Antrain: Holiday Apartments and Holiday Homes

Antrain lies at the confluence of the Couesnon and Loysance rivers. The town flourished in the 16th century; its historic heyday can still be seen today in its houses, manor houses and château.

History and Townscape

In the Loysance district, a converted and renovated washhouse stands beside a canalised section of the Loysance. Until the 1970s, around twenty professional washerwomen worked there. The district is also home to the Fontaine de l’an II, which for a long time was the only spring supplying Antrain’s households with drinking water.

The “Pont, le Couesnon” bridge consists of three pointed arches. It was probably built at the end of the Middle Ages on the site of an older Gallo-Roman bridge. At Saint-André Church, the south portal of the nave is called the “Porte des femmes” because women passed through it after giving birth to receive the church’s blessing.

Landscape and Nature

The Château de Bonnefontaine was built in the 15th century on the orders of Anne of Brittany’s chamberlain. In the 19th century, Denis and Eugène Bühler created a large English-style landscape park there in the Romantic style. Today, the Parc du Château de Bonnefontaine is a 25-hectare English-style landscape park with a romantic design, expansive vistas, plantings and successive groups of trees and shrubs.

Downstream from Antrain lies the Marais de la Folie, an area designated as an Espace naturel sensible by the Ille-et-Vilaine département.

Routes and Discoveries

The Fougères–Antrain Voie verte crosses Val-Couesnon, follows a former railway line and connects to the Voie verte de la baie du Mont-Saint-Michel. The VD4 cycle route runs from Antrain to Saint-Pern in the Pays de Brocéliande and is 70 km long.

The Circuit de découverte d’Antrain passes through the town and features 12 sights: the church, town hall, half-timbered house, prison, washhouse, Aumaillerie, Place Foch, Cercle Antrainais, Hôtel Grand Maison, Rue René Le Hérissé with its houses, Logis de la cour-Guinetais and Auberge Notre-Dame. The geocaching experience “Une balade pleine d’Antrain” combines the discovery of little-known or unusual places with puzzles and clues, as well as a treasure hunt.

More pages about localities: Montreuil-sur-Ille, Saint-Suliac, Brie, Saint-Brice-En-Coglès, Piré-sur-Seiche, Roz-Sur-Couesnon, Chancé, Rennes.

For the overview of the wider travel region: Ille-Et-Vilaine.