourgeois professionalized the legal profession.
Salomon de Brosse was the architect of the new parliament, built in the 17th century. In front of the parliament stands the Place Royale, featuring a sculpture of Louis XIV (which was melted down during the Revolution, but you can see a miniature version at the Museum of Fine Arts in Rennes). In 1994, a major fire following a fishermen’s protest destroyed a large part of the building, and its reconstruction took 10 years!
During this indoor and outdoor guided tour, you discover: the Salle des Pas Perdus; the Grand Chamber with its very luxurious decor featuring a French-style ceiling painted by Charles Errard (with his assistant Noël Coypel, who was around 30 at the time) featuring an allegoric Pantheon; the council room of the Grand Chamber with paintings by Jean-Baptiste Jouvenet; and the Assize Court room (still active today), which is the largest hearing room in the building.
Guided tour of the Parliament of Brittany
Place du Parlement de Bretagne, 35000 Rennes
Guided tour rates: from €6.50 per person
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Stroll through Le Thabor park and gardens
This park, located near downtown Rennes, is a public park spanning over 10 hectares, notable for combining a French formal garden, an English landscape garden, and an extensive botanical garden. It is the perfect spot for a stroll and contemplative wandering.
Parc du Thabor
Place Saint-Melaine 35000 Rennes
Free admission during the park’s opening hours
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Take a guided street art tour
You may or may not already know this, but the favorite photographer and I are huge fans of street art. And as luck would have it, the Rennes tourist office offers several guided walks around this theme. For our part, we joined the “South Route” street art tour with Valentine. The city actually boasts around 30 free-expression walls provided by the city of Rennes for artists. And as a side note, a street art and urban art festival also takes place in Rennes every year: Teenage Kicks.
During this walk, we were able to discover: Rennes’ famous radishes; the heartless robot by artists Blu (created using collage technique, located behind the TNB national theater), which was commissioned by the TNB as part of a festival; Breton artist War (notably “the wolves” located on the side of the TNB this time, once again a 2022 commission from the theater); artist Brez in an apartment building passageway, featuring a style between hip-hop and Art Nouveau (inspired notably by Mucha); “A Mother’s Dream on Parenting” by Xoanna Almar; and the Mur de Rennes, an open-air gallery at 34 Rue Vasselot.
Guided street art tour
Rates: from €6.50
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Attend the Mythos Festival
This festival, which has been running since 1996, is a grand celebration of spoken word and language. Every year in April, it brings together various themes and events over 10 days: theater, concerts, gastronomy, storytelling… The festival sets up in the Jardins du Thabor, which I mentioned earlier. For our part, we attended a concert evening at the Cabaret Botanique, one of the two cabarets set up for the occasion where the evening shows take place. There we discovered the wonderfully eccentric Simone Ringer (daughter of Catherine Ringer) as well as Isaac Delusion, a pop and electronic music band.
Mythos Festival 2024
From April 5 to 14, 2024
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Toqués de Mythos
At the heart of the Mythos Festival lies another festival—this time dedicated to gastronomy. In 2024, the patron of this edition was Romain Meder, former chef of the three-star Plaza Athénée. On the program: 70 guest chefs (including 12 Michelin-starred chefs) from Rennes and the region, offering unique menus to discover throughout the 10 days of the festival. The festival is also eco-conscious and has implemented an eco-friendly charter. During our visit, we tasted dishes by 3 chefs: Pierre Eon from Pierre restaurant de Copains (which I talk about in my special food article); the chef from A Fuoco Nero, a Rennes restaurant serving Italian street food; and Gabriel Moreau from the restaurant Le 2 rue des Dames.
Toqués de Mythos
Prices: starter + main course + dessert menus €25 for lunches and between €34 and €45 for dinners / closing dinner €50
What to do in the surroundings of Rennes?
Take a getaway to Vitré
Labeled a City of Art and History since 1999, Vitré is a very pretty small town with a stunning medieval heritage (narrow streets, timber-framed houses, castle, and museum…). It is located just 20/30 minutes from Rennes by TER train (priced at €11 one way), making it particularly accessible. Don’t hesitate to wander through its charming alleys and visit the Notre-Dame church, which is one of the masterpieces of Gothic Vitré architecture.
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Visit the Château des Barons de Vitré
perched on a schist promontory, the Château de Vitré stands as one of the finest examples of the fortifications of the Marches of Brittany, complete with its drawbridge, arrow slits, and machicolations. As a result, it offers exceptional views of the city. Its architectural evolution spans from the 11th to the 19th century. A stronghold and residence of the barons of Vitré in the Middle Ages, it later became a prison and a barracks in the 19th century. Today, the castle is classified as a Historic Monument and also houses a museum that traces the history of the town from the Middle Ages to the present day.
Château de Vitré
Place du Château, 35500 Vitré
Rates: €7 adult / €4 reduced / free for under-12s
My favorite accommodation addresses in Rennes
As usual, you will find below my selection of great accommodation addresses in Rennes that we had the opportunity to test during our stays with the favorite photographer. I have also gathered all my favorite addresses, detailed reviews, and options for all budgets in my complete guide on the best hotels in Rennes.
Which hotel to choose in Rennes?
We stayed at these four hotels in Rennes. A courtyard-facing room, an attic room or more unusual decor: here are a few pointers before my reviews.
Hotels where we stayed
Le Balthazar hôtel & Spa
Our well-soundproofed courtyard-facing room.
Hôtel Magic Hall
Our theatre-themed room and breakfast at the communal table.
Hôtel Mama Shelter Rennes
Our attic room, on Place des Lices.
Hôtel Mercure Place de Bretagne
A central base for my working week.
Our courtyard-facing room was quieter.
Booking through these links supports the blog, at no extra cost to you.
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Le Balthazar Hotel & Spa
This 5-star MGallery collection hotel is located right in the center of Rennes. During our stay with my favorite photographer, we stayed in a superior room overlooking the inner courtyard, which was well soundproofed and featured comfortable bedding. Breakfast offers plenty of homemade products, and the hotel has a Nuxe spa area (30°C pool with jets, sauna, and hammam) accessible by booking a one-hour time slot.
Le Balthazar hôtel & Spa ☆☆☆☆☆
19 Rue Maréchal Joffre, 35000 Rennes
Price: from 188 € for a classic room
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Le Magic Hall
This unusual hotel is set in a former 19th-century military barracks, nestled quietly in a courtyard. The atmosphere is warm and friendly, featuring an open kitchen and a cozy lounge where breakfast is served around a large communal table. The rooms are decorated according to various performance arts themes: we stayed in a Theatre room on the first floor.
Hôtel Magic Hall ☆☆☆
17 Rue de la Quintaine, 35000 Rennes
Rates: from 105 € per night for 2 people, breakfast not included
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Le Mama Shelter Rennes
Located on Place des Lices in the former Hôtel de la Monnaie, this place opened in 2023 and features a restaurant, a rooftop, and an indoor pool with a spa. We stayed in a double room under the eaves, and the breakfast buffet is served in the panoramic dining room overlooking the city.
Hôtel Mama Shelter Rennes ☆☆☆☆
3 Place de la Trinité, 35000 Rennes
Price: from 118 € for a double room
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Hôtel Mercure Place de Bretagne
This 4-star hotel is located right in the city center. During my work week in Rennes, we stayed in a classic courtyard-facing room, which was much quieter than the street-facing ones. The property is clean, the beds are comfortable, and the breakfast buffet is standard yet entirely satisfactory for a business trip.
Hôtel Mercure Place de Bretagne ☆☆☆☆
6 Rue Lanjuinais, 35000 Rennes
Price: classic room from 112 € per night
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Thank you to the Rennes Tourist Office for organizing part of this wonderful getaway to discover Rennes. Thank you also to Mama Shelter Rennes and Balthazar hotel & Spa for their invitations.
I hope all of this makes you want to visit Rennes, and if you too have your favorite spots and tips for this destination, feel free to share them in the comments below!
Photo credits: Nicolas Diolez and MelleBonPlan Photos are not royalty-free, photographer's permission required prior to any use
