Rennes

The Marché des Lices and Les Champs Libres on a Rennes weekend

Plan a Rennes weekend around Saturday's Marché des Lices, open from early morning until about 1pm. Spend Saturday afternoon in the half-timbered lanes, the cathedral of Saint-Pierre, the Parlement de Bretagne and the Thabor gardens. On Sunday, visit the Musée de Bretagne at Les Champs Libres, which opens in the afternoon at weekends.

Rennes is Brittany's largest city, with about 231,000 residents in 2023. The fire of 1720 destroyed much of the wooden medieval centre, which was rebuilt in stone, so the timber-framed lanes survive mainly in the streets the flames missed. The Parlement burned again in 1994, probably from a flare fired during a demonstration. The Thabor's botanical garden covers 10 hectares and was laid out between 1860 and 1867.

Saturday morning. Plan the whole trip around this. The Marché des Lices spreads over the square and its two old market halls from early morning until about 1pm: Breton farmers, oyster stalls, cheeses and flowers, and a queue at every galette-saucisse grill. Go before 10am, then walk a few steps to the Portes Mordelaises, the old city gate.

Saturday afternoon. Wander east into the half-timbered lanes, Rue du Chapitre, Rue Saint-Guillaume and Rue Saint-Sauveur, many of them leaning at odd angles. Look into the cathedral of Saint-Pierre, rebuilt in neo-classical style and gilded inside, then cross to the Parlement de Bretagne. The building was gutted by fire in 1994 and painstakingly restored; guided tours show its painted ceilings. Finish in the Thabor gardens, with their rose beds and old trees.

Saturday evening. Eat galettes on Rue Saint-Georges, then join the students around Place Sainte-Anne and Rue Saint-Michel.

Sunday. Take the metro to Gares and walk to Les Champs Libres, where the Musée de Bretagne tells the story of the region and holds documents from the Dreyfus retrial; the museum opens in the afternoon at weekends. In the morning, walk along the Vilaine quays to the Musée des Beaux-Arts, or ride a STAR bike up the Ille canal. If the weather is fine, swap the museums for a train to Saint-Malo and an afternoon on its ramparts.

Galette-saucisse, crêperies and La Criée market in Rennes

The food Rennes is known for is the galette-saucisse, a grilled pork sausage wrapped in a buckwheat pancake and sold hot at the Saturday market. For a sit-down meal, Rue Saint-Georges is lined with crêperies. Drink dry cider or lait ribot, and try kouign-amann and far breton from any bakery.

Rennes is in Upper Brittany, the land of the buckwheat galette, and the city treats its humblest version almost as a civic emblem. The galette-saucisse is a grilled pork sausage rolled up in a cold buckwheat pancake and eaten in the hand. Stade Rennais fans sing about it, and the Saturday market at the Lices is the place to try one, hot off the grill.

For a sit-down meal, head to a crêperie. Rue Saint-Georges, east of the Parlement, is lined with them, in timber-framed houses. Order a savoury galette complète of ham, egg and cheese, then a sweet crêpe made from wheat flour, with salted-butter caramel. Drink dry farm cider from a ceramic bowl, or try lait ribot, a tangy fermented milk that locals drink with galettes. Chouchen, a honey mead, is the after-dinner curiosity.

Breton pastry is worth a detour of its own. Kouign-amann, a layered cake of dough, butter and sugar caramelised in the oven, and far breton, a dense flan often baked with prunes, sit in every bakery window.

On weekdays, the covered La Criée market hall north of Boulevard de la Liberté has fishmongers, butchers and a few counters where you can sit down for oysters from Cancale or a plate of whelks. On the first Sunday of each month it hosts a street-food market where restaurants run stalls.