"Tours" Tours by June.b

The largest city in central France and the capital of the Indre-et-Loire department. A good base to explore the amazing chateaus of the Loire Valley.

Tours is my second stop on my eurotrip of 2010 -- from Paris

Since i already explored Paris 5 years back, slept a night at my friend's place - Carol - and decided to take the train (ticket bought online weeks back) to Tours. Not a really scenic 2-hour or so trip with the local SNCF train from Gare D'Austerlitz. The hotel I booked at Tours is juz exactly beside the train station at the center of the city, so great.

Took a walk in the morning along the pedestrian/shopping street and a block away from the hotel or on the opposite side of the train station entrance after the fountain/park is the tourist information center where i booked my chateaux full day tour. Costs Euro33 or something visiting 2 famous chateaux - Chambord and Chenanceau which I randomly choose from several options as I only have a day. It was a good choice though. The trip started at 1pm til 7pm, with a driver on a van with 6 more people. The trip was ok passing by the Amboise, but the 3 people at the back of the van never stopped chatting, a bit annoying but well..whatev.

There's not much stuff to do within Tours itself - couple of churches, art museum, pedestrian shopping, some parks - the usual. I juz used it as a base to see a couple of chateaus.

Took a lot of pix of Chambord and Chenanceau chateaux, the first one quite impressed me whereas the later - a pinch of disappointment - not as picturesque as I imagined it to be, still ok to visit.

After 3 days in Tours, I took the train back to Paris again for a night, then I took the budget airline Vueling to my next stop --- Barcelona.