Total Recall?

As it's now been 2 weeks since we began our "vacation" in Brittany/Bretagne, remembering the things that we saw and did has been a challenge, to say the least. Brittany is one of 13 administrative regions in France and is subdivided into four departments. It is a distinct cultural territory with Celtic roots within France and was historically an independent kingdom, then a sovereign duchy, and since 1532, a part of France. For a land mass that is slightly smaller than the U.S. state of Maryland, it's amazing how much time it would require to do justice to its numerous "worthy" cities/towns, villages, nature areas, and historic sites. We spent 10 full days there--bookended by travel days to and from Toul--and feel as though we barely scratched the surface of what the region had to offer.

Our personal "Taste of Bretagne" tour included time spent in each of the four departments. We started with two nights in Rennes, the regional capital located in the Ille-et-Vilaine department. Afterwards, we rented a car for the remainder of our time in Brittany, which included four nights in the town of Dinan (Cotes-d'Armor department), three nights in Quimper (main town of the Finistere department), and two nights in Vannes (main city of Morbihan). We spent a day exploring each base, and then did day trips to locations in relatively close proximity to the respective base. We also plotted stops for our drives between the bases. In this way we managed to get a fairly decent mix of towns large and small, as well as landscapes and miscellaneous historic sites of interest. Despite the July crowds in some of the places that were "must see" spots, we managed to survive with our sanity mostly intact.

If "a picture is worth a thousand words," I could shorten my postings about our Brittany trip considerably by simply using the following photo as a perfect representation of Brittany: A creperie and half-timbered buildings.

In the town of Dinan, former seat of the Dukes of Brittany, one of many creperies can be seen among some of the over 115 half-timbered buildings in the well-preserved historical center.

Creperies are everywhere in Brittany. Crepes are very thin wheat flour pancakes, usually eaten for dessert with a variety of sweet toppings, and are a traditional dish for most French regions. However, the abundance of creperies in Brittany is probably due to the fact that the buckwheat flour counterpart to crepes, called galettes, originated in Brittany and are deeply embedded in Breton culinary culture. Galettes are usually eaten with savory fillings (one of the most common combinations being the "complet" with egg, ham, and cheese). The Breton contribution to the more ubiquitous crepes is the use of salted butter caramel as a topping. It would be interesting to know how many creperies there are on a per capita basis in Brittany as compared to the rest of France.

As for the half-timbered buildings, well, they're also found in other parts of France, especially the regions in the north of the country and in Alsace to the east, although the timbered frames may be more colorful in Brittany than in some of those other regions. Although several of the places we visited have preserved their half-timbered buildings of the 15th to 17th centuries, more widespread--and modern--is the use of granite in Breton buildings, as it is plentiful as well as sturdy enough to stand up to the maritime climate. 

So, no broad generalities will serve to describe our time in Brittany. 

We had one day on Sunday, July 19, to get a feel for what Rennes had to offer. During its 2000-year history it was one of the major cities of the Dukes of Brittany, and until the French Revolution was the site of a Breton political parliament. Today Rennes is the capital of Brittany and the prefecture of the Ille-et-Vilaine department. 

Rennes is well-known for its medieval old town and the number of half-timbered buildings
that survived both a disastrous fire in 1720 and significant damage to the city in WWII.

The city's surviving medieval gate, the 15th century Portes Mordelaises.
 The Dukes of Brittany would pass through these gates to be
 crowned. At top, the gate is flanked by crumbling medieval ramparts.
At bottom, the view toward the city from inside the gate.

Of slightly more recent vintage than medieval.

The Vilaine River is one of two rivers that runs through Rennes. (The other river is the
Ille, which together with the Vilaine, forms the name of the department in which Rennes sits.)
The Vilaine was one of the first rivers in France to be canalized, as early as the 14th century.

Upper: Notre-Dame-en-Saint-Melaine church, originally an abbey
church, served as a cathedral during the first half of the 19th century.
Portions of the existing structure date to the 11th century. Today it serves
as a parish church.  Lower: The 19th century Rennes Opera House.

More modern yet is this unique feature of Rennes' heritage, the art deco mosaics of
two generations of the Italian Odorico family who settled in Rennes in 1882. At left: the 
Poirier building from 1931. At right: the Saint-George swimming pool from the 1920's.
 This exterior view is only a small portion of the mosaics; photos of the interior look stunning.

Not at all medieval: the recently modernized Rennes train station. Any resemblance to a
waterslide is purely coincidental.

The 17th century Parlement of Brittany building escaped destruction in the 1720 fire, only to be
burned down by a fire in 1994 that broke out during protests by local fishermen. It was rebuilt
to replicate the interior and exterior of the original structure and is the site of the Court of Appeals.
These days it also provides the canvas for the annual summer light and sound shows (see below).

The 17-minute sound and light show for 2026, "Au fil de l'eau" ("with the flow of the water"),
was enchanting. The first day of the show was July 18, so we timed our visit to Rennes perfectly.

It got rather warm in Rennes on the 19th, so we spent most of the afternoon just hanging out at the hotel. The city offered free entry to a number of museums, but for some reason, the ones we were interested in were closed that day. We then tried to attend a VO (version original) screening of "The Odyssey" at the local cineplex, but the showing we wanted was completely sold out by the time we got to the theater--and we hadn't thought to book tickets on-line. C'est la vie. 

The remainder of the Brittany adventures will follow in subsequent postings. It's been a busy few days, as we ended up returning from Brittany a day early (on July 29 rather than July 30) so that we could get ready for the visit of some prospective boat buyers. As a result, my creative juices are about a dry as the Marne au Rhin Ouest Canal at the moment, and they need another day or two to replenish!