Rennes Rennes Robert Tarjan Category="Rennes"
Rennes
Country
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     France
Région Bretagne (capital)
Département Ille-et-Vilaine (Préfecture)
Arrondissement Rennes
Canton Chief town of 11 cantons
INSEE Code 35238
Postal code 35000
Mayor
Term of office 		Edmond Hervé
2001-2007
Intercommunality Communauté
d'agglomération
de Rennes Métropole
Longitude 01° 40' 46" W
Latitude 48° 06' 53" N
Altitude average: 30 m
minimum: 20 m
maximum: 74 m
Area 50.39 km²
Population without
double-counting		216,229 (1999)
Population density 4 092 pers/km²

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Rennes (Gallo: Resnn, Breton: Roazhon) is a city of northwestern France, in the east of Brittany. Rennes is the capital of the Bretagne région, as well as the Préfecture of the Ille-et-Vilaine département.

Population of the city (commune) of Rennes at the 1999 census was 209,229 inhabitants (209,100 inhabitants as of February 2004 estimates). Population of the whole metropolitan area (French: Aire urbaine) at the 1999 census was 521,188 inhabitants, ranking twelfth in France.

Administration

The current Mayor of Rennes is Edmond Hervé, incumbent since 1977, when he replaced Henri Fréville. His "mairie" (mayor's office) is right in the centre of Rennes. Rennes is divided into 11 cantons:

Geography

The town is built on a hill, with the north side being more elevated than the south side. It is at the meeting point of two rivers: the Ille and the Vilaine

History

See separate article History of Rennes.

Economy

Local industries include car manufacturing and telecommunications. Citroën, currently the largest employer of the population of Rennes, opened a manufacturing plant at Rennes La Janais in 1961 to manufacture the Ami.

Rennes is also one of first Technopoles in France that were established in an effort to stimulate the economies of regions other than Paris during the Aménagement du territoire.

Culture

Rennes invests heavily in arts and culture and a number of its festivals (such as the music festival Les Transmusicales, les Tombées de la Nuit and Travelling (a cinematic festival)) are well known throughout France. Rennes was one of the first towns in France to have its own television channel 'TV Rennes', created in 1987. Rennes is home to Stade Rennais FC, who play at Route de Lorient in the French Premier League.

Miscellaneous

Colleges, universities and research facilities

The Rennes agglomeration has a large student population (around 60,000).

The city has two main universities:

In addition:

Transportation

Rennes has well developed national road, rail and air links and is two hours by TGV train from Paris. Local transport is based primarily on an extensive Bus network (38 different lines) and a metro line that was inaugurated in March 2002 and cost €500 millions to build. The Rennes Metro is 9.4 km in length and has 15 stations, including one designed by architect Norman Foster. Rennes is one of the smallest cities in the world to have a metro.

See also: Rennes Rail Station

Twinned towns

These twinned towns are inscribed on the bridge over the central canal of Rennes:

Broadcasting facilities

External links