After two days in a row of long drives exploring Brittany we decided to take it easy and spend a relaxing day in Rennes. Our only fellow guests at Castel Jolly included this one year old who entertained us during breakfast.

African Lily

Le Marché des Lices takes place every Saturday as it has done for over 400 years.

Leaving the market we explored the surrounding streets in search of half timber houses, a "Presse" where I could buy today's edition of the French sporting newspaper l'Équipe, and a café where we could relax and enjoy the passing parade of humanity.

Our café for the day, Le Petit Bar, overlooks Place Sainte Anne and the Basilica Saint Aubin.

That's Joni in the front and center!

Reminiscent of the original Beggars' Banquet album cover.

Couvent des Jacobins

Not exactly the stained glass you'd expect to find on a convent.

Basilica Saint Aubin

Does this section of half-timber houses look familiar?

Parlement de Bretagne

Hôtel de Ville, Rennes City Hall

l'Opera de Rennes

Bretons take their coffee seriously.

Cathedral Saint Pierre

Ionic Columns

The Portes Mordelaises, part of the ancient gate in the only remaining section of the original Gallo-Roman wall built between 275-300 AD.

Not part of the ancient gate, Les Horizons is the tallest building in Rennes. Constructed in 1970 it reaches nearly 100 meters in height and contains 30 floors of residential apartments

Our tour of old Rennes ended at La Crique, an oyster bar. La crique translates to "the cove."

Two fine rosés from Provence.

An oyster sampler, 6 oysters on the left are from the Finnistere area of Brittany, and the six on the right are from Cancale. The Bretons do not provide cocktail sauce with their oysters. I guess they don't want to hide the taste of these delicacies.

These oyster shells seem much deeper than those I am used to.

For Joni, a cheese plate as an appetizer as she awaited her haddock, rice, and cucumber tapas.

Finishing lunch around 2:30 PM, we returned to Castel Jolly just in time for a nap as we watched the final KM of the opening stage of the Tour de France which was won by Adam Yates, just ahead of his twin brother Simon.

For dinner we returned to Le Bistôt des Ramparts. Our first meal there on Wednesday was so good we both independently thought it would be worth returning. We weren't wrong.

For appetizers we both repeated our Wednesday choices, so I didn't photograph either choice. However, the amuse bouche looked the same but was very different in terms of spices! We chose a different rosé, and we loved it.

Early today I had a text conversation with my friends Paul & Bill, both of whom recommended we try the muscadel wine, which is from Nantes. I forgot about that conversation when I ordered tonight's wine, but when the owner returned to our table to deliver our appetizers I asked him about muscadet.. He said he adored it, and quickly went back to the kitchen and returned with an unopened bottle from which he poured us each a glass. We really enjoyed the muscadet, but what so impressed us is the the owner went out of his way to accommodate us. Returning to this restaurant was the right decision, no question about it.