Tours

We took the 9am bus into Tours and headed to the Tourist Office for a map. Thus armed, we headed toward the Botanical Garden.

It was a gorgeous walk. Tour is called Le Jardin de France and it deserves the name.

We found the Botanical Garden without trouble, and enjoyed our walk around.

There are fish in this pond. Can you see them?

In fact there are several different types of animals in the garden. We saw flamingos, a donkey, wallabies, lots of birds, and some emus.

There is also what must be one of the world’s biggest ginkgo biloba trees. Also groups of children enjoying the school holiday.

We had lunch at an outdoor cafe. It was a bit chilly and there was an indoor section, but we enjoy the fresh air. So glad there isn’t as much smoking in Canada. We then did what the tourist office said would be a two and a half hour walk around the old city. At the Musée des beaux arts we found another incredible tree. This cedar of Lebanon is 217 years old and pretty big! Then I compared it to the trees in cathedral grove on Vancouver Island. Some of them are more than 500 years old and much taller. You only have to travel to appreciate home.

We sunned in this garden for a while and toured Cathédral Saint-Gatien.

Notre Dame is bigger, but I think this one is prettier. Why did the church have all the riches. It certainly wasn’t from helping the poor.

Next we walked to the Loire River, past the Chateau de tours, which really wasn’t even worth a photo. This suspension bridge is marvellous though. It’s only for pedestrians and cyclists and quite bouncy! There was a massive group of cyclists meeting and crossing the entire time we were there. Ma sœur thought they were Randonneurs.

The bridge in the background is Pont Wilson, and that’s the Municipal Library on the left. That’s the chateau in the background.

Then we came across the old area of Tours. The city was damaged in both world wars, but there are sections of older area remaining.

On our way back toward city centre we took Rue Nationale. It’s a major shopping street and at one time linked Paris to Spain! There’s a track down the centre but there was no tram today, as they were working on the track.Next we gave ourselves a treat and took Le Petit Train around town. It felt good to sit for a while. (I’m not going to mention the pastries we sat and ate near this guy).

One of the things we saw from the little train was the copper topped Municipal Library. I’m quite fond of librarians.

The train took up past things we had already seen. We were glad we had done it in the order we did because we saw more while walking, and learned a few things from the commentary in the train.

I leave you with a pic of Tours’ robust cafe scene (Place Plumereau) and the top half of the Hôtel de Ville. We are now safely back in Loches and looking forward to our croissants this morning.