We used to visit France all the time. From trips around the Normandy landing beaches, road trips around Brittany and day trips largely to go shopping, we used to pop over to St Malo lots.
But up until recently we hadn’t been there since August 2012, but this time we organised a trip based around a couple of days in Rennes. I’d visited the town with the kids previously in that trip in 2012 but then we’d only spent an evening there during which we wasted half an hour trying to find a parking space eventually ending up parking outside a school.
Anyway, this time we got the boat over and prepared to drive. Having not driven on the wrong side of the road for years I was briefly concerned about that beforehand but actually settled into the whole thing really easily.
We stopped off for a quick spot of shopping in St Jouan des Guerets just south of Saint-Malo then onto Rennes to discover our hotel and try and get a feel for the town in daylight.
We discovered our first mistake quite quickly. You see this was May 8th – a bank holiday in France and evidently most places take their holidays seriously. Pubs and shops were generally shut. Not all though so we could grab a drink but it wasn’t great.
In addition, the unrest across France around the retirement age changing had clearly visited the town given the sheer number of boarded up shops and windows. It wasn’t a good look.
But making the most of it, we explored, walked and ultimately found a nice place for dinner.
The following morning brought a more normal day. I started with a run which was rather good fun.
We then drove to Loheac and visited Manoir de l’automobile – a really excellent if occasionally bizarre motoring museum.
It being a road trip, it was of course necessary to visit IKEA. At least their product names don’t need to be translated.
Back into Rennes saw us visit a couple more pubs, now that they had decided to open. It’s probably sacrilege but the nicest one was an Irish bar where they served Hop House pints.
The trip back to Saint-Malo was all about the shopping. We stopped off at a Lidl in Combourg and found it excellent value. We then found our old favourite of Carrefour in La Madeleine centre just outside of Saint-Malo wasn’t quite as good as it used to be. So we found another Lidl nearby instead.
After that we drove to Saint-Malo but made some time for a drink and an explore including a visit to the cathedral.
All in all it was a good trip but we also wouldn’t likely revisit Rennes in the future. We are however having a shopping day trip again in July so we won’t be leaving France so long next time.
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