My first impressions of Rennes

All summer, I was impatiently waiting for August—I got to go live abroad in France for a short time! I had been looking for an immersion experience in French, and Rennes was the perfect city, with a smaller population, less English speakers, and a much more unique cultural experience, all in a very short time frame that would let me fit a study abroad into my university schedule. There was no experience I was more excited and prepared for!

Though, to be completely honest, my first impressions of France were a lot like my reaction to coming to my university for the first time : “Oh, cool.” While there were certainly some cultural differences (that I’ll discuss soon!), a lot of things were similar to life in the United States, and this somewhat underwhelming reaction is the reason I was able to adapt to France more easily!

Getting to the airport, not much felt different. I already said that, but specifically, the airport felt just like the small airport I had left from. The roads were pretty normal, the streets seemed pretty normal (if not a little better at using the space between buildings), and shops and restaurants operated mostly the same. There were definitely some differences, though: restaurants were only open around mealtimes (12:00p.m.-2:00p.m. for lunch and 7:00p.m.-9:00p.m. for dinner are most common), most stores were closed Sundays, and many buildings opened later on Mondays.

After getting to know the town a little better, I also came to realize many more things, such as the immense care given to waste sorting and recycling, the excellent use of space (many city blocks are hollow to allow for common areas for apartments!), the greater importance for lunch and other mealtimes, and most importantly, the ease of access for the city’s public transportation system, which let me get just about anywhere I wanted whenever! These things were wonderful additions to life that I felt were absent in America, but in my opinion the city shares a similar lifestyle to other cities in the West. 

Coming to France provides a huge opportunity to change your life, grow your cultural awareness, and obviously, improve your French. I believe you can get the best out of it by clearing away your expectations coming to the country—instead of expecting certain things to be good, bad, or some other adjective, don’t expect anything and figure it out through your lived experience! (Though, obviously, ask about some cultural nuances like serving yourself at the table instead of assuming.)

Dylan Cedeno

Furman University 

CIEE-Rennes Liberal Arts Fall 2026