version anglaise du site principale

Ille-et-Vilaine is a ?département? (county) full of natural and cultural diversity. Its 72 kilometres of coastline and its countryside include 50 ?environmental areas? and more than 700 km of cycle tracks and paths. Every year, the area plays host to numerous cultural and sporting events.

In the north, Ille-et-Vilaine has a seaboard including the Rance Estuary, the Dol marshes and 72 kilometres of coastline known as the Emerald Coast, stretching from Mont-Saint-Michel to Saint-Briac.
The département also has a series of plateaux with altitudes ranging from 50 to 120 metres and a dense network of waterways covering a distance of 5,000 kilometres.

Thanks to its efficient network of infrastructures, Ille-et-Vilaine is easy to reach :

• airports in Rennes/Saint-Jacques and Dinard/Pleurtuit/Saint-Malo (lien vers leur site Internet),

• harbour in Saint-Malo,

• motorways: A84 to Caen (1½ hours) , A11 to Le Mans and Paris (3¼ hours),

• toll-free dual carriageways to Nantes, Saint-Brieuc (1 hour) and Lorient (1½ hours),

• high-speed train stations in Rennes, Redon, Vitré, Dol-de-Bretagne and Saint-Malo (lien vers les horaires TGV).

The ?département? covers an area of 6,775 km2, one-quarter of the total area of Brittany.

Ille-et-Vilaine has:

• a population of 908,449 (official estimate, January 2006)

• 353 towns and villages including 8 towns with a population of more than 10,000: Rennes, Saint-Malo, Vitré, Fougères, Bruz, Cesson-Sévigné, Dinard and Redon,

• 53 cantons,

• 7 districts (?pays?) : Pays de Brocéliande, Pays des Marches de Bretagne (Fougères), Pays de Redon et de Vilaine, Pays de Rennes, Pays de Vitré (Porte de Bretagne), Pays des Vallons de Vilaine (Bain-Guichen-Le Sel) and Pays de Saint-Malo,

• 29 intertown structures.

For further information on the very best that Upper Brittany has to offer (natural and cultural heritage, cultural events, hotels, campsites, B&B in Ille-et-Vilaine, ideas for holidays and addresses of restaurants), contact Ille-et-Vilaine tourist board : www.bretagne35.com