Participating in an activity in Rennes

One of my favorite things about Rennes has been some of the great things I’ve gotten to do with the community here, all of the activities that are possible at the neighborhood houses. These are small community centers in Rennes that are hubs of the community and offer classes, gyms, and internet access. I end up spending a lot of time either at the neighborhood house in my neighbohood or with the people that I met there.

Every weekend on Sunday, I go hiking with my host family and a small group of people who live in the neighborhood. While Rennes is a great city, it doesn’t have parks big enough for long multi-hour hikes, so we go to some of the small towns just outside of Rennes. The French countryside is absolutely beautiful, even in January and February France is still reasonably warm. 

While rain and mud can be a little difficult to walk through, these long hikes are always filled with great sites and good conversation with some very nice people. My favorite one so far has been one in Saint-Malo, a small coastal town about an hour north of Rennes. We started that hike in Dinard, a small historic town just across the bay from Saint-Malo. Thankfully is was a beautiful day with zero rain. The beaches of Dinard and Saint-Malo are very nice; they are pretty rocky, which led to some challenging but very good hiking. With the weather being so nice, we had a good look at the English Channel and all of the different fishing boats out on the water. Besides the beaches of Dinard and Saint-Malo, we hiked along the cliffs that sat on the ocean. These were very cool and, as someone that dosen’t go hiking a lot, it was very difficult. It was a lot of going up and down the cliffs as the path led us along the cliffs. We had stopped for a short time for lunch by the ocean before continuing. For me, one of the really cool things about this hike was the old World War II defenses that we hiked by. Because we are in northern France the coast is covered in these old defenses, and as someone who is super interested in history, this is something that I enjoy seeing while also getting some good exercise.

The neighborhood house is also great for special events also. Recently there was a small party at the neighborhood house. It wasn’t for any special reason or specific holiday, but there was a place to show off, buy, and sell plants that people had grown. People had hung up paintings that they had made all around the building, even in the back garden area where some others and I were playing Jeu de Palets Breton. A game similar to bocce, where you toss a small metal puck onto a wooden board, before competing to toss larger metal pucks closer to the small puck of your opponent. It is surprisingly difficult, as the way that you have to hold the puck to throw it, and not have it roll off the wooden board. By the time I finished playing, I had finally gotten okay at the game, but nowhere near the others that I had played with. At this party, I also had the chance to listen to some live traditional Breton music while watching and learning traditional Breton dance. Brittany has its own music and dance, and is very similar to the Celtic culture, but completely different from the rest of France. 

While in Rennes, I have been really enjoying the neighborhood houses as places to interact with the community, by going on hikes and celebrating art and culture.

Owen Ranus

Allegheny College

CIEE-Rennes Liberal Arts Spring 2026