Tourist information -
Rennes
Rennes is - outwardly at least - uncharacteristic
of the province, with its Neoclassical layout and pompous major
buildings. What potential it had to be a picturesque tourist spot
was destroyed in 1720, when a drunken carpenter managed to set light
to virtually the whole city. Only the area known as Les Lices ,
at the junction of the canalized Ille and the River Vilaine, was
undamaged. The remodelling of the rest of the city was handed over
to Parisian architects, not in deference to the capital but in an
attempt to rival it. The result, on the north side of the river
at any rate, is something of a patchwork quilt, consisting of grand
eighteenth-century public squares interspersed with intimate little
alleys of half-timbered houses. It's quite a pleasant city to stroll
around for half a day, but it lacks a cohesive personality.
Rennes' surviving medieval quarter , bordered by the canal to the
west and the river to the south, radiates from Porte Mordelaise
, the old ceremonial entrance to the city. Just to the northeast
of the porte, the place des Lices , nowadays dominated by two empty
market halls, was originally the venue for tournaments - that is,
jousting "lists". It was here, in 1337, that the hitherto
unknown Bertrand du Guesclin, then aged 17, fought and defeated
several older opponents. This set him on his career as a soldier,
during which he was to save Rennes when it was under siege by the
English. However, after the Bretons were defeated at Auray in 1364,
he fought for the French, and twice invaded Brittany.
The one central building to escape the 1720 fire was the Palais
de Justice on rue Hoche downtown. Ironically, however, the Palais
was all but ruined by a major conflagration in 1994; the exact circumstances
remain somewhat mysterious, but it's thought the blaze was sparked
by a stray flare set off during a demonstration by Breton fishermen.
Since then, the entire structure has been rebuilt and restored,
and is once more topped by an impressive array of gleaming gilded
statues.
If you head south from the Palais de Justice, you'll soon reach
the River Vilaine , which flows through the centre of Rennes, narrowly
confined into a steep-sided channel. The south bank of the river
is every bit as busy, if not busier, than the north, and at 20 quai
Émile-Zola on the south bank a former university building
houses the city's Musée des Beaux Arts (daily except Tues
10am-noon & 2-6pm;). Unfortunately many of its finest artworks
- which include drawings by Leonardo da Vinci, Botticelli, Fra Lippo
Lippi and Dürer - are not usually on public display. Instead
you'll find a number of indifferent Impressionist views of Normandy
by the likes of Boudin and Sisley, interspersed with the occasional
treasure such as Pieter Boel's startlingly contemporary-looking
seventeenth-century animal studies, Veronese's depiction of a flying
Perseus Rescuing Andromeda , and Pierre-Paul Rubens' Tiger Hunt
, enlivened by the occasional lion. The same building was long home
also to the Musée de Bretagne, covering the history and culture
of Brittany, which has been closed for several years while its exhibits
are moved to a new, high-tech museum, due to open on a separate
site.
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