Things to Do in Tours France: Sights, Stations and Chateaux Within Reach

Place Plumereau and the Old Town

Place Plumereau is the heart of Vieux-Tours, a square surrounded by half-timbered houses. Lonely Planet ranked it the best place in Tours for an aperitif, and the tourist office says Thursday evenings are the liveliest. There is no entry fee and no fixed opening time.

The streets around it hold the MUR of Tours street art wall and works by Blumonday and Gil KD, and the tourist office runs street art tours if you want them pointed out. Also in the old town is the Hôtel Goüin, a Renaissance building that now hosts exhibitions, and the Musée du Compagnonnage, which costs €6.60. The CCC OD contemporary art centre adds a modern counterpoint a short walk away.

Plan a loop of the old town in the late afternoon, then stay for dinner. Tours is an International City of Gastronomy and its signature dish is the rillettes of Tours, with nougat of Tours and Sainte-Maure de Touraine cheese close behind.

Saint-Gatien Cathedral

Tours Cathedral was built between 1170 and 1547 in French Gothic style. Work on the choir resumed around 1220 after an earlier start, and the nave was only finished in the 15th century, which explains the long build. The cathedral sits beside the former archbishops' palace, which is now the fine arts museum, so the two visits combine naturally.

Check the cathedral's visiting hours and the adjacent Psalette Cloister price on site.

Musée Des Beaux-Arts

The fine arts museum occupies the former archbishops' palace beside the cathedral. It keeps about 18,000 pieces and shows about 1,000 of them, with an Italian primitives collection and works by Rembrandt, Degas and Monet. The garden is a French formal garden with a protected Lebanon cedar and Fritz, a stuffed Asian elephant.

Full price is €8.40 and the reduced rate is €4.20, per the city museums tariff page. An audiophone adds €3 on top of entry. If you also want the Château de Tours, the Compagnonnage Museum and the Natural History Museum, the multi-visit card costs €14.50 for one entry in each of the four city museums.

Tours museums also give a reduced rate to anyone showing a Rémi train or bus ticket less than 24 hours old.

Basilica of Saint Martin

The present Basilica of Saint Martin was built between 1886 and 1924 by Victor Laloux in Neo-Byzantine style. It replaced a medieval basilica that was demolished after the Revolution, its stones sold in 1802. Saint Martin's tomb was rediscovered on 14 December 1860.

The Natural History Museum costs €5.40 if you are travelling with children and want a second indoor stop.

Les Halles de Tours

Les Halles de Tours is the covered market on Place Gaston-Pailhou in Vieux-Tours, with about forty traders. It is the place to buy rillettes de Tours, Sainte-Maure de Touraine goat cheese and nougat of Tours without sitting down to a full meal. Check opening days and hours locally before planning a food stop.

Come with cash and an appetite, then carry your purchases to the Loire embankment. The market sits inside the old town circuit, so it slots naturally between Place Plumereau and the cathedral. Food shoppers often combine it with a wine buy, since the Touraine vineyard between Montsoreau and Blois holds 17 appellations and Vouvray lies just east of the city, known for its Chenin blanc whites.

The Rivers: Loire, Cher and Guinguettes

Tours offers boat trips on the Loire and the Cher aboard a gabarre, a traditional flat-bottomed boat, or a toue cabanée, a covered houseboat style vessel. In season the banks fill with riverside guinguettes, open-air bars and tables, including the Guinguette de Tours sur Loire. Ask at the embankment for boat trip prices.

The Loire à Vélo route passes the city, and Tours bike hire runs from €18 a day for a standard bike and from €40 a day for an e-bike per the tourist office. Loire à Vélo Passes from April to September bundle bike hire, meals, wine tastings and chateau entries if you want a packaged cycling stay.

Tours City Pass 48h and Museum Tickets

The table compares the two saving options in Tours using figures from the Tours tourist office and the city museums tariff page. The City Pass covers a wider list including Villandry, while the museum card covers only the four city museums. Prices are in euros exactly as the official pages give them.

Tours Centre Versus Saint-Pierre-des-Corps

Tours receives 25 TGV connections a day from Paris Montparnasse in 1 hour, and Paris Austerlitz trains take about 2 hours. Tours station is a terminus, and most TGV trains serve Saint-Pierre-des-Corps instead, where TGV, Ouigo, Intercités, Interloire and Rémi Express trains call. The two stations are linked by rail shuttles, and the tourist office puts them 5 minutes apart.

If your ticket says Saint-Pierre-des-Corps, do not get off expecting the city centre, and vice versa. Tours sits about 238 km from Paris by road and the tourist office gives a driving time of 2 hours 40 minutes via the A10. By train the city is 2 hours 18 minutes from Bordeaux, 4 hours from Lyon and 6 hours from London.

Tours Val de Loire airport has flights to London, Dublin, Marseille, Porto and Marrakesh, and the tourist office variously puts it 10 and 20 minutes from the centre.

The Tram and Fil Bleu Buses

Tours runs one tram line, line A, which opened on 31 August 2013 and runs about 14.8 km. Trams run every 6 to 10 minutes between 7:00 and 20:00 on the Fil Bleu network, which also operates the city bus lines. Fil Bleu sells 24-hour, 48-hour and group passes, so a day pass covers a morning at the market, an afternoon museum and an evening in the old town without parking worries.

Check single tram fares at the platform machine. For visitors, the practical pattern is simple: use the tram or walk from Tours Centre to Vieux-Tours, then everything in the sights section is walkable.

Bikes and Regional Trains

Bike hire in Tours starts from €18 a day for a standard bike and from €40 a day for an e-bike, according to the tourist office. The Loire à Vélo route passes the city, and Loire à Vélo Passes from April to September include bike hire, meals, wine tastings and chateau entries. All Rémi regional trains allow bicycles on board, which makes one-way rides along the river workable.

Regional trains also connect Amboise, Chenonceaux and Chinon directly, and the TER to Chenonceaux takes 25 minutes with the station 400 metres from the chateau gate. Cyclists should note one conflict in the sources: the Amboise tourist office gives Tours to Amboise as 27 km, about 2 hours, while the Tours tourist office says 28.7 km. Either way it is a day ride along the Loire.

By Train and Bike on Your Own

The easiest DIY castle day from Tours is Chenonceau: a TER train takes 25 minutes to Chenonceaux station, which sits 400 metres from the chateau ticket office. Regional trains also serve Amboise and Chinon from the same network, so you can build two or three castle days without a car. If you prefer two wheels, hire from €18 a day and ride the Loire à Vélo east towards Amboise and its chateau, about 27 to 28.7 km away depending on the source.

For the full castle-by-castle picture including opening arrangements, see the Loire Valley castles guide and the Loire Valley map. Travelling from the capital first? The Paris to Loire Valley by train page covers the TGV leg in detail.

Small-Group Days Departing Tours

Chateau tours from Tours are covered page by page in the Loire Valley chateaux tours from Tours guide. In short, two departures matter most. The Chenonceau and Chambord day from Tours costs $240 per person, runs 8 hours with up to 8 travellers, and includes tickets and guided visits at both castles with pickup in front of the Tours Tourism Office. The Villandry and Azay-le-Rideau half-day costs $131 per person for 4 hours with entrance fees included. Lunch is not included on either tour, and neither offers hotel pickup.

Wine Add-Ons from Tours

Tours is also the practical base for Vouvray, Chinon and Bourgueil. The Vouvray Morning Wine Tour from Tours costs $143 per person for 3.5 hours, with a vineyard visit, two cellars and two tastings, and the Loire Valley Wineries Day Trip from Tours costs $174 for 8 hours covering a Chinon winery, a Bourgueil winery and a 2-hour lunch stop in Chinon. Independent drinkers can reach the Cave de Vouvray themselves, where a visit through 3 km of troglodytic galleries holding 6 million bottles costs €32 for two with an aperitif board, and the City Pass includes a guided tour with tasting there.

For the wider picture see the Loire Valley wine tour guide.