Castles & tourist sites

The favourite residence of the Kings of France during the Renaissance, the Royal Château of Blois is a true architectural and historical synthesis of the Châteaux of the Loire. Its four wings, each in a different style, and its monumental staircase around the same courtyard, offer an astonishing panorama of French architecture from the Middle Ages to the Classical period. In the royal flats, the magnificent restored polychrome decorations, furniture and paintings evoke the daily life of the Court and power during the Renaissance. The private chambers of François I and the royal chambers of Catherine de Medici and Henri III, where the Duke of Guise was murdered in 1588, are steeped in the major events of French history.

Housed in a castle, the Grand-Pressigny Prehistory Museum presents the evolution of Man and his way of life over 200,000 years. Life-size reproductions of emblematic animals and humans enhance the sense of immersion in prehistory. The museum's rich collections invite visitors to explore the social, technical and economic aspects of prehistory, with a particular focus on the phenomenon for which Touraine is best known archaeologically: the Grand-Pressigny flints.

In the heart of Angers, a city of art and history, enter the vast fortress overlooking the River Maine. Marvel at the elegant buildings and gardens of the court castle of the Dukes of Anjou and admire the largest surviving medieval tapestry: the Apocalypse hanging.

In a preserved setting, 20 minutes from Tours, the Domaine de Candé takes you on a tour of a unique château in Touraine. The place of the wedding of the century, residence of great fortunes from the 1930s to the 1970s, it presents a tour of 20 fully furnished rooms, decorations in Cordoba leather or Touraine silks, bathrooms in glass mosaics, a Skinner organ on 3 floors, 1,000 m² of wine storehouses equipped with the latest presses, a Bell telephone exchange, a fitness room with equipment equivalent to that on the Titanic... The 230-hectare park with its century-old trees offers 2 hiking trails, contemporary artworks and atypical games. Don't hesitate to take a picnic with you!