Tours

Tours is where most people stay while working through the Loire chateaux, and it is worth a day of its own. The Place Plumereau is a square of leaning timber-framed houses that fills with students from the university, and the lanes around it, Rue du Grand Marche and Rue Colbert, keep the same fabric. The cathedral of Saint-Gatien spans Gothic centuries with a Renaissance top to its towers and a cloister beside it. Of the great basilica of Saint Martin, once one of the largest pilgrimage churches in Europe, only two towers survive amid later streets, the rest pulled down after the Revolution; a nineteenth-century basilica holds the saint's tomb.

What you actually see

• Place Plumereau - a timber-framed square that fills with people at night.
• Saint-Gatien cathedral - Gothic building topped with Renaissance lanterns.
• The Saint Martin towers - two survivors of a demolished basilica.
• The old lanes - medieval streets between the square and the river.

When to go

April to October; the city is lively year-round because of the university. Summer is busy with chateau visitors. Wine and food markets run through the week.

Honest expectations

Tours is a working city, not a museum town, and parts are ordinary. Place Plumereau is noisy late. Most visitors treat it as a base rather than a destination, which is fair.

Nearby

Villandry, Amboise and Azay-le-Rideau are all within half an hour.