Photo spot in Carnac, Quiberon & the Gulf of Morbihan
Vannes: the old town and the ramparts gardens
Half-timbered houses leaning over the lanes, a complete ring of medieval walls, and formal gardens laid out along the moat below them.
About Vannes: the old town and the ramparts gardens
Get directionsVannes is the town at the head of the gulf, and it keeps a walled medieval centre that has survived largely intact. Inside, the lanes are narrow and the houses lean: Place Henri IV is the set piece, a small square of timber-framed fronts with carved beams and overhanging upper floors, and Rue des Halles and Rue Saint-Salomon carry the same thing with fewer people in the frame.
The walls are the other half. The best view of them is from outside: the Promenade de la Garenne looks down on the eastern rampart with the old wash-houses on the river below, and the Jardins des remparts fill the dry moat with box hedging and bedding in geometric beds — a formal French garden with a fourteenth-century wall as its backdrop. It is the frame most people photograph in Vannes and it is genuinely good, but it faces its best light in the afternoon.
Mornings belong to the lanes. Before ten the old town is quiet and the light bounces down between the timber fronts; by lunchtime the terraces are full and the same streets are a crowd. The Saint-Pierre cathedral gives a cool grey interior for a hot day, and the port, a short walk south, adds masts and a straight quay.
Parking is all outside the walls and the centre is pedestrian, so plan on walking the whole session. The gardens are municipal and free; the cathedral asks for quiet and for sessions to stay clear of services.
Best time to shoot
The lanes before ten in the morning; the ramparts gardens in the afternoon
Tips
Park outside the walls — the centre is pedestrian. For the classic frame, shoot the gardens from the Promenade de la Garenne, not from inside the moat.
Other spots in Carnac, Quiberon & the Gulf of Morbihan
The Ménec and Kermario alignments
Rows of standing stones running for kilometres across the heath — the largest concentration of megaliths in the world, and purple with heather in September.
The Côte Sauvage, Quiberon
Ten kilometres of low granite cliff, arches and blowholes down the western side of the Quiberon peninsula, with Atlantic swell arriving unbroken.
The Gulf of Morbihan from Larmor-Baden
A shallow inland sea of wooded islands, oyster racks and moored boats — seen from the low headlands and shore path west of Vannes.
Ready to book?
Our concierge team will hand-pick 2-3 photographers who know Vannes: the old town and the ramparts gardens — free of charge.