Photos from Rennes
Parlement de Bretagneattraction
+1Le Fournil Vasselotshopping
POUTINEBROSrestaurant
+1Current conditions and the practical reference material that helps turn the saved places into a trip.
7-day forecast from Open-Meteo. UV badges flag days when sun protection matters (3 and above is moderate; 8 and above is risk territory for unprotected fair skin within 30 minutes).
Typical highs around 23°C, lows around 12°C. The drier end of the year.
Typical highs around 10°C, lows around 2°C.
Public holidays from Nager.Date.
Public-transit operators within 8 km of the city center. Click through to each operator’s site for routes, fares, and tickets.
Rennes is a city in the east of Brittany in Northwestern France at the confluence of the rivers Ille and Vilaine. Rennes is the prefecture of the Brittany region and Ille-et-Vilaine department. In 2023, the city had a population of 230,890 inhabitants, while the larger metropolitan area is the 10th most populated in France with a population of 789,516. The inhabitants of Rennes are called Rennais (masculine) and Rennaises (feminine) in French.
The links below support the changing or licensed reference material on this page. Personal notes and ordinary geographic facts are not footnoted individually.
Monthly highs, lows, rainfall — long-term averages, NASA POWER.
Operators and modes are aggregated from individual transit-agency GTFS feeds. Route classifications come from each feed’s route type codes.
Maps, image licenses, and the full dataset registry are listed in site credits.
My Rennes travel guide. The half-timbered old town, the huge Saturday market at Place des Lices, where to stay, and where to eat.
Rennes is the capital of Brittany, a lively university city with a compact old town of leaning half-timbered houses and one of the biggest food markets in France. The old town, Parlement, gardens, and Saturday market form the central route.
Planning brief
Rennes is the capital of Brittany, a city of about 220,000 in northwest France. It carries a compact medieval old town of leaning half-timbered houses, grand civic buildings, and one of the largest food markets in the country, and a big student population keeps it lively. The central sights form a compact route, with wider regional connections beyond it.
The half-timbered old town, the squares, and the parks form the central route. Saturday morning brings the great market, and Rennes is an easy base for Brittany.
Streets of timber-framed medieval houses, rebuilt in parts after a 1720 fire, with the Parlement de Bretagne the grand survivor.
The Marche des Lices on Saturday morning is one of the largest markets in France. If the trip can flex, build it around that morning.
Rennes is the rail and road hub of the region, an easy launch point for the Breton coast, Saint-Malo, and Mont-Saint-Michel.
Rennes is on France's high-speed rail network, with TGV trains from Paris in about an hour and a half. Rennes station is a short walk or metro ride from the old town.
Rennes has a small airport, and the city is the natural rail and road hub for the rest of Brittany. In the city, a two-line metro and a walkable center mean you do not need a car.
The Rennes Metro is overbuilt in the best way for a city this size: automated, frequent, and easy from the station into the center. Use it for the station-to-old-town hop, then walk the compact core.
Stay in or near the old town, the medieval center of timber-framed streets. From there the squares, the market, and the restaurants are all on foot, and the station is a short metro ride away.
The atlas does not yet carry hotel pins for Rennes, so book on the usual sites and read recent reviews for the property.
The old town is the draw, a knot of streets lined with leaning half-timbered medieval houses, partly rebuilt after a major fire in 1720. The grand survivor of that fire is the Parlement de Bretagne, the 17th-century seat of the Breton parliament, restored after a later fire and open for visits. Rennes Cathedral and a string of squares fill out the center, and the Thabor gardens, a large formal park, sit just east of it.
The other essential is the market. The Marché des Lices, held at the Place des Lices on Saturday mornings, is among the largest in France, a sprawl of Breton produce, seafood, cheese, and the local galette-saucisse, the buckwheat-crepe-wrapped sausage eaten while walking. If the trip can flex, build it around a Saturday.
Rennes eats on Breton cooking: savory buckwheat galettes and sweet crêpes, seafood from the nearby coast, salted butter and caramel, and cider rather than wine as the regional drink.
| Spot | What it is |
|---|---|
| La Cocotte d'Isidore | A restaurant |
| Barex'po | A restaurant |
| La Mirlitantouille | A restaurant |
| Le 17.45 | A spot for sharing boards |
