Exploration...and lots of photos!

Today Ellie and I decided to take advantage of probably one of the last sunny days before winter starts to kick in, and go for a picnic in one of the parks in Rennes. We got the metro to Sainte Anne in the centre of town, and then walked to Parc du Thabor, which is (I think?) the biggest park in the city centre (there is another massive one just outside the city, which is on my bucket list!). I had seen photos of it on Google and it looked stunning, and definitely didn't disappoint! It was kind of divided into sections: the French-looking section, complete with an orangerie...

And then a more English-looking section, with a big lawn and tall trees round the side...

And finally a woodland type section, with gravel paths and lots of trees, like the grounds of a National Trust house:

A random bird house

A super cute little hideaway!

I felt very French with my baguette and cheese and my little French cakes, on a picnic blanket in a park just like all the other French people around us! Except then a park attendant person came and told us that picnic blankets weren't allowed on this section of grass...whereas the section just over there was fine. It literally made no sense, but as everyone else got up to leave, we thought we probably should too!

Ellie and our picnic blanket!

After we had finished our picnic, we had a wander round the park, and then came out and explored the streets around the main entrance. We happened to come across the other garden we had wanted to visit, Jardin Saint Georges, which is in front of an amazing palace. The garden is much smaller and more ordered, but really pretty nonetheless, and the palace was stunning. It seems to be currently used as a police station, which seems a bizarre use for it!

I was also slightly confused to see what I'm convinced was a patch of chillies in the flower bed...can someone with a bit more horticultural knowledge tell me if they are in fact chillies?!

After this chili (apparently that's how you spell it) confusion, we continued wandering down to République and then back up to Sainte Anne, which is the centre of the historic bit of the city, and an area we know pretty well now! However, Ellie did show me this AMAZING chocolate shop which I hadn't seen before: rows upon rows of incredible flavours of macarons, pic n mix chocolates, biscuit boxes, little multi-coloured meringues, and pots of salted caramel...which came with a tiny silver spoon to eat it with. Or probably to spoon it onto stuff with, but I would just use it to eat the caramel straight out of the pot to be honest. I will leave you with a couple of pictures from this amazing gem of a shop, which I will most definitely be visiting again soon!

A bientôt!