Brittany is one of our favorite regions in Europe. This is the third time we have visited it. On our first trip to France we just touched the edges of it, but our visit to St. Malo was great and we fell in love with the food in the region. On a later trip to France we spent more than a week exploring Brittany in smaller chunks and were enchanted with it. We tell everyone who asks where to go in France not to miss Brittany. Despite this we had never visited Rennes the capitol of Brittany.
I was particularly looking forward to Rennes as I expected great things from the capitol of a region that I really loved. Our rough plan was to get some laundry done and then head into town if we had time after laundry. When we checked in I confirmed that they had a washer and dryer and the young lady said yes so I booked two days here. But when I stuck my head into the laundry room there was a note on the washer saying that it was broken. I went back in the office and the manager confirmed it was broken and that it was supposed to be fixed tomorrow. Ton thinks this is probably a Mexican mañana situation, I am hoping for the best. But strike 1 for Rennes.
After a short rest we decided to head for town for a visit. It was a quick bus ride to the center. Rennes has one of the youngest populations in France as it is the host to over 70,000 university students. Our experience with university cities has been good as we like the vibrancy the students bring. Rennes was alive, but it didn’t strike us as vibrant. Ton was a little turned off by the graffiti that peppered a lot of the buildings, it made the town feel a little dirty to her.
Rennes felt like a lot of mid-sized French cities. That is not a bad thing, because French cities have a unique vibe with the cafe scene, and the shopping. But what struck me was how little of the Breton Celtic influence was present. What we had really enjoyed about Brittany before was the unique mix of French and Celtic culture. We didn’t feel it here. So strike 2 for Rennes.
After a couple of hours we decided to head back to the campground. The bus route was pretty straight forward and I expected us to be back to the campground in about 30 minutes with a 500 meter walk at the end. A few stops before the one for the campground I saw a sign saying there was a “Deviation” on our route. Deviation is the French word for Detour and it is a word I see and immediately go into a cold sweat. I tried to parse the details of the deviation but the details far exceeded my limited French. But I took solace in the fact that we were picked up at the campground so I figured they had to go by there as part of the “deviation”. In the end we got to the end of the route and everyone got off. So instead of a 500 meter walk at the end of the ride we had a 2000 meter walk and it is the hottest day of this trip. So strike 3 for Rennes.
Luckily the campground is very nice and we are in a beautiful park. I am really hoping the washer gets fixed tomorrow to help Rennes redeem itself.