If your considering a visit to Tours France....don't.
The city center is near a university which dumps hundreds of " students" into the center's dozens of bars EVERY DAY, where the remain until the wee hours of the morning. Most are " free" for the first time and haven't learned the basic rules of drinking or how to party other than to be very loud and crude. Added to this are many street bums complete with mongrel dogs on a make-shift leash.
There is no evidence of any police or other controls
The center is poorly lighted and dark narrow alleys make the whole area a public toilet for man and beast making this the most filthy city center I've experienced....it's a combination of old New Orleans and the Bowery.
I found one good restaurant but others were uneatable, incompetent or simply scary.
There are a few 300+ year old timber homes ...that can be seen in other near-by cites that are well worth your time and efforts....but NOT Tours.
Posted by
Twin Cities of MN
5581 posts
An alternative to Tours could be Amboise. We've enjoyed it a couple times. We've only used Tours for the train station
Posted by
OP
3 posts
I agree that Amboise is a great place to visit ...and take your time ...lots to see and do...with good restaurants too
Posted by
2 posts
Although I disagree with smithwilliamg’s assessment of Tours — yes, there is drunkenness and loud party-making in the immediate area of the very picturesque Place Plumereau — there are many close-in neighborhoods of Tours that are very charming and very quiet, the neighborhood of the beautiful Cathedral of Saint Gatien, or the Rue de la Scellerie with its antique shops and the Opera House, for example.
A good alternative to staying in Tours would be the delightful medieval town of Langeais, some 25km downriver from Tours, which boasts a great medieval fortress, the Château de Langeais, complete with moat, drawbridge, crenelated walls, etc., as well as delightful gardens. In 1491, the château was the scene of of the wedding of the Duchess Anne of Brittany to King Charles VIII of France, which sealed the union of Brittany and France. The scene is reconstituted in one of the château’s 15 furnished rooms, which document the daily life of a French Lord in the late Middle Ages.
Although the last hotel in Langeais closed a few years ago, there are a number of B&Bs in the town, the leader being the charming L’Ange est Rêveur (“The Angel Is a Dreamer”), just across the street from the château and at the top of the main street, which is lined with tantalizing food shops. There is a great open-air market on Saturdays and an excellent restaurant, Au Coin des Halles, also in the main street. Just outside Langeais is a Carrefour Market. Langeais has a train station served daily by several regional trains to and from Tours.
Very close to Langeais are a couple of fantastic château-hotels, the Château de Rochecotte (Talleyrand’s former country estate) and the Château de Beauvois. Both are exquisitely furnished with excellent restaurants. I have stayed at both and can recommend them highly. A car would be necessary to stay at both places, however, as they are well outside the town. Rochecotte is surrounded by its own extensive park, and Beauvois lies in the middle of thick woods, both perfect for a romantic getaway.
My qualifications for writing about Langeais are that I have cousins who have lived there for several generations. Their beautiful Renaissance home, however, is not open to visitors. (And no, my cousins do not own or have a financial interest in any of the places I have mentioned.)