Tours - Old Town

In Tours, to the west of the Hôtel Gouin is the old part of the town, centered on Place Plumereau, with numerous half-timbered houses. A walk through the streets between the Loire, Place Plumereau and the Place du Grand- Marché will give an impression of the character of the old town. The Tour Charlemagne in Place de Châteauneuf and the Tour de l'Horloge in Rue des Halles are all that remains of the great abbey church of St-Martin, built in the 11th- 13th centuries and destroyed in 1562 and 1802. The new basilica, with the tomb of St Martin, was built between 1887 and 1924 in neo-Romanesque/Byzantine style.