Tours

An old-town square framed by 15th-century timber-framed houses, every ground floor spilling a bar terrace. Students fill the city, so the later the night, the busier it gets. By day the carved woodwork of the facades can be studied in peace.

Building took centuries, so the lower facade is Gothic and the twin tower tops are Renaissance. Inside lies the tomb of Charles VIII's young children. The Psalette cloister on the north side is ticketed separately and reached up a creaking spiral stair.

Arches in the Cher carry a gallery, so the castle spans the river. Women owners shaped it over generations, hence the nickname Chateau des Dames. Trains from Tours take about half an hour; just after morning opening, before the coaches, is quietest.

Better known for gardens than castle, above all an ornamental kitchen garden of cabbages, leeks and more laid out in geometric patterns. Planting changes by season, so spring and autumn designs differ. The patterns read properly only from the hill behind.

A Loire-side town with a royal castle, where Leonardo da Vinci lies in the chapel of Saint-Hubert. Clos Luce, the manor of his last three years, sits a few streets off, its garden holding full-size builds of his machine designs.

A Renaissance castle built on an island in the Indre, its facade mirrored in the surrounding water. Trains run from Tours, making it one of the easier chateaux to reach car-free. The reflection is sharpest on a still morning.

The crypt holds Saint Martin's tomb, a magnet for medieval pilgrims. The old church was razed after the Revolution; rebuilding began as the 19th century waned. Its two end towers, Charlemagne and Clock, survive across the street, hinting at its size.

A covered market hall where every butcher stacks rillettes and rillons for sale. Goat cheese stalls let you pick Sainte-Maure by ripeness. An open-air market sets up around it on Wednesday and Saturday mornings.

An open-air bar that sets out wooden chairs and string lights on the Loire bank through the summer, with music and dancing every evening. It sits by the sandbanks below the bridge, so you drink watching the river turn red at sunset. It packs up in autumn.

A museum of masterpieces French craft guild members made to earn their status, covering the apprenticeship system UNESCO lists as intangible heritage. Exhibits include fingernail-sized staircase models and buildings made of sugar, so lean in close.

Set in the old archbishops' residence next to the cathedral, it owns paintings by Mantegna and Rembrandt. A huge cedar of Lebanon planted in 1804 spreads over the courtyard. In a shed beside it stands Fritz, a stuffed circus elephant who died in Tours in 1902.

A former priory on the Loire west of town, where the poet Ronsard served as prior, died and lies buried. Rose gardens surround the ruined church. Late May into June brings the fullest bloom.

The largest Loire chateau, built by Francis I in his hunting grounds, with a double-helix staircase at its heart on which two people climb without meeting. Chimneys and turrets crowd the roof terrace like a forest. From Tours the drive runs near sixty minutes.

A medieval fortress strung along a cliff above the Vienne, where Joan of Arc first met Charles VII in 1429. From the walls you look over the slate roofs of Chinon and the river. Afterwards, riverside wine shops pour the local red.

A castle above the Loire that Catherine de Medici bought, then passed to Diane de Poitiers. Its yearly International Garden Festival opens in spring and lasts the summer until autumn, filling the grounds with dozens of designer gardens. Allow half a day.

The castle where Charles VIII married Anne of Brittany in 1491, a scene now staged with wax figures. The garden behind holds the ruin of a stone keep raised in the late 10th century. A train ride of about twenty minutes links it to Tours, easy without a car.

A white stone chateau lived in by the same family for centuries, the model for Marlinspike Hall in the Tintin comics. The rooms keep their furniture and paintings as a family home. At its hound kennels, visitors watch the pack fed at a set time.