Day Seven: Modern Rennes | France Fully Loaded Cycle Tour 2019
Hot off the heels of my last Fully Loaded Cycle Tour in South Wales, and with barely a month just gone by, I was on to my next Cycle Tour in Brittany, North West France. As I didn’t have much time to plan & organise this trip I thought I would take a ‘go where the wind takes me‘ attitude as far as the camping bit goes and find sites along the way (I only had my last night’s campsite stay booked in so I didn’t miss my boat going back!) and after some research I found a great book which details the great ‘Green Ways‘ cycle routes around Brittany titled ‘Brittany’s Green Ways‘ published by Red Dog Books (see photo below) – I took the V2 cycle route from St-Malo to Rennes with a impromptu side trip going along the v4 route on the first day to see the abbey at Mont-Saint-Michel. Now I could chat away for ages about this trip, the weather was amazing, the overnight ferry, miles of off road cycle paths, the food… ahh.. it was like a holiday mixed in with cycle touring – just plain brilliant, but without further ado, here are the photos! 🙂
Inside Rennes main train station - very functional & smart!Strange contraption no.1!Strange contraption no.2 - quite a ergonomic design that!Cool lamp post stickerIf anyone knows what this bit of French says? answers on a postcard to...What's that i spot in the distance? some Brutalist architecture!'The Horizons' a skyscraper built in 1970 by Georges Maillols, also known to the locals as 'ear of corn'Detail of Les Horizons and the prefabricated facades designed by André Autret and Michel BonjourStanding in front of & looking up at Les Horizons is a truly symmetrical moment!Information board on Les Horizons, in French if you speak it but if not two good b&w photos showing before and after!That bottom bit of Les Horizons is a car park with 440 underground spacesAnother fine bit of architecture in Rennes!Rennes is a very 'cycle-friendly' city as you will discover if you visit there!This cool sign shows the number of cyclist's for the current month - I add myself to July 2019!Towards the south of the city a river is divided by bridges, this one is Pont de Bretagne and in the distance that spire is the Military recruiting office buildingThis futuristic building is the Military recruiting office building of Rennes, originally the Telecommunications Centre built by legendary architecture Louis Arretche in 1975 and designed to look like a space ship had landed in Rennes!Detail of the former Telecommunications Centre, Le Mabilay, it required the construction of very high Hertzian antenna, to which the architect added a control platform in the shape of a “flying saucer”The scale of this wall mural was pretty big (not as much as the next photo!) and precise lighting details make it a great one!Looked like this building was due for demolition - the size of the car in comparison to the size of the graffiti makes me wonder how long that took to paint!This clever wall mural, under a railway bridge, is a depiction of modern Rennes and it's buildings!That is one cold looking building!That's one way to decorate a water tower!One of the many residential areas in the South of Rennes, I came here by bike in search of modern architecture, this apartment building in particular caught my eye!The design at the top of said building almost looks like faces looking out onto the rest of RennesCubicle living!A French hairdressers - love the font!The river that divides the north & south of Rennes city
