One day in Tours
Tours Town Hall
Tours is located in the centre-west of France and is the biggest city in the Centre Region.
Lying at the crossroads of European north-south and east-west communication routes, Tours is just an hour from Paris by TGV. As a real motorway and railway hub, the city is easy to get to and also has its own international airport. Consequently it enjoys major tertiary economic development.
Tours has a wide range of objectives and projects in hand, including creation of two tramway lines, the first of which will be in service in 2013, creation of an LGV (high-speed line) between Bordeaux and Tours, establishment of an Olivier Debré Foundation in the city centre, building of a centre for music of bygone days, set-up of a graphic arts centre and restructuring of the Vallée du Cher Stadium.
A city charged with history
In the Gallic era, the Varennes between the Loire and the Cher were rich, densely populated lands occupied by the Turones. The city was founded under Roman authority in the 1st century AD, and was originally named Caesarodunum (“Caesar’s hill”). It was later renamed Civitas Turonorum, an appellation finally modified to Tours.
The city housed one of the Empire’s five largest amphitheatres.
In the medieval Christian west, Tours was a city of pilgrimage and a major cultural centre, as well as being an indirect stop-off on the Way of Saint James of Compostela.
Touraine became a real French capital between 1450 and 1550, permanent city of residence for its kings and a centre of courtly splendour. Louis XI developed a wide range of activities there, including the silk industry, and a long tradition of opening up to new activities, helped along by the passage of Companions of the Tour of France, continued under François I. The sovereigns further bestowed their favour on Tours by providing the city with a modern road and magnificent aligned bridges.
The Renaissance provided Tours and Touraine with many mansions and châteaux, which now bear the collective name “Châteaux de la Loire”.
When inland water transport became a thing of the past, the arrival of the railway in 1854 ensured the city’s hegemony once and for all. In the 20th century, Tours became a demographically dynamic agglomeration, focusing economically on tertiary sectors of activity.
Tours today
Tours provides opportunities for a whole range of visits to monuments, sites, museums, religious edifices, parks and gardens, as well as a “Loire by bike” itinerary (800 km of bicycle paths). Magnificent old neighbourhoods, such as those in the Vieux Tours district with its Place Plumereau, around Saint-Gatien Cathedral and in the Châteauneuf district where the Saint-Martin Basilica stands, are also well worth exploring.
Tours is endowed with a “grand theatre”, a regional dramatic arts centre, the region’s national conservatory and a national choreographic centre... The city also accommodates the region’s symphony orchestra and is a major French centre for the music of bygone days. A wide range of music festivals (such as the “Fêtes Musicales de Touraine” and the “Florilège vocal”) are held at a variety of venues throughout the year.
Finally, exhibitions of national scope are regularly mounted at Château de Tours, in the city, or on the banks of the Loire, with exhibitors including such names as Ousmane Sow, Joan Miro, Daniel Buren and Calder.
Tours is crossed by the Loire, France’s last wild river and listed as UNESCO World Heritage.
Developments and prospects…
A technopole of life sciences and technologies, Tours is home to a number of well-know medical and pharmaceutical research bodies, with major companies including pharmaceutical laboratories and medical equipment manufacturers located there alongside such service activities as banks, insurance companies and call centres.
Tours also means 3 competitive clusters…
- S2E2 : Electrical energy sciences and systems
- Cosmetic Valley : Sciences of beauty and wellbeing
- Elastopole : Rubber and polymer sciences