Rennes airport [url=http://www.rennes.aeroport.fr/]]has budget flights to and from [[Southampton[/url]], [wiki=623145997cee6352dace475eaf530fff]Belfast[/wiki], [wiki=269cb914b20d49fb2f7cc5b1f602b7aa]Birmingham[/wiki] and [wiki=9c3602a7ac862a2a70cfb3eeb74d25d8]Exeter[/wiki] thanks to Flybe [url=http://www.flybe.com/],]or [[Dublin[/url]] and [wiki=002c887b8369e59e6f58a5d06a8d0817]Cork[/wiki] with Aerlingus [url=http://www.aerlingus.com/]which]has good offers. The airport is less than 5km away from the city center, and bus No 57 links it with the city.
Dinard/Pleurtuit/Saint-Malo Airport. One hour away, Dinard's airport offers other cheap options, with for example a connection to London with Ryanair [http://www.ryanair.com[/url].
Gare de Rennes
The easiest way to get to Rennes from [wiki=e20d37a5d7fcc4c35be6fc18a8e71bfa]Paris[/wiki] is through Gare Montparnasse. There are TGVs almost every 30 minutes and the ride is 2hrs and 3 min. Tickets are available on [url=https://www.capitainetrain.com/]Capitaine Train[/url] (for international credit cards) or on the [url=http://www.voyages-sncf.com/leisure/fr/launch/home/]SNCF website[/url], and between 25 and 65 Euros for one way. If you're under 26 years old, and planning to travel in France by train, get the "carte 12-25" (49 €) which will offers you 50% off most of the time.
There are also direct trains, 4 a day, to Paris Charles De Gaulle airport, which arrives at Terminal 2, taking approximately 3 hours. The train to CDG terminates at Lille, taking 4 hours, from where it's possible to take a Eurostar to the UK or numberous connections to continental Europe.
The Rennes Train Station also provides train service to Nantes, Brest, Quimper, St. Brieuc, and other cites in Brittany.
It may be worth noting that the station does not have a coin locker or any other means of storing luggage, so travels considering visiting the city while passing through should be forewarned.
The cheapest way will be covoiturage or car-sharing. A lot of websites offer information about people wishing to share their car and budget. [url=http://www.covoiturage.fr/]Covoiturage.fr[/url], [url=http://123envoiture.com/recherche-resultats.php?recherche=rapide&ville_depart=paris&ville_arrivee=rennes&status=tous]123envoiture.com[/url], or [url=http://www.allostoprennes.com/]Allostop[/url] will help you out. Since 1968, traveling by car on motorways within Brittany is free.
Rennes has also an international and local bus station, right next to the rail station. This is where you can get information about Illenoo (see below) and where buses such as [url=http://www.eurolines.com]Eurolines[/url]/
Rennes has a very good public transport system, called Star([http://www.star.fr]).
If you're planning to buy a pass (weekly or longer), you'll need to go to one of the two agencies Place de la Republique and Place de la Mairie) to get a "Korrigo" card. Remember to bring a picture for employees to scan. It is a free electronic card on which your pass will be saved. Once you have it, just reload it anywhere tickets are sold.
Daily tickets can be bought for €3 a day, and are valid on both the bus and metro.
Star claims that its network has the cheapest prices in France, with a single ticket (valid for 60 min after validation for unlimited connections) costing €1.50.
Rennes offers more than 50 different bus routes and a metro, with 1 bus every 5 min for the metro and main bus lines at the peak hours. The hub of the network is at Republique, which feeds most of the 50 different routes. This bus and metro network connects all parts of Rennes, and so you're never far from a bus stop. All the bus stops conveniently have a map (une carte) of Rennes with all the lines on, and a timetable for the routes it provides, so there isn't much chance of getting lost.
The metro, called the VAL, has only one line with 15 stops and is 8.57 km long. It runs from one edge to the other in 16 min. It connects the main train station to the centre, Villejean university, the hospital, the town hall and more. It runs from 5:25 to 0:30, like the five main bus lines.
Rennes offers very good options for cyclists. With plenty of cycle lanes, the town has plenty of cyclists. For residents of the town and tourists, bikes known as the LE vélo STAR [http://www.levelostar.fr], can be borrowed from 81 stations all over the town. These bikes are not particularly good, but they work and have three gears, so its worth checking them out. You can buy a 1-day or 7-day-registration on the website or at ten stations in the centre (pay with your credit card) for €1 or €5, respectively. Once registered, you can get a bike as often as you want from any station by typing your personal account number and PIN. The first 30 minutes of every rental are free, so the trick is to return your bicycle just before 30 min at the next station and immediately borrow another one.
If you are after a pleasant cycling trip, check out the canal route, which is flat and not very hazardous.
Traffic in city center is heavy. Large areas are reserved for pedestrians and buses. Parking in the center is not free. You'll have to find an horodateur, never far away. Price will depend on the zone where you parked. 0,75 €/h and 2h40 maximum for green zone and 1,33 €/h with 1h33 maximum for red ones.
Since 2002, the best way to discover Rennes is by metro and its parcs-relais. These are car-parks located in metro stations on the outskirts such as Kennedy, Villejean in the north and Henri Freville, Triangle and La Poterie in the south. They're free if you use the metro.
Illenoo[url=http://www.iva-transport.fr/]]is a public service of the Conseil général d'Ille & Vilaine (Département level). It allows people to travel within the département (and a little bit outside) on 18 lines for a good price. For example, Rennes - St Malo €4.80 return for students under 26.
You can also go to Mont St Michel from Rennes, with regional bus line [http://www.destination-montsaintmichel.com[/url]. It is an express line, it takes 1h20 to go. Bus stop is in Bus station in Rennes (next to train station), and the stop in Mont St Michel is a the foot of Mont St Michel.
One highlight of Rennes, if you're after natural beauty and tranquility, is the Thabor. This park has a stunning collection of plantlife, including a large bed of hundreds of species of roses, tropical, African and European trees, other beautiful and rare plants, and offers the traveller a chance to see some budgies. There are cages with a dozen of different sorts of small colourful birds. To get to Parc Thabor from Republique station, take bus number 3 (direction St. Laurent) and get off at the Thabor stop. Or you can simply walk northestwards, it's 10 minutes away.
*Le Parlement
*Maison à colombages
[wiki=700d9d4463f7db61c1b697aab709e841]Mont Saint-Michel[/wiki] is a granite island located north-eastward of Rennes in the region of Basse-Normandie. It's the 3rd most visited monument in France, which will be under [url=http://www.projetmontsaintmichel.fr/en/]restoration[/url] until 2012. The main part of the island is the abbey of Mt St Michel.
If you're going there from Rennes, the easiest and more expensive way is to use keolis emeraude[url=http://www.keolis-emeraude.com/]]bus company. They'll charge you €11.40 each way, €8,60 for 16 to 25 year olds. But a cheaper option is to use the Illenoo public transport (see Get In), which costs €3 each way, but stops in [[Pontorson[/url]] (9 km south of Mt St Michel). From there, you can even hitch hike or use the Maneo bus link, which costs €2. Just make sure that the schedules line up so you're not stuck in Pontorson for 2+ hours...cute town but not much to do.
Anyhow, you get a 20% rebate in both cases if you're under 26 years old.
*'[wiki=88b06c8d8741e9fdb632d4a02931f986]Saint-Malo[/wiki]
*Etangs d'Apigné
*[wiki=2a345387a7d28db7054b9da5e5661f76]Dinan[/wiki]
*[wiki=7cc24fe61a916bc74025555ec573343b]Montfort sur Meu[/wiki]
*Cobac Parc
*Fougères
*Vilaine
*Canal d'Ille & Rance
*Foret de Rennes
*[wiki=c5f93963bcb60b404fbf107c8826f77a]Vitré[/wiki]
Every Saturday morning, from 6am to 1:30PM, there is a large food market in the centre of town, where you can buy low price fruit and veg, a vast array of fish, crêpes, galettes, fresh meat and other French delicacies such as wine, snails and cheeses. Le marché des Lices is always bustling with people trying to buy low-price groceries and meat. The market is based in the Place des Lices, an 8 minutes walk from the main bus station, Republique.
* Other markets take place every day in different neighborhoods
Mondays
Tuesdays
Le Blosne - Place de Zagreb - 7am / 1pm
Cleunay - Rue Jules Lallemand - 7am / 12.30pm
Maurepas- Place d'Erlangen - 7am / 12.30pm
Wednesdays
Thursdays
Jeanne d'Arc - Bd Alexis Carrel - 7am / 12.45pm
Bour L'Eveque - Square Simone Morand - 7am / 12.30pm
Fridays
Bréquigny - Place Albert Bayet - 7am / 12.30pm
Saturdays
Le Blosne - Place de Zagreb - 7am / 1pm
Les Lices - Place des Lices - 7am / 1.30pm
Sundays
FUN CLUB 35, [url=http://www.fun-club-35.com].]Need exercise after the afternoon spent in the center? Don't need to go far away. Get down Place Ste Anne on Rue d'Echange, make a left on rue de Dinan and make on right on rue Pierre Gourdel right after the Westport Inn. You'll find a tiny place to play squash (from 4 to 8€ per person for an hour) or dance Rock 'n Roll or salsa. The owner might speak a little bit too fast, but you'll find great prices and some nice people in there.
* Le Blizz, [url=http://www.leblizz.com[/url].]An ice rink which isn't too expensive. To get there, it's the number 3 bus, with Patinoire the required stop.
* Rennes football club, [http://www.staderennais.com[/url]. A team in the top French football league, and has its stadium in Rennes, with tickets for matches start from €8.
* Pools
[url=http://www.leschampslibres.com/]Les Champs Libres[/url] is a brand new building in which you'll find le musee de Bretagne, l'espace des Sciences and the bibliotheque municipale. It's a wonderful place where you can learn a lot about Rennes, about Brittany, and about sciences and history. There are a lot of exhibitions (temporary and permanent), forums, and debates. There's also an outside cafe overhanging Place Charles de Gaulle where you can meet people and talk about whatever you feel like. If you feel like reading newspapers, head to the room in front of you when you enter that building, choose your favourite one and sit with other peers. But if you want to have a nice look at the city centre, head to last floor of the public library and enjoy. Don't forget to be quiet or they'll remind you! If you don't feel like going to the movies, you can climb up to the planetarium (around 7€ for exposition and planetarium) and enjoy 1h30 of live "show" about space, stars, legends,... Check the schedule on their website for your favourite theme.
Fest-noz is a Breton, not French, word meaning festival of the night. It is a traditional ball where people of all generations meet, listen to traditional music, drink beer or chouchen, and dance [wiki=4b82bf027e95bc5f5724e8cbab658e1b]breton music[/wiki]. Most of them take place on Saturdays, but you can find some on Thursdays or fridays. You find them by looking at the posters on streets and in universities, but, there is a website that gathers most of Fest-Noz in Brittany.[http://www.fest-noz.net] It usually costs 5-8 euros, but bigger events as Yaouank (a huge fest-noz in Rennes, Oct or Nov) are little bit more expensive.
As students represent a quarter of Rennes' population, you will probably find people walking (or staggering) in the city centre. This is especially true on Thursdays which is traditionally students day, as many of them go back home on Friday for the week end. But for a few years, city centre residents have been complaining about heavy drinking and disturbances of the peace at night; so [url=http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bernadette_Malgorn]Bernadette Malgorn[/url] (former prefete of Ille et Vilaine) enforced the law and decided to close bars earlier. The result was that it drained all the people out at the same time, and created problems with the police for a few months. This is where associations, organizations and city hall intervened. The idea of opening concert halls and public places to occupy these young people by making play and games available gradually caught on. The concept, running during school time, is to propose four different free activities every Thursday during school time.[http://www.rennes.fr/jeudi]
*Dazibao organized by the CRIJ Bretagne opened from 10pm to 3am, is a meeting place. Discover new people, new music, multimedia, fair trade products, etc.
*Bulles d'Art is the time to discover local bands in concert halls or in the café-spectacle. Full ticket is 5€ for under 25.[http://www.crij-bretagne.com/crij_rennes]
*The Nuit découvertes (from 10pm to 2am) is to create, taste, exchange, play, move, try games, improvisation, visual art, music.
*The Nuit du Sport (from 10pm to 3am) opportunity to try innovative or new sports (kin ball, peteca, ultimate, speedminton, etc.).
(annual stock sale)
St Martin, autres, etonnante braderie de rennes
February
[url=http://www.travelling-festival.com/]Travelling[/url] and Travelling Junior. It's Rennes Métropole movie festival. Traveling explores a culture focusing on a city every year. 20089 edition will focus on Jerusalem and will take place from January 31st to the February 10th. The date changed from year to year so be sure to cheque.
*April
[url=http://www.festival-mythos.com/]Mythos[/url]. It's the festival of the arts of word. Tales, stories, french song,.. Next edition (2008) will take place from April 6th to the 12th.
*May
[url=http://www.rocknsolex.fr]Rock'n Solex[/url]. The oldest student festival of France. In 2007, it celebrated it's 40th birthday. This festival is a mix of music and [wiki=7041a7d6e25762c80c5e168c0df5cffe]solexs[/wiki]' race.
*July
[url=http://www.lestombeesdelanuit.com/]Les Tombées de la Nuit[/url]. It's an art festival where many spectacles take places in public places. Alternative, classic or traditional music, animations, expositions is the concept of that festival. It always take place the first week of july.
[url=http://www.crij-bretagne.com/qe2007/]Quartiers d'été[/url]. An outdoor festival organized by volunteer youngsters. Concerts, cinema, animations, games,... During the 3rd week of july.
*November
Yaouank. 3rd weekend of November
*December
[url=http://www.lestrans.com/]Les Transmusicales[/url]
http://www.tourismebretagne.com/fr/jeunes/sortir/festivals-bretagne.cfm
*May
[url=http://www.artrock.org/]Art Rock[/url] -
*July
[url=http://www.festivalduboutdumonde.com/]Festival du bout du monde[/url] -
[url=http://www.festival-terre-neuvas.com]Bobital[/url] -
[url=http://www.aupontdurock.com/]Au pont du Rock[/url] - Last week end, in Malestroit (Morbihan).
[url=http://www.vieillescharrues.asso.fr]Les vieilles charrues[/url] -
*August
[url=http://www.festival-interceltique.com/index_en.php]Festival interceltique de Lorient[/url]
[url=http://www.laroutedurock.com/]La Route du Rock[/url] -
There is a large underground shopping mall at Place du Colombier about 300m north west of the train station. The Metro stops there (Charles de Gaulle). C & A and Habitat are two of the stores that are in the mall.
*La Visitation is a new shopping mall located in the center close to Place Sainte Anne. You'll find two main stores; H&M and Saturn and some others. This little shopping mall links the Place Ste Anne to Place Hoche where is the law university.
*If you're looking for high budget shopping mall, les Galleries Lafayette located in the center on the quais (docks), almost Place de la Republique, are made for you. You'll find food, clothes, games, make-up, furniture, perfume, ...
*On the edge of the city you'll find other shopping malls where most of people buy food in big supermarkets. If this is what you're looking for, ask for centre Alma, centre commercial de Cleunay, Grand quartier, or centre commercial de Cesson-Sevigne.
Rue d'Orléans and Rue le Bastard are two streets linking Place de la Republique to Place Ste Anne through Place de la Mairie. There are stores everywhere for everything!
*If you're looking for traveling books or maps, La librairie du voyage[http://www.librairie-du-voyage.com/] will be happy to help you. It's one of the few places you can find relevant information and qualified people.
Those are bars that have an extended closing time of 3am. There are bouncers for some of them.
*La Contrescarpe
*La Place
*Le Cactus
* *
Délicatessen
*Le Pym's
*L'Espace
*Le Stanley
Rennes is a good place to find rides. [url=http://en.hitchwiki.org/?title=Rennes]See here[/url]
[wiki=5e60c045c908f43daac84417e174673e]de:Rennes[/wiki]
[wiki=3bfae8579e2031a69df2d8a32b2963db]eo:Renno[/wiki]
[wiki=8da723558c956090fb4b013783c7a35d]es:Rennes[/wiki]
[wiki=d613bf39a8a2b59ba350d7ce420d0178]fr:Rennes[/wiki]
[wiki=5ccf441bfce33779b6c0a3d4bdc2aef8]nl:Rennes[/wiki]
[wiki=2fc50c48b2cd19df49f4ca1f7b1c0990]pl:Rennes[/wiki]
[[WikiPedia:Rennes]]
[wiki=f088688ffe79e4901f5e096f3464cba7]Dmoz:Europe/France/Regions/Brittany/Ille-et-Vilaine/Localities/Rennes/[/wiki]
[wiki=e51000fad31ca944e4a6e5e5e113f4df]World66:europe/france/normandybrittany/rennes[/wiki]