We made it to Rennes and began exploring this week. The streets are very beautiful with lots of interesting old buildings. The leaning buildings (photo above) in a city square from about 1500 are literally only standing because the others are holding them up. Check out the two in the middle. There were much newer buildings to the left of these that seem to have been built to keep this block from tumbling down. Imagine being the window installer who has to figure out how to fit rectangular windows in a house that is leaning this much. We wondered if the floors are slanted a bit too.
One street had streamers for blocks that looked kind of like ocean currents when the wind blew down the street. They provided some much needed shade. The weather is slightly cooler this week, but it will be 102 in Angers by Monday when we head back. We’ll be fleeing to a hotel in Angers again when we get back from Rennes as our Airbnb is unbearable when it’s over 90 degrees. These heat waves so early in the summer are unexpected (and so unwelcome, without air conditioning) as the north of France is usually quite comfortable in the summer with an average high of mid-high 70s most days.
We’ve tried some new foods here that have a more British flair as Rennes is the capital of the Brittany region (also said as “Breton” and “Bretagne”). There is more English being spoken here and lots of British people visit/live here. We tried a galette sausicce, a buckwheat pancake with whole grain mustard wrapped around a pork sausage that is rather like a bratwurst. Very tasty!
They are big on caramel, butter, and cakes in Brittany. Accordingly, we tried a variety of flavors of kouignettes (also known as Kouign Amanns) from the famous Maison Georges Larnicol store in Rennes. They are one of the richest and buttery-est pastries ever, and that’s saying something after eating all the buttery pastries here the last couple of months.
And last but not at all least, we tried a Paris-Brest. Named to commemorate a bicycle race in 1910 between the two cities, this is a wheel-shaped dessert made of choux pastry and filled with praline-flavored butter creme with sliced almonds and powdered sugar on top. Truly one of the best desserts ever.
We’re starting to understand a tiny bit more of the French that is being spoken to us. Numbers/money and common phrases are getting easier, and we’re able to mostly manage food-related exchanges in French now like getting seated at a restaurant, ordering, and paying, with some occasional Google Translate work on the menus.
Today, we took a quick 22-minute train ride out to the medieval village of Vitré, a charming place full of old churches, half-timbered houses, tiny restaurants, and this fabulous castle, which we got to partially tour. It was a picture perfect place and the locals were very friendly. This is the third cute-as-a-button town, with all the day-to-day things within walking distance (bakeries, wine, cheese, restaurants, etc.), that we’ve seen since we got to Rennes which is meaningful on our quest for a long-term place to stay.
We’ve realized that with the heat waves we’ve been trying to dodge in Angers, we’ve spent less time walking around and exploring the little towns around the edges of the city as we have done in Rennes. Looking forward to it cooling down later next week so we can do that. We’ve already found two areas we like in Angers, but there are some towns a little farther out that merit exploring too.
Tomorrow, we’ll explore the Saturday town square market in Rennes, which is always a great way to assess the food scene and on Sunday, the Beaux Arts Museum.