Ideas for rainy day activities in Touraine
Is the weather forecast calling for rain and fog over the weekend? Keep smiling: in Tours and Touraine, bad weather doesn't mean boredom! Taste culinary specialities, explore museums, take a dip without rubber boots, jump on trampolines, solve riddles... Discover our selection of activities to have fun and learn something new while you wait for the good weather to return.
![Personne admirant un tableau au Centre de Création Contemporaine Olivier Debré]()
Exhibition at the Centre de Création Contemporaine Olivier Debré
Learn about art in the museums of Tours
Keeping warm while admiring works of art? Head for the museums of Tours!
- More interested in contemporary creations? Choose the CCC OD and its temporary exhibitions!
- Looking for Renaissance, Italian painting or Impressionism? The Musée des Beaux-Arts is sure to delight!
- Fascinated by nature and animals? Don't miss the Museum of Natural History!
- Want to discover some unusual works? Housed in the former Saint-Julien Abbey in Tours, the Musée du Compagnonnage houses over 400 items made by journeymen and recounts their history and traditions.
- Do you love photography? The Château de Tours hosts temporary exhibitions on its four floors, in partnership with the famous Jeu de Paume in Paris. Don't wait any longer!
Too hard to choose? The Tours City Pass (24h - 48h - 72h) includes entry to these five museums at a preferential rate!
All these museums are included in our City Pass Tours (24, 48 or 72 hours) for visits at preferential rates:
Don't miss the Typography Museum. This intimate museum houses exhibits that trace a century of printing history, including monotypes, Hirondelle pedal presses from 1880 and Super Veloz, whose typefaces can be modulated ad infinitum.
![Coins des petits à la bibliothèque de Tours]()
Children's corners at the Tours library
Activities for children aged 7 to 99 in the libraries of Tours
Who said libraries were all about books? Tours' libraries also offer photographic exhibitions, creative or gourmet workshops, theatre performances or themed cinema screenings, exciting video game sessions, meetings with artists, concerts... there's a long list of events to suit all generations! Find the full agenda here.
![Dégustation des vins de Touraine]()
Touraine wine tasting
Discover the region and its specialities
Epicureans can discover the local produce of Touraine by tasting wines* or local products in a troglodytic cellar typical of the area. All the best addresses can be found in our ‘Wine & food’ section.
Food lovers will be able to wander the aisles of the Villa Rabelais gourmet library in search of the book that will make their mouth water! The library is also home to the Institut Européen d'Histoire et des Cultures de l'Alimentation (European Institute of Food History and Cultures), which has helped to make the French gastronomic meal and the French baguette a UNESCO World Heritage Site!*Alcohol abuse is dangerous for your health, consume in moderation.
![Conservatoire de la confiserie]()
Conservatory of Confectionery
And those with a sweet tooth won't be able to resist the Conservatoire de la Confiserie in Amboise. Nougats, calissons, pralines, berlingots, caramels, sugared almonds, pastilles... discover the secrets of making the sweets of our childhood by visiting the workshop, where the craftsmen work every day, and the museum housing the machines of yesteryear.
![Grand park New Jump]()
New Jump
Let off steam in the playrooms
Keeping teenagers occupied on rainy days can sometimes be a real headache... Here are some ideas for letting off steam and spending a memorable afternoon together. (PS: this also works for adults and outings with friends!)
- For budding acrobats, head to New Jump and its 2,000 m² of trampolines, where you can jump and do somersaults in complete safety. If you prefer climbing, the Arkose and Block'out bouldering gyms are open all year round, with no registration required!
- If you're a video game enthusiast, you'll love the action and fun of the solo sessions! At Tours Nord, you can drive a go-kart in the world of Mario Kart at Battlekart, or explore the pyramids or the depths of the ocean at Virtual Xperience in Tours Centre. South of Tours, in Saint-Avertin, older children can transform themselves into warriors of the future at EVA, an e-sports hall with two virtual reality arenas.
- For investigators at heart: show off your skills at the Get Out life-size escape game! Elementary, my dear Watson!
- If you want to travel to England without leaving Tours, try your hand at ‘shuffleboard’, an Anglo-Saxon game that combines pétanque, curling and shuffleboard at Shuffle Factory. This bar also has table football, pool tables and board games.
- For a TV-style challenge: in Tours city centre, Quiz Room welcomes groups to take on challenges and have fun. On a circular board, with a buzzer reminiscent of the greatest moments in TV shows, you compete in teams by answering questions as quickly as possible.
- For strikes, there are the Bowlcenter bowling complexes (at Les 2 Lions in Tours) and the Skybowl (Tours Nord).
![Château du Clos Lucé]()
Château du Clos Lucé
Learn more about the genius of Leonardo da Vinci
Follow in Leonardo's footsteps at the Château du Clos Lucé ! Aeroplanes, cars, helicopters, tanks... A collection of 40 models, based on Leonardo da Vinci's original drawings, is on display in four rooms in the basement. If the sun comes out, you can take a walk around the park and operate some twenty giant machines, including movable bridges, a flying machine and a paddle wheel.
![Cave Bourillon Dorléans]()
Bourillon Dorléans cellar
Visit a cave or a sculpted cellar
‘Journey to the centre of the earth’ in Touraine: just 15 minutes from Tours, you can visit the petrifying caves of Savonnières. This maze to the centre of the Earth is dotted with thousand-year-old stalactites and stalagmites.
Another option: combine AOC Vouvray wine tasting and a cultural outing at the Cave Bourillon Dorléans! In these troglodytic galleries dating back to the 15th century, more than 40 artists from the Touraine region, including Michel Audiard and Michèle Minière, have sculpted original works in the tufa stone.
A little further afield... In Panzoult, the cellar of Sibylle a former tufa quarry transformed into a sculpted space retelling the story of the Sibyl of Panzoult, written by Rabelais. At the end of the tour, you can taste a selection of carefully chosen AOC Chinon wines*.
*Alcohol abuse is dangerous for your health, consume in moderation.
![Spa du Domaine de Beaulieu]()
Spa at Domaine de Beaulieu
Relax at the spa
3, 2, 1 relax! To pamper your body and mind and take some ‘me time’, treat yourself to a wellness break at a spa. Estates, châteaux, top-of-the-range hotels... find out more about 7 places to take a break in Touraine in our article ‘Places to spend a day at the spa’.
![Piscine "La Plage" à Saint-Avertin]()
"La Plage" swimming pool in Saint-Avertin
A dive or a triple axel
If you're going to get wet, you might as well do it in one of the city's aquatic complexes!
The Centre Aquatique du Lac, just south of Tours, is a must, and Tourangeaux can swim in its 50-metre heated outdoor pool in both summer and winter. You can also enjoy the indoor pool, balneotherapy, giant slide and wellness area. In Tours Nord, head for the Mortier swimming pool, with its contemporary architecture combining wood and glass. A slow-moving river, water jets and massaging benches, a waterfall... a fun trail runs alongside the 25m pool. An adapted ramp provides access for people with reduced mobility. At the Thermes de Luynes, take a swim in the beautiful Nordic pool and relax in the wellness area with sauna, hammam and jacuzzi. Let your children have fun on the slides at the Ô Bleue aquatic centre in Fondettes, Bulle d'Ô in Joué-lès-Tours or in the water games at La Plage in Saint-Avertin (depending on the time of year).
Whether you're a triple axel pro or an avid skater, turn rainy days into happy ones at Tours' municipal ice rink!
We promised you wouldn't be bored in Tours and Touraine, even in bad weather!
