Tours is a beautiful old French city in the heart of the Loire Valley, a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

According to Wikipedia, in the 4th century, a Roman soldier Martin came here, and shared his cloak with a freezing beggar. This story made the city one of the great sites on the route of pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela. Around 800, a scholar Alcuin run the abbey of Saint-Martin and spread the script our lowercase letters come from.

Kings, culture and politics came to Tours too: Louis XI invited Italian silk weavers, and the Renaissance kings filled the valley with magnificent  châteaux: Amboise, Chenonceau and Villandry.  Balzac was born in Tours, and Rabelais grew up near Chinon.  In 1870, the republican minister Gambetta escaped besieged Paris by balloon to join the government in Tours. The French Communist Party was born at Tours in 1920. The University of Tours is young: founded in 1969, it brought together pre-existing schools. The Palais des Congrès opened in 1993.

Now, food: don’t ask what it is, just try the rillettes, with a glass of red Chinon. In the evening, sit on a terrace on Place Plumereau among half-timbered houses, or on the banks of the Loire.

Locals say the purest French is spoken here. Come and listen between two sessions.

Tourist information can be found here: