Rennes' surviving medieval quarter, bordered by the canal to the west and the river to the south, radiates from Porte Mordelaise, the old ceremonial entrance to the city. Just to the northeast of the porte, the place des Lices, is dominated by two usually empty market halls but comes alive every Saturday for one of France's largest street markets. The place was originally the venue for jousting tournaments, and it was on this spot in 1337 that the hitherto unknown Bertrand du Guesclin, then aged 17, fought and defeated several older opponents. This set him on his career as a soldier, during which he was to save Rennes when it was under siege by the English. However, after the Bretons were defeated at Auray in 1364, he fought for the French, and twice invaded Brittany.The one central building to escape the 1720 fire was the Palais de Parlement on rue Hoche downtown. Ironically, however, the Palais was all but ruined by a major conflagration in 1994, thought to have been sparked by a stray flare set off during a demonstration by Breton fishermen. Since then, the entire structure has been rebuilt and restored, and is once more topped by an impressive array of gleaming gilded statues. If you head south from the Palais de Justice, you'll soon reach the River Vilaine, which flows through the centre of Rennes, narrowly confined into a steep-sided channel. The south bank of the river is every bit as busy, if not busier, than the north, with a former university building at 20 quai Émile-Zola housing the Musée des Beaux Arts (daily except Tues 10am–noon & 2–6pm; €3.96). Unfortunately many of its finest artworks – which include drawings by Leonardo da Vinci, Botticelli, Fra Lippo Lippi and Dürer – are not usually on public display. Instead you'll find a number of indifferent Impressionist views of Normandy by the likes of Boudin and Sisley, interspersed with the occasional treasure such as Pieter Boel's startlingly contemporary-looking seventeenth-century animal studies, and Pierre-Paul Rubens' Tiger Hunt, enlivened by the occasional lion. The same building was long home also to the Musée de Bretagne, covering the history and culture of Brittany, which has been closed for several years while its exhibits are moved to a new, high-tech museum, due to open on the cours des Alliés in 2003. Heading south away from the river, rue Vasselot has its own array of half-timbered old houses, while the Colombier Centre, just west of the gare SNCF, is Rennes at its most modern – a mall packed with shops of all kinds, plus cafés and snack bars, and featuring an amazing crystal model of itself in its main entrance hall.
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