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Rennes divides neatly into two architectural worlds that sit a few streets apart. The medieval heart, centered on the Place Saint-Anne and the Place des Lices, is a dense forest of half-timbered houses, some dating from the 15th century, where the upper floors overhang the streets and the wood beams are carved into faces, foliage, and geometric patterns. This quarter survived a catastrophic fire in 1720 that destroyed most of the rest of the city, which is why the other half of Rennes is a composed 18th-century grid of grey stone buildings designed by architect Jacques Gabriel to replace what was lost, and why the two halves feel so startlingly different.

The Parlement de Bretagne, the former seat of the Breton parliament, occupies the center of the classical quarter and has been meticulous restored after a fire in 1994 lit during a fishermen's protest.

Its painted ceilings and gilded carvings represent one of the finest examples of 17th-century French public architecture outside Paris. The Musee des Beaux-Arts near the parliament holds works by Rubens, Canaletto, and a large collection of Pont-Aven school paintings, the Breton impressionists who included Paul Gauguin in his early career.