2007 - When the plane landed at Tours my first impression was how small the airport was. Being used to Heathrow in London, I didn't expect a small area manned by two people checking passports with a white marquee outside for the entrance. I've since become used to France's tiny airports, often one room where baggage reclaim is in the same space. The shuttle bus then transported me to the city centre for 5 euros.Tours has two stations, and it's worth remembering that St.Pierre des Corps is NOT the station you need to get the shuttle bus back to the airport when you return. I think this one (in the photo) was just called Tours or Tours ville. I had a hair-raising experience trying to get back to the airport after choosing the wrong station on my return journey and nearly missing my flight.
For simplicity's sake I'm going to keep all the locations together, even though I end up returning to the same location to get my flight back home after visiting other towns and areas of France. It is therefore not in strict chronological order.
Each town or location will also be dealt with in a separate post.
The station where the shuttle bus drops you off is in the modern part of town. The tourist office is only across the road, so it's worth getting your town maps and anything else you need while you are there. The old (and more attractive) part of town is about a 30 minute walk from the station, and is also where the youth hostel is. Tours youth hostel is great because you get your own room and its also in a good location. It is a few minutes walk to Plumereau Square, which is the main square surrounded by bars and cafes, where most people seem to hang out.
I'd booked into the hostel in Tours for the first 3 nights, and had a detailed schedule to travel north to Le Mans youth hostel, and thereafter explore various towns and villages that seemed to be a good place to re-locate to, following the Sarthe river. I didn't realise until after this trip that an underlying desire was to live near one of France's many rivers, and the Loire seemed as good a place to start as anywhere else especially as it was easy to travel to Paris from here on the fast train. Even though I wish to move to a more rural location, I still don't want to be isolated in the middle of nowhere, especially as I don't yet drive. So my quest was to find the town I wished to live close to, and once that was decided I could then refine my search to the surrounding countryside. I intend to buy a bicycle initially, until I've taken driving lessons and passed my driving test, so any location would have to be no more than a 30 minute cycle away from a large town.
But actually there are no large towns in France outside of Paris and Toulouse, most towns being villages which you can explore by foot in a day.
The architecture of the old town took my breath away, as it was the first time I'd seen this many half-timbered ('colombage') houses in one place. I was less impressed by the river Loire, which looked muddy and uninviting. I was put off it even more after taking a stroll by the river one day and being followed by a stalker. I managed to lose him by walking very fast and ignoring whatever he was calling out to me, and walking over the first available bridge.
The weather wasn't helping either, as it rained most of the time I was there. You may think I should be used to this living in London, but actually the weather had a more depressing effect on me than anything London has put me through. After 3 days I just had to get out. The grey metallic sky seemed to be having a strange effect on me, it was closing in on me and making me feel suffocated, and I even started to feel sorry for the inhabitants who had to live beneath these grey leaden skies. The energies felt different, and although I had my route carefully planned out before arrival, I just discarded my plans because I knew I needed to head south. I decided to take it a day at a time.
I'd previously seen the long queues at the train station, so decided to get up early one morning to buy my ticket for going further south. The above photo was taken in the early morning after a downpour, when the streets were still quite empty and quiet. At the station you can't just get on any queue as each one is for a different purpose, and if you get on the wrong one you have to queue all over again. My mood improved after I'd purchased my train ticket to (hopefully) better climes, and I decided to take a day trip to Chinon, which is an hour by train from Tours. I'd already discovered all of Tours by foot, had been to the summer sales and bought some clothes, been to the park, the bars and the restaurants, where I was often relegated to an upstairs room by myself as I was dining alone. This is strange to me, this tendency in France to penalise customers who eat alone. There is absolutely no ambience in eating in a room by yourself where the waiter forgets about you and everything is happening on the ground floor. I think solo diners should be appreciated as much as couples or groups, so I now refuse to eat in any establishment that tries to do this.
For simplicity's sake I'm going to keep all the locations together, even though I end up returning to the same location to get my flight back home after visiting other towns and areas of France. It is therefore not in strict chronological order.
Each town or location will also be dealt with in a separate post.
The station where the shuttle bus drops you off is in the modern part of town. The tourist office is only across the road, so it's worth getting your town maps and anything else you need while you are there. The old (and more attractive) part of town is about a 30 minute walk from the station, and is also where the youth hostel is. Tours youth hostel is great because you get your own room and its also in a good location. It is a few minutes walk to Plumereau Square, which is the main square surrounded by bars and cafes, where most people seem to hang out.
I'd booked into the hostel in Tours for the first 3 nights, and had a detailed schedule to travel north to Le Mans youth hostel, and thereafter explore various towns and villages that seemed to be a good place to re-locate to, following the Sarthe river. I didn't realise until after this trip that an underlying desire was to live near one of France's many rivers, and the Loire seemed as good a place to start as anywhere else especially as it was easy to travel to Paris from here on the fast train. Even though I wish to move to a more rural location, I still don't want to be isolated in the middle of nowhere, especially as I don't yet drive. So my quest was to find the town I wished to live close to, and once that was decided I could then refine my search to the surrounding countryside. I intend to buy a bicycle initially, until I've taken driving lessons and passed my driving test, so any location would have to be no more than a 30 minute cycle away from a large town.But actually there are no large towns in France outside of Paris and Toulouse, most towns being villages which you can explore by foot in a day.
The architecture of the old town took my breath away, as it was the first time I'd seen this many half-timbered ('colombage') houses in one place. I was less impressed by the river Loire, which looked muddy and uninviting. I was put off it even more after taking a stroll by the river one day and being followed by a stalker. I managed to lose him by walking very fast and ignoring whatever he was calling out to me, and walking over the first available bridge.The weather wasn't helping either, as it rained most of the time I was there. You may think I should be used to this living in London, but actually the weather had a more depressing effect on me than anything London has put me through. After 3 days I just had to get out. The grey metallic sky seemed to be having a strange effect on me, it was closing in on me and making me feel suffocated, and I even started to feel sorry for the inhabitants who had to live beneath these grey leaden skies. The energies felt different, and although I had my route carefully planned out before arrival, I just discarded my plans because I knew I needed to head south. I decided to take it a day at a time.
I'd previously seen the long queues at the train station, so decided to get up early one morning to buy my ticket for going further south. The above photo was taken in the early morning after a downpour, when the streets were still quite empty and quiet. At the station you can't just get on any queue as each one is for a different purpose, and if you get on the wrong one you have to queue all over again. My mood improved after I'd purchased my train ticket to (hopefully) better climes, and I decided to take a day trip to Chinon, which is an hour by train from Tours. I'd already discovered all of Tours by foot, had been to the summer sales and bought some clothes, been to the park, the bars and the restaurants, where I was often relegated to an upstairs room by myself as I was dining alone. This is strange to me, this tendency in France to penalise customers who eat alone. There is absolutely no ambience in eating in a room by yourself where the waiter forgets about you and everything is happening on the ground floor. I think solo diners should be appreciated as much as couples or groups, so I now refuse to eat in any establishment that tries to do this.
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