Rennes

Nathalie Appéré, current mayor of Rennes

The current mayor of Rennes is Nathalie Appéré. A member of the Socialist Party, she replaced retiring Socialist incumbent Daniel Delaveau, in office from 2008 to 2014.

• Edmond Hervé (b. 1942), Socialist mayor from 1977 to 2008;
• Henri Fréville (1905–1987), mayor MRP from 1953 to 1977;
• Eugène Quessot (1882–1949), interim mayor from 15 July 1947 until 26 October 1947;
• Yves Milon (1897–1987), mayor RPF from 1944 to 1953.

Among previous well-known mayors are:

• Jean Janvier (1859–1923), from 1908 to 1923;
• Edgar Le Bastard (1836–1891), from 1880 to 1891;
• Toussaint-François Rallier du Baty (1665–1734) from 1695 to 1734.

The mairie (city hall) is right in the centre of Rennes.

The French Prison Service operates the Centre pénitentiaire de Rennes, the largest women's prison in France.[10]

Rennes features an oceanic climate. Precipitation in Rennes is considerably less abundant than in the western parts of Brittany, reaching only half of the levels of, e.g., the city of Quimper, which makes rainfall in Rennes comparable to the levels of large parts of western Germany. Sunshine hours range between 1,700 and 1,850 annually, which is about the amount of sunshine received by the city of Lausanne.

The historic centre is located on the former plan of the ramparts. There is a difference between the northern city centre and the southern city centre due to the 1720 fire, which destroyed most of the timber-framed houses in the northern part of the city. The rebuilding was done in stone, on a grid plan. The poorer southern part was not rebuilt.

Due to the presence of the parlement de Bretagne, many "hôtels particuliers" were built in the northern part, the richer half of Rennes in the 18th century. Most of the city's monuments historiques can be found there.

Colourful traditional half-timbered houses are situated primarily along the roads of Saint-Sauveur, Saint-Georges, de Saint-Malo, Saint-Guillaume, des Dames, du Chapitre, Vasselot, Saint-Michel, de la Psallette and around the plazas of Champ-Jacquet, des Lices, Saint-Anne and Rallier-du-Baty.

The Parlement de Bretagne (Administrative and judicial centre of Brittany, Breton: Breujoù Breizh) is the most famous 17th century building in Rennes. It was rebuilt after a terrible fire in 1994 that may have been caused by a flare fired by a protester during a demonstration. It houses the Rennes Court of Appeal. The surrounding plaza is built in the classical style.

In the west, the Place de la Mairie (City Hall Plaza, Plasenn Ti Kêr):

• City Hall
• Opera

In the east, at the end of the Rue Saint-Georges with traditional half-timbered houses:

• 1920s Saint George Municipal Pool, with mosaics
• Saint George Palace, and its garden

In the south-east:

• Saint-Germain square
  • Saint-Germain Church
  • Saint-Germain footbridge, 20th century wood and metal construction that links the plaza with Émile Zola Quay, across the Vilaine River.

• 
  Saint Germain's church
• 
  Opera of Rennes
• 
  Saint Georges Palace
• 
  Rennes City Hall

The Place des Lices is lined by hôtels particuliers. Along with the Place Rallier-du-Baty, it is the location of the weekly big market, the marché des Lices.

Near the Rennes Cathedral (cathédrale Saint-Pierre de Rennes) is the Rue du Chapitre:

• Hôtel de Blossac
• There are 16th century polychrome wooden busts on the façade of 20, Rue du Chapitre.

Also in this area are the former St. Yves chapel, which is now the tourist office and a local historical museum, and the Basilica Saint-Sauveur.

• 
  Place des Lices with the roof top of Les Halles Martenot seen in on the left, and the hôtels particuliers on the right
• 
  Rue du Chapitre
• 
  Gate of the Hôtel de Blossac
• 
  Basilique Saint-Sauveur

Built from the 3rd to the 12th centuries, the ramparts were largely destroyed between the beginning of the 16th century and the 1860s.

• 
  Portes mordelaises. The street crossing this gate comes from the Place des Lices and ends at the cathedral.
• 
  Tour Duchesne
• 
  Place Railler-du-Baty
• 
  Map of the remaining ramparts in Rennes

• Place Saint-Anne (Plasenn Santez-Anna)
• Saint-Aubin Church, built in the beginning of the 20th century
• Location of a former 14th century hospital
• Jacobite convent, the convention centre

In the south-west of the area, La Rue Saint-Michel nicknamed Rue de La Soif (Road of Thirst), is known for its many bars. Meanwhile, in the south-east, the Place du Champ-Jacquet features Renaissance buildings and a statue of mayor Jean Leperdit ripping up a conscription list.

• 
  Place Saint-Anne
• 
  Convention centre
• 
  Saint-Michel street
• 
  Medieval houses at Champ-Jacquet

Area of Saint-Melaine square

Notre-Dame-en-Saint-Melaine basilica,

• Tower and transept from the 11th century Benedictine abbey of Saint-Melaine
• 14th century Gothic arcades
• 17th century colonnade
• Bell tower topped with a gilded Virgin Mary (19th century)
• 17th century cloister

Jardin botanique du Thabor (formal French garden, orangerie, rose garden, aviary) a botanical garden on 10 hectares of land, built between 1860 and 1867.

17th century promenade "la Motte à Madame", and a monumental stairway overlooking the Rue de Paris entrance to the Thabor.

• 
  Notre-Dame-en-Saint-Melaine basilica, viewed from the parc du Thabor
• 
  Main gate of the parc du Thabor
• 
  Rue de Paris Thabor entrance

The south city centre is a mix of old buildings and 19th and 20th century constructions.

• 
  Maison des Carmes
• 
  Lycée Zola
• 
  Toussaints church
• 
  Palais du commerce

The Fine Arts Museum is situated on Quai Émile Zola, by the Vilaine River.

Les Champs Libres is a building on Esplanade Charles de Gaulle, and was designed by the architect Christian de Portzamparc. It houses the Brittany Museum (Musée de Bretagne), the regional library Bibliothèque de Rennes Métropole with six floors, and the Espace des Sciences science centre with a planetarium.

At Place Honoré Commeurec is Les Halles Centrales, a covered market from 1922, with one part converted into contemporary art gallery.

The Mercure Hotel is located in a restored building on Rue du Pré-Botté, which is the former office of Ouest-Éclair, and then of Ouest-France, France's leading daily regional newspaper.

There are large mills at Rue Duhamel, constructed on each side of the south branch of the Vilaine in 1895 and 1902.

To the northwest of Rennes, near Rue de Saint-Malo, are the locks of the Canal d'Ille-et-Rance, opened in 1843.

Two locations for Oberthür Printing Works were built by Marthenot between 1870 and 1895 on Rue de Paris in the eastern part of the city. Oberthür Park is the second biggest garden in the city.

The 17th century manor of Haute-Chalais, a granite château, is situated to the south of the city in Blosne Quarter (Bréquigny).

• 
  Gayeulles parc
• 
  Square of Motte
• 
  Mail Mitterrand
• 
  Thabor parc
• 
  Oberthur parc
• 
  Saint-Georges garden

Parc du Thabor contains a compact but significant botanical garden, the Jardin botanique du Thabor. The University of Rennes 1, with a campus in the city's eastern section, also contains a botanical garden and collections (the Jardin botanique de l'Université de Rennes).

Rennes is well-equipped with musical facilities:

• The MusikHall, for large shows (near the airport). (7,000 seats)
• Le Liberté, dedicated to major cultural events and touring shows. (5,300 seats)
• La Cité, dedicated to contemporary music & local artists. (1,150 seats)
• L'Étage (Le Liberté), dedicated to contemporary music & local artists. (900 seats)
• Rennes Opera House (650 seats) and National Theatre of Brittany, TNB in French (Vilar room, 950 seats) for the Brittany orchestra.
• The Ubu, an associative concert hall. (500 seats)
• L'Antipode MJC, also an art centre. (500 seats)

There are also five museums in Rennes:

• Musée des Beaux Arts (Museum of Fine Arts of Rennes). This art museum holds many works by the sculptor Pierre Charles Lenoir
• Musée de Bretagne Museum of Brittany at the Champs Libres, together with the 'espace de sciences' and a planetarium.
• Museum of Farming and Rennes Countryside at Bintinais, south of Rennes.
• Musée des Transmissions (Museum of Broadcasting) at Cesson-Sévigné, east of Rennes city centre.
• FRAC Bretagne Fond Régional d'Art contemporain (Regional Fund for Contemporary Art).

In addition, there are art facilities such as 40mcube exhibition space or the centre for contemporary art La Criée.

There are also miscellaneous cultural venues, including the dance-dedicated Triange and two "Art et Essai" (arthouse) cinemas, l'Arvor and Cine TNB. Surrounding cities house many other cultural sites.

Rennes was one of the first cities in France to have its own local television channel, 'TV Rennes', created in 1987.

Rennes has also local radio stations (Hit West, Radio Campus, Canal B, Radio Caroline, Radio Rennes, Radio Laser) and local newspapers and magazines (Ouest-France, Le Mensuel de Rennes, Place Publique, 20 Minutes Rennes).

Flag of Brittany

In Brittany, two regional languages are spoken: Breton and Gallo. In and around Rennes, Gallo was traditionally spoken as a local language, but Breton has always been spoken by migrants from the western part of the region.

Nowadays, the Breton language is taught in two Diwan schools,[17] some bilingual public and Catholic schools, in evening courses, and in university.[18]

The municipality launched a linguistic plan through Ya d'ar brezhoneg on 24 January 2008.

In 2008, 2.87% of primary school children were enrolled in bilingual primary schools, and the number of pupils enrolled in these schools is steadily growing.[19]

Cider and galette with eggs, ham and cheese

Specialties from Rennes include:

• Breton galette
• Galette-saucisse
• Crêpe
• Cider

Many other Breton specialties (seafood, milk, vegetables, cheese, meat) are seen at the Marché des Lices, a weekly market held every Saturday morning (one of the largest markets in France).

• Rennes is home to Stade Rennais F.C., who play in Ligue 1 at the Roazhon Park stadium.

• Cesson-Sévigné is home to Cesson-Rennes-Métropole handball, who play in division 1.

• Rennes is home to Fortuneo-Vital Concept (UCI Team Code: BSE), a professional cycling team.

• Rennes is home to Stade Rennais Rugby, a women's rugby team who play in Championnat de France de rugby à XV féminin, the top national club competition for women's rugby union in France. Rennes is also home to REC Rugby, a men's team competing in Fédérale 1, the fourth tier of the Men's Rugby Union championship.

Local transport is based primarily on an extensive bus network (65 lines) and a light metro line that was inaugurated in March 2002 and cost €500 million to build. The driverless Rennes Metro (VAL) is 9.4 km (5.8 mi) in length and has 15 stations, including one designed by architect Norman Foster (La Poterie station). A second light metro line known as Line B was opened on September 20, 2022, after 8 years of construction.[22][23]

Rennes provides another mode of local transport: a bike sharing system with 900 bicycles (named vélo STAR). Rennes created the first system of modern French bike sharing in 1998.

The city is an important hub of Brittany's motorway network and is surrounded by a ring road, the Rocade (national road 136). The construction of the bypass was started in 1968 and completed in 1999. It is 31 km (18.5 mi) long, has 2 lanes each way (sometimes 3 lanes) and is toll-free. Many other expressways are connected to the Rennes ring road for local and regional service. By road, Saint-Malo can be reached in 45 minutes, Nantes in 1 hour, Brest in 2 hours and 30 minutes, Paris in 4 hours, Bordeaux in 5 hours, and Brussels in 6 hours and 30 minutes.

Rennes has a major French railway station, the Gare de Rennes, opened in 1857. Since 2 July 2017, it is now one hour and twenty-seven minutes by TGV high-speed train from Paris (after the extension of the High Speed Rail Line[24]). Train services are available to other major cities in France such as Lyon, Marseille, Lille, and Strasbourg.

Rennes is also an important railway station for regional transport in Brittany. The TER Bretagne provides links to Saint-Malo, Nantes, Redon, Vitré, Saint-Brieuc, Vannes, Laval, Brest and many other regional cities. It is served by Gares station on the VAL Rennes Metro.

Rennes is served by Rennes Brittany Airport (Saint-Jacques), located 7 kilometres (4.3 mi) from the centre to the south-west in the commune Saint-Jacques-de-la-Lande.

It notably operates regular or seasonal flights to Paris-Charles de Gaulle, Lyon, Marseille, Nice, Toulouse, Barcelona, Palma de Mallorca, Rome-Fiumicino, Southampton, Dublin, Exeter, Manchester, Amsterdam Schiphol, Madrid Barajas, Birmingham, London-City, London-Gatwick and daily flights to London Southend Airport with Flybe.

Twinned towns inscribed on the bridge over the central canal

Rennes is twinned with:[36]

Friendly towns within France

• Saint-Gilles-du-Mené, France (since 1978)
• Rennes-les-Bains, France (since 1985)

Pacts of cooperation

• Huế, Vietnam (since 1992)

Sponsorship

• Vouziers, France

Rennes also has the only Institut Franco-Américain in France.