Rennes: a SWEET escape in the heart of Brittany

Hello there, kind reader!

Since this is the first article from the French series (and I haven't written anything for a long time), I am just gonna state from the beginning: this won't be a "what to do in Rennes" article, but more like "what I did in Rennes". So I am basically just sharing my experience hoping it will come in handy to someone.
Tip: you can make the pictures bigger by clicking on them




Transportation 
I arrived to Rennes by bus from Paris around 14 pm after a 5h trip. Spending 5h in a bus is not that bad because travelling by bus in here is so much better than travelling by bus in Romania. You have Wi-Fi, a plug-in, a toilet and a lot of space for your feet. This time I chose to travel with Isilines and I purchased my ticket online from the oui.sncf website. After buying your ticket, you can either print it or download their moblie app and import your ticket there.

For the first time I discovered public transportation in cities other than Paris, so I finally spared my legs some kilometers. They have one metro line and plenty of buses; all the necessary information is available online or at the stations. I took a 24h pass (4.10€) which covered both the metro and the buses.

Accommodation
After arriving in Rennes, I went to my Airbnb host to take my key. I travel with Airbnb because it is way cheaper than booking.com and it gets you in touch with the locals better than a hotel. I chose a private room because basically I just needed a bed to sleep and a decent bathroom. I am just gonna leave my host's Airbnb

link in here because I had a very nice experience for a pretty low price, so I highly recommend it to everyone. The apartment is located in a quiet neighborhood, 100m away from Vilaine, the river that crosses the city. You can get to the center of the city by foot (a 20 minutes walk) or by bus (a 10 minutes trip). The whole apartment was sparkling clean and the room was very stylishly decorated. Bonus points: my host was friendly, welcoming and discrete; basically I didn't even know she was there.

Visiting around
Usually when I plan a trip, I look for visiting objectives in advance, then I make a list and an itinerary using Google Maps. After the trip to Rouen, I learned to also check opening hours and prices. So I planned to start my visit with Écomusée du pays de Rennes. I took the metro from République to Triangle and then started walking. I was at the outskirts of the city and after some minutes the neighborhood didn't seem that friendly anymore. After a 15 minutes walk, I saw the sign that pointed out that I was exiting Rennes and I had just realized that I needed to walk another 20 minutes by a main road where people traveled by car and not by their own feet. Since the perspective didn't seem so friendly to me, I gave up on my first (and most interesting) objective and went back to the center.

The second objective on my list was Musée de Bretagne. The museum is located in Les Champs Libres, a building with a futuristic design housing not only the museum of Brittany, but also a Planetarium, scientific temporary exhibitions and a public library. Basically the museum gets you through the history of Brittany from the prehistoric age to present times. If you are a fan of history, I recommend assigning more than one hour to this museum. It is worth it. In the science area, I visited the Night Exposition. At first sight, you would have said it was dedicated to kids (lots of games and stuffed animals), but then I realized they had actually built a lot of interactive and friendly ways to get you through scientific facts about human and animal sleep. The ticket for both the museum and the science part was 7€ (<26 years old). The Planetarium was also included in the fee, but I should have waited for an hour for the next visit, so I just went forward with my visiting list.

The next stop was the Opera. The building was inaugurated in 1836 as a theater. It is situated in a large square (Place de la Mairie) and faces Hotel de Ville, a building equally impressive.

The most beautiful part of my visit was walking on the streets from the Old City. It doesn't cover a big area, so a little walk won't hurt your legs. Most of the streets are paved and they are flanked by lots of old houses some of which are very well preserved. I spent around an hour just walking without having a final point to get to. And there was one thing that caught my eye (and my nose and my taste buds eventually): crêpes. Everywhere. You're basically surrounded by crêpes.

They jump you from every corner of the street. Just give in, there is no point in resisting. I am gonna swift just a little from the topic in order to explain something: crêpes, not pancakes. If there is one thing I learned in France, that is: never ever in your life call them pancakes. For a French person this is one the biggest insults. It's like "your mom is a cunt", just worst.

Now back to the crêpes. Brittany is famous for its crêpes and I can definitely vow for that. I tried one with salted caramel butter and it was clearly the best I had ever had. They also have thicker ones called galettes. They are made from whole wheat and they are usually salted, and served with ham, cheese, sausages and stuff like this.

After wandering around for some time, I headed to the Cathédrale Saint-Pierre. The history of the Gothic catholic cathedral begins in the 12th century. After the west front and the tower collapsed in 1490, the cathedral went through many reconstruction and demolition stages over the next centuries and it was completed only in 1845. The two towers date back to 1704. The big organ standing above the entrance dates back to the XIXth century and was offered as a gift by Napoleon III during his visit in Brittany in 1858.

              





Next, I went to Parc du Thabor. The park is huge, very nicely designed and not that highly populated (no idea why). It's the perfect place for a relaxing stroll and
there are lots of flowers and birds to admire. Next to the park there is a small church called Eglise Saint-Melanie. I actually landed in the middle of a ceremony and since I was exhausted, I just stayed there for a while and took part to the whole thing. I really love Catholic churches and Catholic ceremonies (mainly due to the music of the organ) and even though I am not a religious person at all, the time I spent in there was like a mouth of fresh air.

Heading back to the center, I went by the Parliament of Brittany. The historical building dates back to 1665 and survived the fire from 1720 only to be partially burnt down in 1994. Nowadays it houses the Court of Appeal of Rennes.

Since I finished my objective list, I headed to my Airbnb apartment. From my point of view, the neighborhood were the apartment was located was even nicer than the center of the city. Almost all the houses were made of rock and each garden had been very carefully taken care of. There were barely two people on the streets in the evening, so everything was peaceful and quiet. By walking 100m away from the apartment, I got to the quay of Vilaine. Taking a little stroll next to the river was the perfect way to end the day.

Mont Saint Michel

On Sunday, I planned to go to Mont Saint Michel (which actually belongs to Normandy and not to Brittany). I had been thinking about this destination for a long time, so I had to do a really good planing in order to achieve my goal and avoid spending 300 euros on this weekend trip. So I decided to go by bus. This is the company that is in charge with the route Rennes-Mont Saint Michel and you can buy tickets online, from the SNCF station or directly from the bus driver (I paid 22.60€ for a round trip).


Now, what's so special about this place? Mont Saint Michel is the place with the highest tides in Europe. So several times a year, this is what happens:
 

I arrived at Mont Saint Michel at 11 am. I had to make my visit in about 2.5h in order to catch the return bus to Rennes, so I can finally catch my other bus to Paris. After arriving in the bus station at Mont Saint Michel, you have 3 options to get to the mountain: a free bus (~10 minutes), a paid charet (~25 minutes) or the classical way - à pied (~35 minutes).
Since I only had 2.5h and it was freezing cold (around 10 degrees and a strong wind), I chose the bus. Even when you see it from far away, the place is stunning. There are seagulls flying above the monastery and you feel the smell of the sea (even though the water actually belongs to the English Channel). If you ignore the military walking around with the big guns, everything is just perfect.

After passing through the gate, you can simply get lost on the tiny streets and narrow stairs. The whole mountain is actually a little town: they have a post office, a police station, restaurants, hotels and houses that people actually live in. There are also some souvenirs shops (I think 3 or 4 max), but they blend in really well (unlike shops from other medieval places such as Nessebar, BG).

You have to climb some stairs in order to get to the monastery, but the climb is not too long or too hard. Once you start climbing, you can basically get a view from everywhere and there are many paths you can follow. I even met some seagulls on my way up. I won't describe the surroundings, I am just gonna let the pictures speak for themselves.

The ticket for entering the monastery is 10€ for adults and there is a free entrance for people under 26 (and many other categories that I don't remember). Also you can get an audioguide

for an extra fee of 3€. I am a big fan of audioguides, I think it gets you through a better understanding of the things you're seeing but because I had a limited time to spend there, I decided to skip the audioguide and just do some reading at home. The history of the monastery starts in the 8th century when the first church was built on the mountain. Over the next centuries, the building was extended. 

By the 14th century, due to the Hundred Years War, military constructions were added in order to enable the monastery to resist against a siege lasting 30 years. Later in time, during the French Revolution and Empire, the Abbey was turned into a prison and only in 1966 became a religious edifice once again.

Food
When it comes to food, I have to say that I love fish and sea fruits a lot, so I try not to miss an opportunity to eat in a restaurant located on a shore. This time I went for mussels with cream sauce and French fries (each trip is like a cheat weekend for me, basically that 20% of 80/20 that keeps me alive).
After getting back to Rennes, I had 2 more hours before my departure for Paris. When I planned the trip, I read a lot of good things about a traditional dessert: Kouign-Amann. It is a round crusty cake, made with bread dough, containing layers of butter and sugar folded in. With a diameter of only 10 cm, this dessert is packed with around 400 kcals/serving. The internet also provided me with a pro-tip: don't buy it from a supermarket, find a home-made (fait-maison) one in a boulangerie (I am gonna keep using the french word because nothing in the world can compare with the French boulangerie).
So I started looking for a boulangerie. Yesterday I had seen one that was selling Kouign-

Amann, but I told myself that a crêpe was more than enough for one day, so I saved the traditional dessert for today. Surprise, the boulangeries are closed on Sunday. Like almost all the stores. So I just started walking in the rain looking for a boulangerie. When I finally found one, the cashier hit me with the bad news: "we don't sell traditional desserts in here". Since it was so cold outside and it was raining so bad, I settled for a less traditional muffin and a green tea. After that, I still had a lot of time till my departure hour, so I decided to look for another boulangerie that hopefully will sell my beloved dessert. After wandering around in the rain for 20 minutes or so, I arrived at Augustin boulangerie (rue de la Monnaie) which had just run out of Kouign-Amann *tears*. The girl proposed me a Far breton, another traditional dessert. At least it was something traditional, so then I could actually say that I went to Brittany and ate a traditional dessert. The Far breton didn't disappoint at all. It was not very sweet and the texture was totally different to any cake I had eaten before. Now that my tasting buds were clearly happier, I decided to walk to the bus station since I had had 2 desserts and hadn't actually walked enough so I can deserve them.

It was raining hard, freezing cold and I managed to step in puddles three times in a row like a pro. When I was 100m away from the station, I saw another open boulangerie (L'épicerie de Joseph) shinning among all the closed shops around it. So I decided to see how my luck was doing at that time. I entered and I finally saw it, lying there, waiting for me. THE KOUIGN-AMANN ITSELF. The cashier had no idea why I was so happy and I bet neither my glycemia ever knew what hit it. After walking in the rain for about an hour, I finally got to taste the famous Breton dessert. Man, that shit was pure heaven. Rainbow in my mouth. Basically I went from a cheat weekend to a "three desserts cheat hour". But I regret nothing. 

In the end, I am going to talk a little bit about what I didn't like about Rennes. Compared to Paris, I found it more insecure. There are lots of homeless people, but in here they actually come to you and ask you for money directly. Politely, but still. Also I've seen people who were not begging for money, but you clearly wouldn't want to be closer than 20m from them. An old man who seemed to be a tourist offered to take a picture of me with a statue and then asked me if I wanted him to show me around and maybe go out that night. That never happened to me in Paris. Also most of the streets were pretty dirty. Not that Paris is the capital of cleanliness, but I find Rennes clearly dirtier than Paris. 

All in all, I could say the city is nice, but not amazing. Personally, I liked Rouen way better. Yes, it is a nice place to visit, but I think one weekend is enough to cover everything. And it is a lot easier if you have a car or rent one. On the other hand, Mont Saint Michel is one hell of a place and I am more than happy I finally got to see it. It was on my bucket list for a long time and I clearly would visit it again in this lifetime, hopefully with a better weather and without any time constraints (maybe to also see it covered by waters). After all, there was only one bad thing about Mont Saint Michel: it is very, very, very crowded. But that is understandable since it is one of the most popular visiting sites in France. You'll just have to get over that and enjoy your visit. 

If you got until here, I kindly thank you for your patience and I hope I managed to provide you with useful information. Also I am open to any questions and suggestions related to the topic. Have a nice day! 😊