Jacques Coeur’s Jacques Coeur’s emblems were oysters and hearts,they’re carved all over the castlePlace du Champ Jacquet © Thomas Crabot, Destination RennesBut it rarely pays to upstage the boss. Themonarch became jealous and in 1451, Coeurwas arrested on charges of fraud, escapingto Rome before conveniently dying on acrusade to the Holy Land. But the palace henever lived in – adorned with carved hearts toecho his surname – still stands as a memorialto the man who made his fortune but with it,a royal enemy.amongst the floating island gardens, one ofthree such areas left in France along withSaint-Omer and Amiens.Rennes, BrittanyFrom the UK, take a ferry into the westernChannel ports and if you are driving to thebeaches of Southern Brittany or the AtlanticCoast, you soon spot signs for Rennes,regional capital of Brittany. Or take the directtrain from Paris in as little as 90 minutes.A Gallic tribe known as the Redones settledhere in the 2 nd century BC at the junctionof the Ille and Vilaine rivers, but it was theRomans who turned this Gallic settlement intoa fortified town in the 3 rd century AD. Whenthey left, the Dukes of Brittany took over,ruling independently until 1532 when Anne ofBrittany married Charles VIII and the regionbecame part of France.A guided tour of the sumptuous interior is ahighlight of any city visit.Look too inside Saint Pierre Cathedral,rebuilt in the second half of the 19 th century,where Dukes and Duchesses of Brittany wereRennes Parliament building © Gillian Thorntoncrowned across the ages. And walk in thefootsteps of Art Deco mosaic artist IsidoreOdorico, whose Italian father settled here in1882 after working on the Palais Garnier inParis. Together, father and son popularisedTake a walk down Rue des Bourbonneux andfollow the Promenade des Ramparts beneathhouses built on ancient city walls. Refuelat a café on Place Gordaine and discoverwhat locals mean by a casse-cou or ‘breakyour neck’, steep narrow staircases that linkthe working-class district with the bourgeoisupper town. And keep the camera ready forthe half-timbered houses with upper storeysoverhanging the pavement.Between May and September, enjoy LesNuits Lumière, a free city centre light showprojected onto historic buildings. And don’tleave town without visiting the Marais deBourges and taking a guided boat tripToday, the city centre boasts 370 timberframedhouses, an eye-popping jumble ofcoloured facades, geometric beams, andwonky angles that span the Middle Ages tothe 18 th century. Head for Place Jacquet orPlaces des Lices for a café table with a view ofthe past. Then fast-forward to the 17 th centuryand the construction of Brittany’s Parliamentbuilding, designed by Salomon de Brosse,architect of the Palais de Luxembourg in Paris.After a major city fire in 1720, the vast squareoutside was laid out in granite and tufa, andafter the Revolution, the imposing buildingtook on a new role as the Court of Justice andCourt of Appeal. But in 1994, fire broke outagain and the former Parliament underwentmassive restoration before reopening in 1999.34 | The Good Life France The Good Life France | 35
