Indre-et-Loire: Tours, Chenonceau, and the Heart of Chateau Country
Indre-et-Loire is the heart of the Loire Valley chateau country. Tours, the prefecture, is a university city of about 138,000 with a restored medieval quarter around Place Plumereau. The department contains Chenonceau (the chateau spanning the Cher river), Amboise (where Leonardo da Vinci spent his last years), Villandry (famous for its gardens), and Azay-le-Rideau.
The Loire Valley was inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage cultural landscape in 2000. Vouvray and Chinon are the department's most important wine appellations. Chinon, with its ruined fortress above the Vienne river, is associated with Rabelais who was born nearby. Tours functions as a base for chateau tourism and has benefited from the TGV connection to Paris (seventy minutes). The population is about 616,000.
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Indre-et-Loire is the heart of the Loire Valley chateau country. Tours, the prefecture, is a university city of about 138,000 with a restored medieval quarter around Place Plumereau. The department contains Chenonceau (the chateau spanning the Cher river), Amboise (where Leonardo da Vinci spent his last years), Villandry (famous for its gardens), and Azay-le-Rideau.
The Loire Valley was inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage cultural landscape in 2000. Vouvray and Chinon are the department's most important wine appellations. Chinon, with its ruined fortress above the Vienne river, is associated with Rabelais who was born nearby. Tours functions as a base for chateau tourism and has benefited from the TGV connection to Paris (seventy minutes). The population is about 616,000.
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