Top 10 Things to Do In Tours

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Top 10 Things to Do In Tours

On the West of France lies the administrative centre of the Indre-et-Loire department and the largest city in the Centre-Val de Loire region of France, Tours. The city of Tours stands in the lower reaches of the Loire River, between Orleans and the Atlantic coast. The beautiful city is also the endpoint of the famous annual Paris-Tours cycle race.

1. ZooParc de Beauval

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If you are an animal lover, you will enjoy a visit to the ZooParc de Beauval. Home to 8,000 animals belonging to 600 different species, ZooParc de Beauval covers an area of around 30 hectares. On your visit, you will encounter extraordinary animals, including white tigers, white lions, manatees and okapis.

Marvel at the agile and playful sea lions as they show off their amazing balancing skills in the incredible surroundings of an aquatic amphitheatre. See owls, pelicans, cranes, storks, ibis, parrots and birds of prey take part in an incredible aerial dance!

Attractions include a hippopotamus enclosure, an African biotope, an aquatic habitat and native African animals and bird species.

2. Chenonceau Castle

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Enjoy access to Chenonceau site and its wonderful gardens. This bizarre castle was built on a bridge across the Cher River. To learn more about castle history, audio guides are available.

The castle is located near the small village of Chenonceaux in the Indre-et-Loire department. Chenonceau Castle, also known as the Chateau des Dames, is famous for the great heroines who lived there, such as Diane de Poitiers and Catherine de Medicis, and for the beauty of its Renaissance gardens. Chenonceau castle was also used as a military hospital during the First World War.

3. Visit the Tours Cathedral

The intricate details on the Tours Cathedral are a testament to the amount of time it took to be completed. The building began in 1170 and wouldn’t be finished until 1547, what this means is, upon your visit, you are met with a perfect summary of the evolution of gothic art. The ensemble of original 13th-century stained glass windows in the ambulatory chapels and above the choir is one of the finest in France, the glass even seems to generate its own light. The cathedral has information panels giving you the meaning behind each image. The marble renaissance tombs of King Charles VIII and Anne of Brittany’s children are present and quite moving, as both died in infancy.

4. Tours’ stellar museum of fine art

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If you follow French history, you will notice that all the riches from Cardinal Richelieu’s 17th-century campaign against the Huguenots and the art seized from abbeys during the Revolution all ended up at Tours’ stellar museum of fine art.

Because of their religious source, there’s a good body of Italian gothic primitives from the 14th and 15th centuries, while the two renaissance paintings by Andrea Mantegna are regarded as masterpieces.

You’ve got over a thousand artworks to get through, with sculpture by Rodin, Flemish and Dutch painting by Rembrandt and Rubens, and Impressionism by Monet and Degas.

5. Take a Seat at the Place Plumereau

The historic buildings on the pedestrian streets around Place Plumereau are effervescent cornerstones of local life, used as shops, restaurants and bars.

Place de Plumereau is at the heart of one of the largest conservation areas in Europe, with renaissance mansions showing sculpted reliefs or beamed timber houses still standing strong after hundreds of years.

Enjoy your trip and take a ride aboard the little train that departs to Place Plumereau.

6. Visit Hôtel Goüin

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Of Tour’s beautiful old buildings recently restored is the Hôtel Goüin.

Hôtel Goüin is an early-renaissance palace on Rue du Commerce, with a balustrade porch and beautiful terrace. During the restoration, they unearthed fragments of an older building from the 1100s, with four arches and a well, which are on show.

There’s also an archaeological museum inside with artefacts from Roman times up to the 1800s.

7. Tours Botanical Garden

The city’s municipal garden, even after being hit by bombs in the Second World War, doesn’t hint at the slightest suggestion of a troubled past with its serene gardens. Learn of new breeds of trees like the Chinese empress tree, ginkgo Biloba and the endangered dawn redwood.

This is a fun family tour as the park has farm animals for kids to bond with, as well as more exotic species like wallabies.

8. Explore the Belly of Tours

The gastronomists idea of heaven in Tours would be the “Belly of Tours” (ventre de Tours), the city’s indoor market.

Snap away at enlivening pictures of the vendors as they present their cheese, charcuterie, seafood and in-season fruit and vegetable with real panache.

If you’re stuck for gift ideas then markets like this tick the box as they’re stocked with all the best from the region. There is the wine from the Loire Valley and luxury chocolate. The city is one of France’s chocolate capitals, and every year holds the Salon du Chocolat de Tours at the Centre de Congrès Vinci.

9. Jardin des Prébendes d’Oé

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During the French Second Empire from the mid-1800s, English-style parks like this one popped up in provincial cities across France. This was a spot for urban families to take walks, kids to play and for the city to put on alfresco concerts at the park’s gazebo. There’s less of the formality of French parterres, as paths weave through tulip flowerbeds and copses of lime, plane, cedar, chestnut and lofty redwood trees. If you are in need of moments of restfulness, take a wander by the pond and pause for a tea or coffee at the kiosk. On warmer days you can load up on cheese and charcuterie at the market and have the perfect French picnic.

10. Enjoy the “Toue” River Cruise

Get onboard a commercial craft floated along the Loire and Cher over decades, moving people, wine, silk, lumber, salt and all sorts of other cargo up and down these rivers. Because the waterways can get very shallow they use flat-bottomed sailboats called “toues”, and you can too! Toues can carry between 12 and 30 passengers for hour-long trips, or even romantic dinner cruises in the evening.

The skipper knows these waters and banks exceptionally well and with the deck as your balcony, they’ll shed light on the Tours’ river trade along with its many colourful characters and perils.

Now you know the top 10 things to do in Tours, Enjoy your visit to Tours, France.