Dehors en Rennes

(Outside in Rennes)
Timeframe: Nov 8, 2008

This post will be a lot more picture heavy than the previous ones. I didn't do anything all that fun, but did get a feel for the city of Rennes. Basically I spent the day wandering the streets and taking pictures.

St. Joan-of-Arc:

I started at the Church of St. Joan which is the closest church to where I currently live. I saw it a few times as I was walking towards Center and I figured that it'd be easiest to get to. I thought it was a little odd that the front door was actually open, but there was another door inside that made it so I couldn't go inside the nave. It looked like it was actually used every Sunday. There was a sign up for something from 14h to 17:30h, but I was downtown during that period so I don't know exactly what it was for.

Jardin des Plantes Tharbor:
Garden of Plants Tharbor

This is a park that Andrea (the lady who got me my apartment) told me that she really liked. It's fairly large (not Central Park, but still ... ) and has grass all over. I think the one end (the first picture) is supposed to be a rose garden, perhaps even a rose preserve with lots of different types of roses. Of course, considering it's November and 40 degrees outside, there weren't many roses to be seen.


They also had a huge birdhouse set up in the middle of the park (see picture above). I don't know why exactly they created it. There were a lot of little birds inside though. Even some fairly brightly colored ones. It seems as if they can go inside the central column when it gets cold.

And just for Geoff (brother), I saw this one thing here that might have reminded him of Seoul.


Notre Dame de Rennes:

Right on the edge of the park was another cathedral, the Notre Dame cathedral of Rennes. This one actually let me in to take pictures of the inside. No one was actually inside the cathedral considering it was Saturday, so I was able to get a lot of pictures without disturbing anyone.






Centre:

After checking out the Notre Dame cathedral I wandered around downtown until it started to rain. Apparently this is where people actually hang out, considering they now actually show up in my pictures.






La Gare de Rennes:
The Train Station of Rennes

After eating a banana-chocolate-Chantilly crepe (apparently Chantilly is a fancy word -- or a french one -- for whipped cream) to get out of the rain I noticed that I had wandered very close to the train station. Since at some point I want to take the TGV into Paris, I figured I'd stop by and see if there was any good deals. Apparently the web site I found in the states was the right one because the cost was basically the same (about 100 €). I think maybe I'll head to Paris next Saturday if the it looks like it's not going to be pouring rain the whole day.



Well that's Rennes. I don't know if it's like other French cities or not. But it does seem very European to me.