Rennes

Rennes is a city in the east of Brittany in northwestern France at the confluence of the Ille and the Vilaine. Rennes is the prefecture of the region of Brittany, as well as the Ille-et-Vilaine department. In 2017, the urban area had a population of 357,327 inhabitants, and the larger metropolitan area had 739,974 inhabitants. The inhabitants of Rennes are called Rennais/Rennaises in French.

Rennes's history goes back more than 2,000 years, at a time when it was a small Gallic village named Condate. Together with Vannes and Nantes, it was one of the major cities of the ancient Duchy of Brittany. From the early sixteenth century until the French Revolution, Rennes was a parliamentary, administrative and garrison city of the historic province of Brittany of the Kingdom of France as evidenced by its 17th century Parliament's Palace. Rennes played an important role in the Stamped Paper Revolt (Revolt of the papier timbre) in 1675. After the destructive fire of 1720, the medieval wooden center of the city was partially rebuilt in stone. Remaining mostly rural until the Second World War, Rennes really developed in the twentieth century.

Since the 1950s, Rennes has grown in importance through rural flight and its modern industrial development, partly automotive. The city developed extensive building plans to accommodate upwards of 200,000 inhabitants. During the 1980s, Rennes became one of the main centres in telecommunication and high technology industry. It is now a significant digital innovation centre in France. In 2002, Rennes became the smallest city in the world to have a Metro line.

Labeled a city of art and history, it has preserved an important medieval and classical heritage within its historic center with over 90 buildings protected as historic monuments. With more than 66,000 students in 2016, it is also the eighth-largest university campus of France. In 2018, L'Express named Rennes as "the most liveable city in France".

Since 2015, Rennes is divided into 6 cantons and 12 quarters.

Geography

The ancient centre of the town is built on a hill, with the north side being more elevated than the south side. It is at the confluence of two rivers: the Ille and the Vilaine.

Rennes is located on the European atlantic arc, 50 km from the English Channel (near Saint-Malo, Dinard, and Mont Saint-Michel).

Rennes has the distinction of having a significant Green Belt around its ring road. This Green Belt is a protected area between the city proper (rather dense) and the rest of its urban area (rather rural).

Climate
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 larger 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.

Population
In 2018, the inner population of the city was of 221,272 inhabitants, the Rennes intercommunal structure connecting Rennes with 42 nearby suburbs (named Rennes Metropole) counted 450,593 inhabitants and the metropolitan area counted nearly 750,000 inhabitants.

Rennes has the second fastest-growing metropolitan area in France after Toulouse and before Montpellier, Bordeaux and Nantes.

The inhabitants of Rennes are called Rennais in French.

Sights
Rennes is classified as a city of art and history.

Historic centre
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 southern part, the poorest at this time, was not rebuilt.

Due to the presence of the parlement de Bretagne, many "hotels particuliers" were built in the northern part, the richest in the 18th century. Most of the 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 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 plaza around is built on the classical architecture.

On the west, the Place de la Mairie (City Hall Plaza).
Opera
On the east, at the end of the Rue Saint-Georges with traditional half-timbered houses

The Place des Lices is lined by hotels particuliers with the place Railler-du-Baty, is the location of the weekly big market, the marche des Lices.

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

Hotel de Blossac
There are 16th century polychrome wooden busts on the facade of 20, Rue du Chapitre.
On this era are the former St. Yves chapel, now the tourism office and a museum about the historical development of Rennes and the Basilica Saint-Sauveur.

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

Saint-Aubin Church, built in the beginning of the 20th century

Jacobite convent, the convention centre
South-western, La Rue Saint-Michel nicknamed Rue de La Soif (Road of Thirst) because there are bars all along this street.

South-eastern, the Champ-Jacquet square, with Renaissance buildings and a statue of mayor Jean Leperdit ripping up a conscription list.

East: Thabor park area
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.

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

South of the Vilaine
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 (Musee de Bretagne), the regional library Bibliothèque de Rennes Metropole with six floors, and the Espace des Sciences science centre with a planetarium.

At Place Honore 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 Pre-Botte, which was the prior location of Ouest-Éclair, and then of Ouest-France, a premier 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.

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

There are two halls of the printer, Oberthür, 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 ch√¢teau, is situated to the south of the city in Blosne Quarter (Brequigny).

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'Universite de Rennes).

Economy

Local economy includes car manufacturing, telecommunications, digital sector and agrofood.

Rennes is known to be one of the most festive cities of France. It invests heavily in arts and culture and a number of its festivals (such as the music festival Les Transmusicales, Les Tombees de la Nuit, Mythos, Stunfest (fighting game competition) and Travelling (a cinematic festival)) are well known throughout France. During the 80s, Rennes was often cited as the French town of rock and new wave music. Rennes is well equipped with musical facilities:

Museums and exhibition places
There are also five museums in Rennes:

Musee des Beaux Arts (Museum of Fine Arts of Rennes). This art museum holds many works by the sculptor Pierre Charles Lenoir
Musee de Bretagne (Museum of Brittany) at the Champs Libres, together with the 'espace of sciences' and a planetarium.
Museum of Farming and Rennes Countryside at Bintinais, south of Rennes.
Musee des Transmissions (Museum of Broadcasting) at Cesson-Sevigne, east of Rennes centre.
FRAC Bretagne Fond Regional d'Art contemporain (Regional Fund for Contemporary Art).
In addition to this list, there are art facilities such as 40mcube exhibition space or the centre for contemporary art La Criee. There are also miscellaneous cultural places. Surrounding cities house many other cultural venues.

Media
Rennes was one of the first towns 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 or magazines (Ouest-France, Le Mensuel de Rennes, Place Publique, 20 Minutes Rennes).

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 regional migrants coming from the western part of the region.

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

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.

Local food specialties from Rennes include: Cider and galette with eggs, ham and cheese, Breton galette.
Many other Breton specialties (seafood, milk, vegetables, cheese, meat) are seen at the Marche des Lices, a weekly market held every Saturday morning (one of the most important markets in France).

Education

The Rennes agglomeration has a large student population (around 63,000).

The city has two main universities; Universite de Rennes 1, which offers courses in science, technology, medicine, philosophy, law, management, and economics, and Universite Rennes 2, which has courses in the arts, literature, languages, communication, human and social sciences, and sport. The official website of Universite Rennes 2 identifies that facility as "the largest research and higher learning institution in Arts, Literature, Languages, Social Sciences and Humanities in the West of France."

The computer science and applied mathematics research institute, IRISA, is located on the campus of the Universite des Sciences, near Cesson-Sevigne. The Delegation Generale pour l'Armement (defence procurement agency) operates the CELAR research centre, dedicated to electronics and computing, in Bruz, a neighbouring town.

Catholic University of Rennes (Institut Catholique de Rennes) is a Catholic university founded in 1989.

The city is also home to an American study abroad program for high school students, School Year Abroad, in which students are immersed in French culture through five classes in the language and a nine-month home stay.

Rennes has well-developed national road, rail and air links.

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 euro 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.

Cycling
Rennes provides other modes of local transport: a bike sharing system with 900 bicycles (named velo STAR). Rennes created the first system of modern French bike sharing (1998).

Roads
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, it has 2 lanes each way (sometimes 3 lanes) and 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.

Railway
Rennes has a major French railway station, the Gare de Rennes, opened in 1857. Since 2 July 2017, it is now one hour twenty-seven minutes by TGV high-speed train from Paris (after the extension of the High Speed Rail Line. Train service is available to other big 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, Vitre, Saint-Brieuc, Vannes, Laval, Brest and many other regional cities. It is served by Gares station on the VAL Rennes Metro.

Airport
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.
from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rennes