Rennes

Rennes is an exuberant center of Europe’s performing arts

The lively town of Rennes hosts a series of musical encounters, light and sound shows and magical nights of mystery in the medieval city centre every July in a spectacle it calls Les Tombées de la Nuit; that’s when musicians, poets, and storytellers travel there to turn the town into their stage. The city began with the idea that a region's cultural life is a crucial asset in building a new kind of tourism. Even the local restaurants become involved, with local chefs inventing new and special dishes specifically for the annual event.

The rest of the year, this capital of France’s Brittany province is worth traveling to for its quaint town squares, timber-frame houses, art museums, modern architecture (in some places), churches dating back to antiquity, and obsessively tended-to gardens (the best are in the Parc Thabor).

© 2009, Wiley Publishing, Inc.