Driving into Rennes - should we?
 

During our week's stay in Brittany, I thought we would spend one day in Rennes, probably May 30, coming from the Dinan area. The city's website suggests that drivers should leave their cars in a parking lot at the end of a metro line and ride the metro into town. Not sure if that is because of bad traffic or lack of parking or both. There is a day pass for the metro that is not expensive. Being pretty much a wimp when it comes to driving in large cities, I am inclined to do as they suggest, especially since we will be in three cars.

The following day, May 31, I will need to take someone to the train station to get the 9:00am TGV back to Paris. It looks like it is fairly close to the ring road on the south side of Rennes. Since that will just be one car, would you try to drive in rather than take the metro with luggage?

Anyone who has had experience driving in Rennes, I'd be grateful for your advice.

We've driven into Rennes several times - last was this past Sept when we dumped the car at the train station & stayed at a hotel close to the station on a Saturday. We had no problems at all. Much less traffic on a Sat - which is May 31.

The train station in Rennes is real easy to figure out, in case you were wondering.

Stu Dudley

I drove to Rennes from Dinan last Sept., dropped the car and took the train to Paris. No problem. Don't worry, on a Saturday, it will be an easy drive.

Thanks, you two. That's good to hear. What about our sightseeing day on Friday when we'll have 3 cars to park? Does it make more sense to use the "park and ride" option then?

Also, I meant to ask earlier - what's your opinion of the top 2 or 3 things we should see in Rennes?

Thanks again!

Follow the walking itinerary in the Michelin Green Guide. Rennes is in my "top 5" list of large cities in France.

We had no problems parking on a week day either.

Stu Dudley

Stu: Don't wish to hijack this thread, but am really interested to know what 5 French cities made your "top 5" list.

Best regards
Steve

We were going to drive into Rennes, but decided to park at the rail station and train in. Parking was free if you used the metro, metro was cheap and easy to use.

I'm sure everyone who has replied is correct about the ease of driving in Rennes, but I gotta tell you that my DH and I, after driving easily all over Normandy and Brittany, got totally STUCK in Rennes. Driving around the town wasn't a problem, nor was parking, but figuring out how to get OUT was! We were literally hours trying to find the exit to get out of town and head back to Paris.

After asking several people and being sent down the same streets, which just seemed to go around in circles, I had a nice young police officer actually escort us to the correct road.

Kind of funny, looking back...

MelJ, I bet you passed the Art Deco swimming pool several times. It's a nice building the first time you notice it, but its attraction fades on the third time you pass it.