This was sort of an introduction to Tours as have many other more recent posts and pictures of sights there. However, would like to update revise this one with updated links and text as it is essencial Tours! Hope you enjoy it as I do.
We finally reach our final destination Tours. As usual, we have been in town briefly, or in route, but never really saw much or if did it was a loong time ago with no pictures. Therefore, we finally reach Tours and it was nice to merit a return trip asap! And we did , see posts.
Tours, a city on the banks of the Loire and Cher rivers in the department 37 of Indre-et-Loire,as seat of the area and of the metropolitan region of Tours Métropole Val de Loire. It is in the administrative region of Centre-Val-de-Loire.
We came by car as always , and we found it not bad even with only one way streets! Easy parking at Indigo Nationale rue Emile Zola off the rue Nationale. Safe and clean parking walking to everything. It is cover by the A10 for most of its territory beltway and it has a circle from which five highways come out; some of these are, A10 north towards Paris, and south towards Poitiers/Bordeaux, A28 towards Le Mans/Rouen, A85 west towards Angers, and A85 east towards Vierzon and junction with the valley of the Rhône. Many other secondary roads such as the N76, N138 allowing you to connect to the city and regional capitals such Limoges on the N147. And the ones we took the D37 and D751 along the Loire river.
A bit of history I like
It is the old Caesarodunum founded by Cesar Auguste, capital of the 3rd Legion with one of the biggest amphitheaters of the Roman empire. Sanctuary of Saint Martin, Gregory of Tours, and Alcuin under the Merovingian and Carolingians with adoption by the Capétiens of the Tournais pound, the money that will become the money of the Kingdom of France. Capital of the County of Tours that will become Touraine the garden of France, royal capital under the Valois with its Castles of the Loire, capital of the kingdom for kings Henri III and Henri IV during the war of Religions and city of retreat in 1940 that had it in part destroyed in WWII. Good to mention the old bridge or Pont de Pierre over the Loire was renamed in July 1918 with the name of Woodrow Wilson ,president of USA from 1912-1920 for the help during WWI . Since then, culinary city as gastronomy enclave with specialties such as the rillettes ,and rillons, the wines touraine of the Val de Loire and it’s cheeses such as the AOC Sainte-Maure-de-Touraine (my favorite !) and the nougats of Tours.
There is lots to see here and one day is not enough , however, we have come for short periods before many years back, and it was time to revisit the city, now we should be back to see more, and as said we did! So much to see in my belle France, the Valley of the Loire alone will take a lifetime!!
The city of Tours is a city of Art and History designation ,been a historic city name to the Unesco world heritage sites. As an anecdote ,Tours sometimes is call the Little Paris by visitors because maybe for its history, the architectural arrangement of its boulevards in the center town and buildings in white stone ,nice and clean silhouettes.
We went out of our hotel into glorious Tours. At the square François Sicard with it’s nice garden park you are facing the museum of fine arts or musée des Beaux-arts , right in the center of the garden a cedar of Lebanon tree that goes back to 1804! There is an elephant Fritz that was belong to the Barnum and Bailey circus (Fl USA) and donated to the city of Tours it is stuff there in a glass enclosure the elephant died in 1904! This will help you go further to see the most important French collection of Italian primitive arts after the Louvre…This all behind the white facade of the old 18C Episcopal palace or Palais des Archevêques, and paintings such as Mantegna, Boucher, Debré, and Zao Wouki, etc, sculptures, ceramic, furniture and others objects of art awaits you! Right next to it is the gracious silhouette of Saint Gatien Cathedral or Cathédrale Saint-Gatien ,name after the first bishop of Tours; majestic towers, splendid stained glass, big wonderful organ and the tombs of the children of Charles VII and Anne de Bretagne (Anne of Brittany).
We continue our walks into the old street of Grand-Rue du Moyen Age, now call rue Colbert. Here all is picturesque with old cafes and shops and authentic houses of the 15-16C. We took a detour into the rue de la Scellerie with ambiance the district of the antiques shops, book shops, and china porcelain , to the right you see the flamboyant façade of the Grand Théatre, dating from 1875.
Following our thirst for sights we took on one old reliable the rue Nationale ,this is the old rue royale that link Paris with Spain of old, now with a perspective north south of 7 km long!! There is a Galeries Lafayette ,and the wonderful Galerie Nationale shopping mall. And the great boutiques in city center at rue Nationale , especially come in for the Le Comptoir de Mathilde ,72 rue Nationale (branches all over France) , great chocos cookies etc to bring home! webpage: https://www.lecomptoirdemathilde.com/fr/
Stop by the truly remarkable tour Charlemagne, in the district of Châteauneuf and reaching the square of the same name you come to the wonderful Saint Martin Basilica or Basilique Saint-Martin in rue des Halles. It was built in the néo byzantine style by local architect Victor Laloux , the interior is awesome beautiful, glass, stone of gray marble, the tomb of Saint Martin in the crypt with beautiful harmony and spaces. Pope John Paul II visited here and offered a Mass to the poor in 1996.
The lively rue des Halles makes us come to the 21C ,and by the balcon of the Hotel de Ville and nice fountains. I found me an older paper picture so rather than a new post will include here even if pictures not from same year. You come to the train station or Gare de Tours ,one of the most beautiful in France off blvd Heurteloup. Wait we did shopped here at rue des Halles!!
We went by the Chateau de Tours in the oldest district of Tours next to the Loire river. built back to the 11C by the 15C it is designated a royal domain. It was practically destroyed in the 18C and only two towers remained used by the army from the French revolution, later serving as a barrack and left abandon until finally restored in the 20C ; today it houses cultural and heritage activities of the city of Tours.
We went to Le Damier Vert and got chocolates, nougats, marshmallow candy, and chocolate telephone tablets all home made; wonderful place at rue des Halles. webpage: https://www.ledamiervert.fr/
And we had our late night dinner in the best international style at Amadeus Bagel with Pastramis bagel , burgers bagel, tex mex bagel , desserts such as abricot pies ,and sodas for under 16€ per person. Which sadly has closed. One good reason to do updates on older posts: keep it here for the memories we love it!
Oh yes I almost forgot we got our hotel , the Hôtel Moderne at 1-3 rue Victor Laloux off the blvd Heurteloup and very nice friendly service , centrally located on foot to all. It has acceptable rooms and good bathrooms, with reading room and wifi, only drawbacks no parking and expensive 9€ breakfast so we ate out. The parking was done at Indigo Nationale at rue Emile Zola nice easy 2 min walk to hotel but we pay extra 17€. The rooms were at 50€ ok. webpage: http://moderne.tourshotelsweb.com/en/
The city of Tours on its heritage in French: https://www.tours.fr/5-decouvrir-tours.htm
The Tours tourist office in English: https://www.tours-tourism.co.uk/
And this was Tours in a nutshell , of course lots more to see and enjoy this wonderful city of the Touraine. There are those that said the purest French is spoken here… All to come in as we did and did come back again… Enjoy Tours!!
And remember, happy travels, good health, and many cheers to all!!!
Paris1972-Versailles2003 