Gateway to 300 Loire Valley châteaux and the self-proclaimed purest French in France — a university city at the confluence of the Loire and Cher where medieval streets, Renaissance hôtels particuliers, and the region's legendary goat cheeses, pork rillettes, and Vouvray wines converge
Tours (140,000; metro 310,000) in Indre-et-Loire is the de facto capital of the Loire Valley (UNESCO World Heritage Site) — France's 'Garden of Eden', lined with over 300 royal châteaux including Chambord, Chenonceau, and Amboise within an hour's drive. The city is famous in France for speaking the most 'classically pure' French, shaped by centuries of royal court residence (French kings lived in the Loire Valley to escape Paris plague outbreaks). The Place Plumereau medieval square — half-timbered buildings around a cobblestone triangle — and the Gothic Cathedral Saint-Gatien (begun 1170) an…
Caesarodunum was a significant Roman provincial city and the seat of Martin of Tours (316–397 CE), who as Bishop of Tours became one of the most influential saints of the medieval Church — the Tour Saint-Martin, where his tomb was venerated, drew more pilgrims than Rome itself by the 8th century, making Tours one of the principal stops on the Via Turonensis (one of the four main pilgrim routes to Santiago de Compostela). Charles Martel's victory over an Umayyad invasion force at the Battle of Tours/Poitiers (732 CE), fought on the plain between Tours and Poitiers, halted the northward advance…