A Grand Day Out to Thabor

So one Monday I awoke at the crack of 9:15. This would have been fine, had my design graphique class not started at 9:00. Not one to waste an opportunity, I promptly went back to sleep. Upon awaking for the second time, I decided that the day should not be a complete waste. For my dessin/peinture class on Tuesday, I had some kind of assignment where I was supposed to go to a garden or park or something. I'm never really sure what that guy is ever talking about; he talks way too fast. But nevertheless, I'm pretty sure he wanted us to draw something having to do with gardens. Probably.


Anyways, Thabor is a relatively famous park in Rennes, in the sense that it's mentioned on the Rennes wikipedia page as "magnificent". So at around noon on Monday, I set off with a general idea of the location of Thabor and an intention to bring my crudely hand drawn map with me.

Guyenne, where I live

After taking this picture, I realized that I forgotten my elegant map, but I decided I was adventurous enough to do without it. I was on my way! After hitching a ride on the very nice and very expensive automatic Rennes metro, I got off at Saint Anne. The map at the station gave me a general indication of the right direction, so I head off blindly towards the east. After about ten minutes of walking I happened upon this nice looking park thing.



I was confused. Was this it? It couldn't be, because I wasn't really hit with a sense of "magnificence". I decided to soldier on. Eventually I stumbled upon Thabor. Finally!

Steps leading up to Thabor, with a sad looking out-of-commission fountain

Needless to say, I felt pretty awesome for being able to find a slightly hidden giant park. Nevermind that it's on 10 hectares of land (whatever the hell a hectare is). I had an unusually beautiful day and Thabor's delights spread before me like the banquet of an obese Henry VIII.

On my walk through Thabor, I found a birdhouse, which included exotic birds such as the parakeet. But they did have some pretty parrots, and some weird sounding canaries.

Apparently I stand on a pretty severe slant

The people talking had a Yorkie that got all up in my grill.

Upon leaving the menagerie, one finds the meticulously manicured lawn that leads up to the greenhouse, with a brief detour through the flower garden.

The one thing I don't like about French gardens is that they are too well-kept. I prefer the English secret-garden style of letting things grow in controlled chaos. French gardens are too anal to be relaxing.

Seriously?

I mean, come on. What kind of bush looks like this?

After some obligatory arty shots of sculpture:


And some creepy doves that kept giving me the stink eye:



I decided that I had had my fill of Thabor for the day. But my adventure was far from over, dear reader. I thought that since I was so close to scenic centre-ville, I might as well take a stroll over there and take some pictures. I'm going to rearrange the pictures from the order I took them, so it makes more sense spatially. The parliament of Brittany is based in Rennes, and, logically, so is its parliament building. Not one of Rennes most beautiful buildings, but scenic and historic nonetheless. The Place de la Parliament de Bretagne is situated somewhat between Thabor and Saint Anne, which you'll remember was the metro stop I started from.

Parliament Building of Brittany

Now let's pretend I went back to Saint Anne. Saint Anne is perhaps one of the most charming places I have seen yet in Rennes. With medieval-looking tudor-style buildings perpetually leaning to one side, it makes the city feel lived-in. During the day Saint Anne is a lively square full of creperies and cafés, with a merry-go-round. I've noticed the French have some sort of thing for merry-go-rounds. I've seen at least four while I've been here.
However, at night Saint Anne becomes the center of Rennes' night life. With its famously called "Rue de la Soif" (literally, "Street of Thirst"), the bars that line this street attract gaggles of students and sparse adults as well.

Old Buildings in Place Saint Anne

Next we have the street between Saint Anne and Place de la Marie, the Rue Le Bastard (I'm not making that up). It's a nice pedestrian street, almost feeling like an alley. It's filled with slightly expensive clothing stores/magasins. It's where I got my shoes for a reasonable 17€ (Sister Mode). Here you also find a store where you can buy train tickets and tickets to concerts (where I got my tickets to Franz Ferdinand and Peter, Bjorn, and John). There's also a killer kebab place somewhere here.

Rue Le Bastard

Follow Rue Le Bastard, and you end up in Place de la Marie. Here you can see the Rennes Opera House and the Hôtel de Dieu, although I'm still not sure what exactly that is.

Opera House

Hôtel de Dieu

Finally we arrive at Republique, metro stop and major city bus depot. The building at Republique is one of my favorites, but I'm not sure why. I think it's something about the Hausmannian style of the architecture. This is also where I got the Orange sim card for my phone, which was a surprisingly painless process.

Republique-- you can clearly see the metro station and one of the many bus stops.

Hey, wow, I was not expecting this post to be so long. I've decided to make all my posts retroactive and date them when they actually happened. That way, even if I post things out of order the chronology won't get all messed up. I HOPE YOU ENJOYED ALL THE EFFORT THAT WENT INTO THIS BEAUTIFUL POST