The Couvent des Jacobins hosts conventions, congresses, plenary sessions, seminars, trade shows and gala dinners, with a main auditorium for up to 1,200 people, 24 meeting rooms and 4,000 m² of exhibition and catering space. It is the congress center of Rennes Métropole, set inside a 14th-century Dominican convent in the historic center of Rennes, in Brittany.
Seminars and company events
The building is designed for events that combine a plenary, breakout work and an exhibition under one roof. Three main auditoriums can be linked by video, and the 24 meeting rooms take groups of 30 to 300, so a congress can split into workshops without leaving the site. Le Carré and the Grand Auditorium can be connected by retransmission for up to 1,500 participants. La Nef and Le Carré also suit product launches, keynotes, fashion shows and seated dinners. A general stage manager follows each event from setup to teardown, including the hour-by-hour schedule, and in-house technicians handle sound, video and lighting. The building has 120 Wi-Fi access points.
Rooms and capacities
The Grand Auditorium seats 1,000 in tiered oak seats with writing tablets, rising to 1,200 when the stage is used for seating. Its stage measures 21 by 13 m, a movable ceiling forms an orchestra shell, and the Orchestre National de Bretagne plays here every month. La Nef, the former convent church, holds 300 under an 11 m timber roof, with a retractable stage and removable seating. Le Carré is a flat room of 574 m² for 500 in theatre style, divisible into spaces of 330 m² and 260 m². The exhibition and catering areas cover 4,000 m² with daylight, spread between the cloister ambulatory and the floors of the contemporary extension. Most meeting rooms have natural light, and some open onto a terrace or the cloister garden.
Accommodation
There are no bedrooms in the building. The center counts more than 4,000 hotel rooms nearby, in the center of Rennes.
Catering
Meals, cocktails, buffets and gala dinners are provided by eight caterers referenced by the center, chosen against a specification that covers product traceability and waste recovery. Breaks favor local suppliers and short supply chains. Seated dinners and standing cocktails can be served in Le Carré, La Nef or the exhibition areas.
History and setting
The convent dates from the 14th century and was converted into a congress center that opened in 2018. The renovation architect, Jean Guervilly, set new elements against the Gothic structure. In La Nef, the artist Laurent Grasso installed Revolving History, a permanent work of 108 rotating brass prisms across the four Gothic bays. Between sessions, participants can step into the cloister garden and its ambulatory, or onto a large terrace with a view over the city.
Getting there
The center stands in the historic center of Rennes, about 1 h 25 from Paris by high-speed train. The Sainte-Anne metro station serves the square in front of the building. A drop-off zone is available at the entrance, and parking spaces for people with reduced mobility are on rue Contour Saint-Aubin. The building spreads over six levels, from -1 to +3, with elevators and wide aisles.
