Tours 1

Tours is situated on the easy side of a hill on the river Loire; the streets are very long, straight, spacious, well-built, and exceeding clean; the suburbs large and pleasant, joined to the city by another bridge. Both the church and monastery of St. Martin are large, of Gothic building, having four square towers, fair organs, and a stately altar, where they shew the bones and ashes of St. Martin, with other relics. The Mall without comparison is the noblest in Europe for length and shade, having seven rows of the tallest and goodliest elms I had ever beheld. No city in France exceeds it in beauty, or delight.

18th (August). The Queen of England came to Tours, having newly arrived in France, and going for Paris. She was very nobly received by the people and clergy, who went to meet her with the trained bands. After the harangue, the Archbishop entertained her at his Palace, where I paid my duty to her. The 20th, she set forward to Paris.

Journal de John Evelyn, 1644

C’est la seule photo qui me reste d’un de mes séjours tourangeaux. Aujourd’hui je vais me promener en ville, aller au cinéma, dans une librairie. Je veux aussi aller au Musée, à la cathédrale et au château. Je sais que ce soir on va manger une bonne soupe maison... En passant près du café de l’Univers je penserai à Henry James qui a dormi là quand il était à Tours.

I am ashamed to begin with saying that Touraine is the garden of France; that remark has long ago lost its bloom. The town of Tours, however, has some thing sweet and bright, which suggests that it is surrounded by a land of fruits. It is a very agreeable little city. Touraine is essentially France. It is the land of Rabelais, of Descartes, of Balzac, of good books and good company, as well as good dinners and good houses.

A Little tour in France de Henry James (1900)