RENNES

'Rennes' (Gallo: ''Resnn'', ) is a city of northwestern France, in the east of Brittany. Rennes is the capital of the Bretagne ''région'', as well as the ''préfecture'' of the Ille-et-Vilaine ''département''.
Population of the city (commune) of Rennes at the 1999 census was 206,229 inhabitants (209,100 inhabitants as of February 2004 estimates). Population of the whole metropolitan area (French: ''aire urbaine'') at the 1999 census was 521,188 inhabitants, and 588,684 inhabitants as of 2007 estimate. Inhabitants of Rennes are called Rennais.

Contents

Administration

Geography

Sights

Historic Centre

South of the Vilaine

Also

History

Roman era

Middle Ages

Modern era

Economy

Culture

Miscellaneous

Colleges, universities and research facilities

Transportation

Twinned towns

Broadcasting facilities

External links

Administration

The current mayor of Rennes is Edmond Hervé, incumbent since 1977, when he replaced Henri Fréville. His "mairie" (''mayor's office'') is right in the centre of Rennes.
Rennes is divided into 11 cantons:

★ Le canton de Rennes-Bréquigny (15 397 inhabitants)

★ Le canton de Rennes-Centre (19 017 inhabitants)

★ Le canton de Rennes-Centre-Ouest (21 264 inhabitants)

★ Le canton de Rennes-Centre-Sud (15 774 inhabitants)

★ Le canton de Rennes-Est (20 323 inhabitants)

★ Le canton de Rennes-le-Blosne (21 151 inhabitants)

★ Le canton de Rennes-Nord (21 845 inhabitants)

★ Le canton de Rennes-Nord-Est (18 224 inhabitants)

★ Le canton de Rennes-Nord-Ouest parts of Rennes and communes of Gévezé, Pacé and Parthenay-de-Bretagne (28 130 inhabitants)

★ Le canton de Rennes-Sud-Est parts of Rennes and communes of Chantepie and Vern-sur-Seiche (33 459 inhabitants)

★ Le canton de Rennes-Sud-Ouest parts of Rennes and communes of Saint-Jacques-de-la-Lande and Vezin-le-Coquet (28 707 inhabitants)

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 meeting point of two rivers: the Ille and the Vilaine.

Sights

Rennes is classified as a city of art and history.It's also Known for it's dairy products.pop

Historic Centre

★ The ''Parlement de Bretagne'' (Parliament of Brittany, Plasenn Breujoù Breizh) is arguably the most famous building in Rennes built at the 17th century. It was rebuilt after a terrible fire in 1994. It houses the Rennes court of appeal.

★ Colorful traditional timber frame houses are situated primarily along the roads 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.

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★ Polychromatic wooden busts from the 16th century, in the façade of 20 rue du Chapitre.

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★ Basilica Saint-Sauveur

★ Place des Lices and surrounding area

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★ Les Halles Martenot of the 19th century, built between 1868 and 1871 by Jean-Baptiste Martenot, host the market on Saturday mornings (the third largest market in France).

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★ The Mordelaises Gate (Portes Mordelaises), chatelet with two towers and a drawbridge

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★ The remaining fortifications of the 3rd century

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★ The Jehan Duchesne tower of the 15th century, on rue Nantaise

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★ The 15th century ramparts east of the Gallo-Roman fortifications, in place Rallier-du-Baty.

★ The former St. Yves chapel, now the tourist bureau and a museum about historic Rennes development.

★ Place Saint-Anne (Plasenn Santez-Anna)

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★ Saint-Aubin Church

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★ Location of a former 14th century hospital

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★ Jacobite convent

★ La rue Saint-Michel nicknamed ''rue de la soif'' (''road of thirst'') because there are bars all along this street.

★ Area from Saint-Mélaine to Place Saint-Mélaine

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★ Notre-Dame en Saint-Mélaine Church,

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★ tower and transept from the 11th century Benedictine abbey of Saint-Mélaine

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★ 14th century Gothic arcades

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★ 17th century columnar façade

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★ bell tower topped with a gilded Virgin Mary (19th century)

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★ 17th century cloister

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★ Magnificent park, The Parc Thabor, (formal French garden, orangerie, rose garden, aviary), on 10 hectares of land, built between 1860 and 1867.


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★ The 17th century promenade "la Motte à Madame", and a monumental stair overlooking the rue de Paris entrance to the Thabor.

★ Rue Saint-Georges and rue Gambetta

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★ 1920's Saint George Municipal Pool, with mosaics

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★ Saint George Palace, and its garden

★ Place de la Mairie (City Hall Plaza, Plasenn Ti Ker)

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★ City Hall

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★ Opera

★ Place du Vau-Saint-Germain

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★ Vau de Saint-Germain Church

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★ Saint-Germain footbridge, 20th century wood and metal construction to link the plaza with Émile Zola Quay.

★ Place du Champ-Jacquet

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★ statue of Leperdit ripping up a conscription list.

South of the Vilaine

★ Quai Émile Zola (Émile Zola Quay), next to the Vilaine River:

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★ The Fine Arts Museum

★ Esplanade Charles de Gaulle :

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★ The Brittany Museum , together with the regional library on six levels and the science centre with a planetarium, all in a single building, the Champs Libres designed by the architect Christian de Portzamparc.

★ rue du Pré-Botté :

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★ prior location of Ouest-Éclair, then of Ouest-France, premier daily regional newspaper; restored and now occupied by the Mercure hotel.

★ rue Duhamel

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★ the large mills, constructed on each side of the south branch of the Vilaine in 1895 and 1902.

★ Place Honoré Commeurec:

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★ Les Halles centrales, covered market of 1922, a part converted into contemporary art gallery.

Also

★ North-west, near the rue de Saint-Malo

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★ the sluices of the canal d'Ille-et-Rance of 1843

★ East of the city, rue de Paris

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★ The two halls of the printer Oberthür, built by par Marthenot between 1870 and 1895.

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★ Oberthür Park, the second biggest garden in the city.

★ South, Blosne Quarter (Bréquigny)

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★ The manor of the Haute-Chalais (17th century), granite chateau

History

Main articles: History of Rennes

Rennes is the capital of the région of Brittany, in France, the seat of the 'préfecture de région' and of the 'conseil régional'. It has a long history due to its location at the confluence of two rivers.
The eastern Armorican people of Redones founded Condate— an ancient Celtic word meaning confluent— at the confluence of the Ille and Vilaine rivers and made it the capital of a territory that extended to the Bay of Mont Saint-Michel. The name of the city of Redon also reflects that of the Redones. Early in the 1st century BCE, they adopted the Greek and Roman practice of issuing coinage [1], adapting the widely-imitated gold staters of Philip II of Macedon, in the characteristic Celtic coin metal alloy called billion. Without inscriptions, as the Celtic practice was, the Redones coinage features a charioteer whose pony has a human head. Large hoards of their coins were unearthed in the "treasure of Amanlis" found in June 1835 and that of Saint-Jacques-de-la-Lande, discovered in February 1941. The Museum at Rennes contains a large representative collection.
They joined the Gaulish coalition against Rome in 57 BCE, which was suppressed by Crassus. The following year, Roman emissaries were held hostage by the Redones, which obliged Julius Caesar to intervene in Armorica and suppress the rebels, and the following year to cross the Channel to discourage further support of the Redones by the Britons. In 52 the Redones responded to the call of Vercingetorix to furnish a large contingent of warriors (Caesar, Gallic Wars II.34; VII.75)

Roman era

In the Roman era, Condate became Condate Riedonum, capital of civitas riedonum
The oldest known rennais is Titus Flavius Postuminus, known to us from his steles found in Rennes in 1968. As indicated by his name, he would have been born under the Flavian dynasty, under the reign of Titus, i.e. between 79 and 81 AD. One of the steles tell us, in Latin, that he took charge over all the public affairs in the Civitas Riedonum. He was twice duumvir and flamine for life for Mars Mullo.
During the Roman era, the strategic position of the town contributed to its importance. To the west the principal Roman route, via Osismii stretched from Condate to Vorgium (modern Carhaix).
In the year 275, the threat of barbarians led to the erection of a robust brick wall around Rennes. Rennes became known as the "red town".
Once threatened by the danger of bagaudes at the end of the Roman Empire in the 5th century, the Armorican peninsula, including Brittany and therefore Rennes, made up the last of the stronghold of the western Roman Empire. The invincible Armorican Romans held their ground against Clovis I, who occupied most of Alamans, then the Visigoths. Melaine, the bishop of Rennes, played an important role in the peace treaty between the Franks and the Armoricans in the year 497. He famously declared "Il faut faire la paix entre chrétiens" ("Peace must be made between Christians").

Middle Ages

Starting in the fifth century, Bretons occupied the western part of the Armorican penensula, which started to be called little Britain, and then Brittany, while the Franks took the rest of Armorica. To contain the expansion and avoid Breton incursions, the Carolingians instituted a Breton march, composed of the counties of Rennes, Nantes, and Vannes.
These marches were entirely absorbed by the Breton Kingdom in the ninth century, and Rennes became Breton in 851. Rennes would later become the capital of Ducal Brittany.
During the Breton War of Succession, in 1356 and 1357, the city was laid siege to by Henry of Grosmont, the Duke of Lancaster, cousin of the English king, but Bertrand du Guesclin slipped into the city and took over the resistance, which would ultimately be victorious. After nearly a year, Lancaster renounced the English siege in 1357.

In 1491, it was the French army of Charles VIII, led by his general, La Trémoïlle, that unsuccessfully attacked Rennes. Brittany having already capitulated elsewhere, Rennes alone still resisted. The defenders of Rennes were determined to resist to the death, but the Duchess Anne of Brittany chose instead to negotiate. By her marriage to Charles VIII, she made Brittany a part of France. Anne jealously guarded Brittany's autonomy, but the duchy was eventually fully merged with the French crown by her daughter Claude of France.

Modern era

In 1857 the Rennes train station was built, which gradually led to the southward sprawl of the town. In 1899 Alfred Dreyfus' trial in Rennes caused a national commotion.
During World War II Rennes suffered a heavy bombing from three German airplanes which caused 1,000 deaths because of an ammunition train alongside French and English troop trains and a refugee train as well on the marshalling yard. The next day, June 18 1940, German troops entered the city which underwent heavy bombings in 1943 (March and May) and 1944 (June) which caused 1,000 deaths and Patton's army freed the capital of Brittany on August 4, just after German troops had blown up the bridges before leaving, thus adding further damage. About 50,000 German prisoners had to be kept in 4 camps in a city of 100,000 inhabitants at the time.
From 1954 onwards the city developed large building plans to accommodate a planned 520,000 inhabitants, making it the third fastest-growing city in France after Toulouse and Montpellier (1999 census).

Economy

Local industries include car manufacturing and telecommunications. Citroën, currently the largest employer of the population of Rennes, opened a manufacturing plant at Rennes La Janais in 1961. Thomson employs over 1,000.
Rennes is also one of first Technopoles in France that were established in an effort to stimulate the economies of regions other than Paris during the Aménagement du territoire.

Culture

Rennes invests heavily in arts and culture and a number of its festivals (such as the music festival ''Les Transmusicales'', ''les Tombées de la Nuit'' and ''Travelling (a cinematic festival)'') are well known throughout France.
Rennes was one of the first towns in France to have its own television channel 'TV Rennes', created in 1987.
In Rennes is the only Institut Franco-Américain in France.
Rennes is home to Stade Rennais FC, who play at Route de Lorient stadium, 31,000 seats in the French Division One.
There are 4 museums in Rennes : musée des beaux arts (museum of fine arts), musée de Bretagne (museum of Brittany) at the Champs Libres, together with le 'espace of sciences' and a planetarium), Museum of farming and Rennes countryside at la Bintinais, south of Rennes, museum of transmissions at Cesson.

Miscellaneous

Colleges, universities and research facilities

The Rennes agglomeration has a large student population (around 60,000).
The city has two main universities:

★ ''Université de Rennes 1'' [1]: science, technology, medicine, philosophy, law, management and economics-based centre

★ ''Université de Rennes 2'' [2]: the arts, literature, languages, communication, human and social sciences, sport
In addition:

★ The ''École Normale Supérieure de Cachan'' has a branch on the Ker Lann campus, just outside Rennes.

★ An ''École Supérieure'' for political science is based in Rennes called the ''Institut d'études politiques de Rennes'' [3]

★ The computer science and applied mathematics research institute IRISA is in the suburbs of Rennes.

★ The ''Délégation Générale pour l'Armement'' (defense procurement agency) operates the CELAR research center, dedicated to electronics and computing, in Bruz, a suburb.

★ The ''École Supérieure d'Électricité'' - Supélec has a branch in the east of the city (Cesson-Sévigné).

★ The ''grande école'' Institut National des Sciences Appliquées

★ The '' école supérieure de commerce de Rennes, school of business

Transportation

Rennes has well developed national road, rail and air links and is two hours by TGV from Paris. Local transport is based primarily on an extensive bus network (38 different lines) and a metro line that was inaugurated in March 2002 and cost €500 millions to build. The driverless Rennes Metro is 9.4 km in length and has 15 stations, including one designed by architect Norman Foster. Rennes is one of the smallest cities in the world to have a metro.
A second metro line is being planned, it should be operational by 2018, and the construction will begin in 2013.^[1]
(reference is in French).
See also: Gare de Rennes
Rennes is also served by an airport, Rennes-St. Jacques Airport, located 4.5 miles from the center to the south-west in the commune Saint-Jacques-de-la-Lande.

Twinned towns

These twinned towns are inscribed on the bridge over the central canal of Rennes:

★ Exeter (UK) since 1957.

★ Rochester (New York, USA) since 1958.

★ Erlangen (Germany) since 1964.

★ Brno (Czech Republic) since 1965.

★ Sendai (Miyagi, Japan) since 1967.

★ Leuven (Belgium) since 1980.

★ Cork (Ireland) since 1982.

★ Setif (Algeria) since 1982.

★ Rennes-les-Bains (Aude, France) since 1985.

★ Jinan (Shandong, China) since 1985.

★ Almaty (Kazakhstan) since 1991.

★ Poznań (Poland) since 1998.

★ Sibiu (Romania) since 1999.

★ Plateau Dogon (Mali) since 1999

Broadcasting facilities

★ Transmitter Rennes-Thourie

External links

★ City council website

★ Parlement de Bretagne

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★ Photos of Rennes

★ Rennes for visitors - In English

★ Tripping diary - Rennes

★ Rennes improvisation theatre

★ Rennes in Google Maps

★ Photos Rennes

★ Going out in Rennes