Vannes is a town and commune located in the Morbihan département,
in Brittany, in the west of France.
It was founded over 2000 years ago.
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Thanks to its position
at the head of the Golfe de Morbihan, VANNES , 20 km east
of Auray, is southern Brittany's major tourist town. Modern Vannes
is such a large and thriving community that the small size of
the old walled town at its core, Vieux Vannes , may well come
as a surprise. Its focal point, the old gateway of the Porte
St-Vincent , commands a busy little square at the northern end
of the long canalized port that provides access to the gulf itself.
Once inside the ramparts, the old centre of chaotic streets -
crammed around the cathedral, and enclosed by gardens and a tiny
stream - is largely pedestrianized, in refreshing contrast to
the somewhat complicated road system beyond.
The new town centre of
Vannes is place de la République - the focus was shifted
outside the medieval city in the nineteenth-century craze for
urbanization. The grandest of the public buildings here, guarded
by a pair of sleek and dignified bronze lions, is the Hôtel
de Ville at the top of rue Thiers. By day, however, the streets
of the old city, with their overhanging, witch-hatted houses
and busy commercial life, are the chief source of pleasure. Place
Henri-IV in particular is stunning, as are the views from it
down the narrow side streets.
La Cohue , which fills
a block between rue des Halles and place du Cathédrale,
recently became the Musée de Vannes (June-Sept daily 10am-6pm;
rest of year Mon & Wed-Sat 10am-noon & 2-6pm, Sun 2-6pm;
26F/?3.96), having served at various times over the past 750
years as high court and assembly room, prison, revolutionary
tribunal, theatre and marketplace. Upstairs it still houses the
dull collection of what was the local Beaux-Arts museum, while
the main gallery downstairs is the venue for different temporary
exhibitions.
Opposite La Cohue the Cathédrale
St-Pierre is a rather forbidding place, with a stern main altar
almost imprisoned by four solemn grey pillars. The light - purple
through new stained glass - illuminates the desiccated finger
of the Blessed Pierre Rogue, who was guillotined on the main
square in 1796. For a small fee, in summer you can examine the
assorted treasures in the chapterhouse, which include a twelfth-century
wedding chest, brightly decorated with enigmatic scenes of romantic
chivalry.
West of the cathedral and
housed in the sombre fifteenth-century Château Gaillard
on rue Noé, the Musée Archéologique is said
to have one of the world's finest collections of prehistoric
artefacts (April-June & Sept-Oct Mon-Sat 9.30am-noon &
2-6pm; July & Aug Mon-Sat 9.30am-6pm; rest of year Mon-Sat
2-6pm). But much like the displays at Carnac, it's all pretty
lifeless - some elegant stone axes, more recent Oceanic exhibits
by way of context, but nothing very illuminating.
Vannes' modern aquarium
(daily: June-Aug 9am-8pm; rest of year 9am-noon & 1.30-7pm),
in the Parc du Golfe 500 metres south of place Gambetta, claims
to have the best collection of tropical fish in Europe. Certainly
it holds some pretty extraordinary specimens, including four-eyed
fish from Venezuela that can see simultaneously above
and below the water, and are also divided into four sexes for
good measure; cave fish from Mexico that by contrast have no eyes
at all; and arowana from Guyana, which jump two metres out of
the water to catch birds. A Nile crocodile found in the Paris
sewers in 1984 shares its tank with a group of piranhas.
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