Vannes

Vannes is a walled port at the head of the Gulf of Morbihan, in southern Brittany, with about 54,000 people and more than two thousand years of history. It takes its name from the Veneti, the Celtic seafaring people whom Caesar defeated here in a naval battle in 56 BC — one of the few times the Roman army had to build a fleet to win a land campaign.

The dukes of Brittany kept their residence here and the Breton parliament sat in the town. It holds the label Ville d’Art et d’Histoire, and it has one of the best-preserved walled centres in the region.

The ramparts and gardens

The medieval walls stand almost complete on the eastern side, with towers, the Porte Prison and the Porte Saint-Vincent. Below them the Jardins des Remparts are laid out in formal beds along the Marle, with the old washhouses beside the stream — the classic view of the town, and the one on every postcard of Brittany.

The walk round the outside takes twenty minutes and is free.

The old town

• Cathédrale Saint-Pierre — thirteenth to nineteenth century, a compendium of every style that passed through, holding the tomb of Saint Vincent Ferrer
• La Cohue — the medieval covered market, now the fine-arts museum
• Place Henri IV and Place des Lices — the timber-framed squares, with the overhanging upper floors that Brittany does better than anywhere
• Château de l’Hermine — the ducal residence, rebuilt in the eighteenth century, on the walls
• Musée d’Histoire et d’Archéologie — in the Château Gaillard, with the Morbihan’s prehistory, which is a considerable subject given what stands at Carnac an hour away

Vannes et sa femme

On a corner of the Rue Noé, a sixteenth-century polychrome carving of a fat, grinning couple leaning out of a niche. Nobody knows who they were or what they meant. They have been the emblem of the town for four centuries, and the locals call them simply Vannes and his wife.

The port and the gulf

A canal runs from the walls down to the harbour, and from the harbour boats go out into the Golfe du Morbihan — an inland sea of some 12,000 hectares scattered with islands, of which the Île-aux-Moines and the Île d’Arz are the two you can land on. The cruise takes half a day and is the main reason many people come.

The gulf holds the Cairn de Gavrinis, a Neolithic passage tomb of about 3500 BC whose carved stones are among the finest megalithic art in Europe. It is reached only by boat from Larmor-Baden, and only in season.

Getting to Vannes

• By train — direct from Rennes, Nantes, Quimper and Brest; from Paris with a change at Rennes, or direct by TGV in about 2 h 30.
• By car — the Breton motorways are free: an hour from Rennes, Nantes or Quimper, 4 h 30 from Paris or Bordeaux. See parking in France.
• By air — Nantes Atlantique, an hour away, with connections across France.

Around Vannes

• The Gulf of Morbihan — boats from the port
• Carnac — 30 minutes, and about 3,000 standing stones
• Josselin — 45 minutes, with the castle above the Oust
• Rochefort-en-Terre — 35 minutes, one of the most beautiful villages in France
• Belle-Île — by ferry from Quiberon, an hour away by road

When to go

May to September for the gulf boats. The Fêtes d’Arvor in mid-August fill the town with Breton music and costume; the Wednesday and Saturday markets on the Place des Lices are among the best in Brittany at any time of year.

See Brittany and the cities of France.

Nearby

Other places on this site within easy reach, as the crow flies:

• Dinan — 103 km
• Locronan — 119 km

Weather in Vannes

This page in Russian: Vannes (Ванн)

Updated: 23 October 2026