Ramparts of Vannes

Medieval walls encircling the old town, with gardens below and towers above

The medieval ramparts of Vannes form an almost complete circuit around the old town, and walking the full length takes less than half an hour. The walls are best approached from the south side, where the fortifications drop down to the Jardins de la Garenne — formal gardens laid out along the river Marle in the seventeenth century, with the towers reflected in the water below.

You can walk along the top of part of the walls and through several of the gate towers. The Porte Saint-Vincent on the south-west corner is the grandest: a seventeenth-century baroque gateway with an ornate niche above the arch. The ramparts and gardens together make Vannes one of the most photogenic towns in Brittany, and they're free and open at all hours.

things to do sight
A story
The towers along the Vannes ramparts were each maintained by a different guild or trade during the Middle Ages — the butchers, the tanners, the cloth merchants each had their section of wall to defend. The Connétable Tower at the northern end is the oldest surviving part, dating from the thirteenth century when Vannes was a fortified stronghold of the Duchy of Brittany.