Hotel du Cygne

Visit Tours Cathedral

by tiabunna

The Cathédrale St-Gatien, as it is more properly known, is an interesting construction, begun in the 13th century and not completed until the mid-1500s. Despite the range of styles, from gothic to renaissance, somehow the result is quite impressive, if looking a little as though some external cleaning might be due (photo 2).

During my visit an organist was giving the pipe organ (photo 3) a workout. There is simply nothing like listening to a good organ in the setting of an empty cathedral, the notes seem to hang in the air. Combine that with atmospheric lighting through the lovely stained glass windows and the high vaulted ceilings (photo 4) and it impressed even a non-religious bloke like me; so I stayed for some time and let the music and atmosphere wash around me. Should the organ be playing when you visit, it’s worth it to find a chair and settle back for a while.

The Chinon castle and view

by Pierre_Rouss

The Chinon castle covers a whole plateau which lies above the city of Chinon. You can get a terrific panoramic view of the castle from down there and even better from far away.
The visit is great, the castle being so large. You enters on one end and cross it while visiting various rooms, yards (one with war machines). The view from the top is great.
Classification: Hiking , Photography , Site Seeing

Tours

by June.b

"Tours - explore the chateaux dela loire"

The largest city in central France and the capital of the Indre-et-Loire department. A good base to explore the amazing chateaus of the Loire Valley.

Tours is my second stop on my eurotrip of 2010 -- from Paris

Since i already explored Paris 5 years back, slept a night at my friend's place - Carol - and decided to take the train (ticket bought online weeks back) to Tours. Not a really scenic 2-hour or so trip with the local SNCF train from Gare D'Austerlitz. The hotel I booked at Tours is juz exactly beside the train station at the center of the city, so great.

Took a walk in the morning along the pedestrian/shopping street and a block away from the hotel or on the opposite side of the train station entrance after the fountain/park is the tourist information center where i booked my chateaux full day tour. Costs Euro33 or something visiting 2 famous chateaux - Chambord and Chenanceau which I randomly choose from several options as I only have a day. It was a good choice though. The trip started at 1pm til 7pm, with a driver on a van with 6 more people. The trip was ok passing by the Amboise, but the 3 people at the back of the van never stopped chatting, a bit annoying but well..whatev.

There's not much stuff to do within Tours itself - couple of churches, art museum, pedestrian shopping, some parks - the usual. I juz used it as a base to see a couple of chateaus.

Took a lot of pix of Chambord and Chenanceau chateaux, the first one quite impressed me whereas the later - a pinch of disappointment - not as picturesque as I imagined it to be, still ok to visit.

After 3 days in Tours, I took the train back to Paris again for a night, then I took the budget airline Vueling to my next stop --- Barcelona.

Rachel Suns Tour of France Page

by rachel_sun

This page is about my nine day car tour of France.I left norfolk,England on Saturday morning and caught the Hoverspeed boat from Dover To Calais about 11am.We arrived in France at 12 noon.France is an hour ahead,so i adjusted my watch to 1 pm.We drove all the way down to the South Of France and Saw Montpellier and Cannes and then we drove back up France through the Alps.

The scenery here was stunning and i plan to go back next year.I miss sitting outside,listening to the crickets,sipping a glass of French wine and picnicing on the beautiful cakes-pizza slices and french stick rolls.We then stopped about half way up France for one night and on the last day,i got a boot load full of wine to take home with me.

The trip was a eye opener and i saw lots of lovely little French villages that time forgot and i also saw some big noisy cities(Cannes,Montpellier)that were very nice too.The food was some of the best ive ever tasted and the wine,well,yummy.

I enjoyed going to Champagne and tasting the beautiful different types of champagne.The tour of the huge tunnels under Mercier Champagne House was fasinating too.They went as far as the eye could see.I bought a bottle home with me and im going to crack it open on New Years Eve.I cannot Wait.

I enjoyed the trip,but i warn you,your bum will be numb for weeks afterwards.I think in total we travelled 2000 miles in nine days.I will add my pics now and info and tips shortly.