Rennes, France by Kev and Mel

Hello from Bretagne in France.
My family and friends live all over France, so when we come here, we have to do a little tour de France to see everyone! We are in Rennes to see my niece Manon and her boyfriend Nathan.
We arrived in Rennes on the 25th of June. The flat we rented could be great, but the cleaning is really horrible, which make the stay not as fun. Anyway! We settled and Manon and Nathan came to say hello before they had to go to work. It is always super nice to see family after so long!
We spent the afternoon at the place as Kev was feeling sick and tired. Kids did some schoolwork and I did some blogging and sorting through pictures while Kev slept.
The next day, we visited Rennes with Manon and Nathan. Rennes is in Brittany in the northwestern of France. There are around 770 000 inhabitant in the metropolitan area (similar to Townsville where we live). The history of the city is over 2000 year old, as the city started as a small Gallic town named Condate.
We walked around the city taking on the sight of the old houses and churches, which seems to be at every corners of every streets! There are several beautiful churches and cathedrals with amazing stain glass windows, beautiful ceilings and amazing painting and decoration. I am not religious but I love places of worship: I am glad that we get to see during this trip a lot of different ones, from Buddhist temples to mosque, churches, Jain temple and other. It is always interesting to see the difference and similitude between them.
We were very lucky to hear some pipe organ being played, well actually tuned. Andrew did some research about how they tuned those massive pipes, so you can go on his blog to read about it.
We went to a restaurant to eat galette, which is a savoury crepe and is one of the typical food from Bretagne. They are delicious!!! I forgot how much I love French food. Each region has its speciality, and they are all so good! We spend the afternoon at a museum which had an exhibition about the brain and one about Leonardo Da Vinci. We did the brain first and it was really well done: everything was interactive and explained different functions of the brain and its anatomy. We learnt a lot and we had fun doing it. It was great. Then we went to the Leonardo Da Vinci one: It was interesting, but we already did a few exhibitions about him and I don’t think I learnt too much more. One thing I learnt was that despite people thinking that Leonardo was writing for left to right and inverse (you need a mirror to read his writing) as a code, they now think that he simply could not write the “regular” way as he did not learn it at school (he didn’t go to school). Evidence of that, is when he signed his name writing left to right, his handwriting was a lot more hesitant, as it was harder for him. We enjoyed both exhibition, but the brain one was definitely better.
We finish that day at Manon and Nathan’s place, chatting while the kids read Nathan’s collection of Manga.
Our next day was spent visit Dinan, then Saint Malo which are two towns in Bretagne along the coast. They are both medieval cities. Manon and Nathan were great guides, and we enjoyed walking in the small and narrow streets, looking at houses and churches who have been around for centuries, walking on the ramparts which used to protect the town, eating some delicious Kouign-amann (a typical patisserie from Bretagne, made of salted butter, flour and sugar. The ingredients are simple, but the making of the pastry is more complicated: it makes a delicious snack with melted butter and sugar inside and caramelised sugar on the outside)
We ended up putting our feet in the water and looking for tiny crabs. It was a very nice day. We also visited a pirate ship! It was fun, until I received a phone call from the place we booked for our next stay telling me that the hot water system stopped working, so they couldn’t rent us the place!! Luckily in 10 minutes I managed to find another place, around the same price and we got refunded more than what we paid for the first place originally, so nothing bad!
We spent the evening at our place, chatting and playing board games.
It is in those moments that I realise how much I miss my family. I wish I could have those get together more often…
Our last day in Rennes, we had a picnic with Manon, Nathan and one of their friends called Manon as well. We went to a big park called Thabor Park. This is very lovely, well-maintained park where a lot of people were enjoying the very warm weather. The kids had a great time walking around by themselves as we let them discover the p
ark just the two of them (the rule was to stay together at all times). They are getting more confident and are very happy to roam free of adults watching them! We spent a couple of hours walking around in the shades of the trees as the weather was very warm, looking at the aviary and the little ponds all around the park. The heat finally got the better of us and we stopped for a couple of cold drinks in the little bar inside the park.
We had to have another typical dinner for the area: Moules-frites!!! Mussels and chips. This is one of my favourite meals. Andrew and Emma tasted it: Andrew didn’t like it too much and Emma loved it!!! She finished my plate!
On the 29th, we packed up again and left with Manon and Nathan to have a wonderful lunch at Nathan’s parents. They got us ‘un plateau de fruits de mer’, sea food platter: several spider crabs, prawns, snails, oysters… so many good stuffs!!! We had another great day, chatting with friends and just enjoying life! The kids had fun playing with the family dog; a puppy named Fibi (we cannot agree on the spelling!).
Then we got to our next place in Saint-Quay-Portrieux, another little town located in the north of Bretagne on the coast.
That is where I leave you for this blog.
See you soon
Mel

26.6.2025. I'm still crook, ribs are sore from sneezing. Mel had a rough night too, apparently I snored all night. We met up with Manon and Nathan again, and had a tour around Renne. Checked out some old buildings, churches and walked the streets. We stopped and had galette for lunch. Sorta like savoury crepes, with smoked sausage, cheese and sauce. Enjoyed with a glass of local cidre, and another local beer. Next stop was a science museum, featuring some of Leonardo DaVinci’s inventions. There were also some brain activities. Given my current state of health, I struggled with these. That's my excuse anyway. After the museum, we went to Manon and Nathan’s apartment for an evening of bread and cheese.
27.6.2025. We got picked up by Manon and Nathan this morning. We're off to Dinan, where we walked and talked and checked out more old churches. We heard some pipe organs being played today. They can get such different tones from the various sized pipes. After that we drove to St Malo, a city by the sea. We had a walk around some old fort walls, and looked out over a pool built into the shore. Looks to me that when the tide is right in, the pool goes completely under. We had a walk on the beach, through the shallows, water is bloody cold. Checked out small fish and crabs as we climbed over rocks and waded through pools. We headed back to Renne, with a stop to pick up food for tonight. Back at our apartment, Manon and Nathan's friend, also Manon, joined us. I made pasta and steak haché for everyone and some games were played. One was a game where you had to try and cheat, Mel was surprisingly good at this game.
28.6.2025. Today's plan is to head over to a park in Renne. But first, homework. Kids love it and are overjoyed to participate. We got picked up by Manon and Manon and Nathan again, and driven to Thabor park. We had lunch, baguette sandwiches, which we made. Then the kids were given free reign to explore while some games were played. I had a Nanna nap, laying on the grass with my hat over my face. Later we explored the park a bit more. Found an aviary with budgies and various other birds. Walked past countless rows of plants and flowers. We stopped at a pond and the French people talked. The kids checked out the fish then decided to make boats. A task they both took too enthusiastically. They both tried different methods and designs. Just before we left Andrew came up with a pretty decent concept. He used grass to tie two pine cones together, and had a stick in-between with a leaf. It worked pretty well. Emma was still working while we were on our way out. We stopped at a brasserie in the park on the way out and grabbed a drink. The kids had ice-cream, then decided to work on boats some more. They rummaged through grass and leaves looking for who knows what exactly. We left the park, stopped at a church to listen to the bells. Then headed off to a restaurant for moules frites. Mussels and fries for the non French. We got dropped back and at our apartment, brushed teeth and went to bed.
29.6.2025. We're off again today, this time to Saint Quay. We followed Manon and Nathan to his parents house for lunch, which was on the way. We had drinks and the kids played with their dog, a lot. We were treated to a really nice seafood platter. Spider crab, prawns, snails and oysters. A really nice gaspatio soup also, was delicious. We left and made the last bit of the drive to Saint Quay, where we met with Manon’s mum and grandmother. More drinks and more delicious food, too much for me. I was full as a goog, pretty pissed and half falling asleep. We made it back to our apartment, and I crashed.
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