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'Tours' is a city in France, the ''préfecture'' (capital city) of the Indre-et-Loire ''département'', on the lower reaches of the river Loire, between Orléans and the Atlantic coast. Touraine, the region around Tours, is known for its wines, the perfection of its local spoken French, and for the famous Battle of Tours in 732. It is also the site of the cycling race Paris-Tours. Tours is the largest city in the Centre region of France, although it is not the regional capital, which resides in its second-largest city of Orléans. It has got 142.000 inhabitants in the city itself and 297.631 on the metropolitan area in 2006.
The U.S. sister cities of Tours are Springfield, Missouri (1984) and Minneapolis (1991).

Contents

History

Main sights

Tours Cathedral

Language

City

Transport

Miscellaneous

Catholics from Tours

Births

See also

External links

History

The name of the city comes from the ancient Gallic tribe called the Turones. In Roman times it was known as ''Turonensis'' or ''Caesarodunum''. The modern name, Tours, coincidentally corresponds to the French word ''tours'', "towers". In the mid-3rd century Gatianus (Saint Gatien) was sent from Rome to reorganize a small Christian community. Saint Martin of Tours was bishop of Tours at the end of the 4th century, and his tomb became a major pilgrimage site; the church of Saint-Martin was one of the great Romanesque pilgrimage churches, like Saint-Sernin in Toulouse and Santiago de Compostela, and the powerful bishops of Tours, such as Gregory of Tours, were personages to be reckoned with for the Merovingian kings.
The Council of Tours was celebrated here in 567.
The Battle of Tours (October 10, 732) was a significant event in the wars of the Islamic conquests. Charles Martel was able to defeat the Islamic army decisively and the battle has been remembered as the point in which Western Christians were able to turn the tide against the Muslim conquests in Europe.
The Touraine was a county at the time of the Carolingian rulers (AD 751 to 987). The Vikings pillaged the town in 853 and 903. By 1044 it was held by the counts of Anjou. During the reign of Philip II, the Livre Tournois (Tours Pound) was adopted as the international currency of France.
In the 16th and 17th centuries, Tours had a significant Huguenot population, many of whom had been responsible for the building of a huge silk industry. With the Edict of Nantes rescinded in 1685 and the resulting slaughter of thousands of Protestants, the Huguenots fled the country and the once flourishing silk industry of Tours vanished forever. Some of the Huguenots settled in Ireland where their weaving skills saw them establish some of the great Irish linen factories.
From October 7, 1870, to February 6, 1871, Tours served as the provincial capital of the Government of National Defense, conducting French affairs during the Franco-Prussian War. Léon Gambetta chose Tours to act as a secondary capital, as Paris at the time was under siege by the Prussian Army.

Main sights

Tours Cathedral

''Main article: Tours Cathedral''
The cathedral of Tours, dedicated to Saint Gatien, its canonized first bishop, was begun about 1170 to replace the just-started cathedral that was burnt out in 1166, during the quarrel between Louis VII of France and Henry II of England. The lowermost stages of the west towers (''illustration, right'') belong to the 12th century, but the rest of the west end is in the profusely detailed Flamboyant Gothic of the 15th century, completed just as the Renaissance was affecting less traditional patrons than bishops, in the pleasure châteaux of Touraine. These towers were being constructed at the same time as, for example, Château de Chenonceau.
When the 15th century illuminator Jean Fouquet was set the task of illuminating Josephus's ''Jewish Antiquities'', his depiction of Solomon's Temple was modeled after the nearly-complete cathedral of Tours. The atmosphere of the Gothic cathedral close permeates Honoré de Balzac's dark short novel of jealousy and provincial intrigues, ''Le Curé de Tours'' (''The Curate of Tours'') and his medieval story ''Maitre Cornelius'' opens within the cathedral itself.

Language

The inhabitants of Tours (''Tourangeau'') are renowned for speaking the "purest" form of French in the entire country. The pronunciation of Touraine is widely regarded as the most standard pronunciation of the French language, devoid of any perceived accent (unlike that of most other regions of France, including Paris). Gregory of Tours wrote in the 6th century that some people in his area could still speak Gaulish.

City

The city of Tours has a population of 140,000. Tours is called "Le Jardin de la France" ("The Garden of France"). There are several parks located within the city. Tours is located between two rivers, the Loire on the north and the Cher on the south. The buildings of Tours are white with blue slate (called ''Ardoise'') roofs; this style is common in the north of France (in the south of France, most buildings have terra cotta roofs).
Tours is famous for the old part of the city, called ''Le Vieux Tours'', with medieval half-timbered houses, and ''Place Plumereau'', a square with busy pubs and restaurants, whose open-air tables fill the center of the square. Boulevard Beranger crosses Rue Nationale at Place Jean-Jaures, and is the location of weekly markets and fairs.
Near the cathedral, in the garden of the ancient Palais des Archevêques (now ''Musée des Beaux-Arts''), is a huge cedar tree, planted by Napoleon.

Transport

Today, with its extensive rail (including TGV) and autoroute links to the rest of the country, Tours is a jumping off point for tourist visits to the Loire Valley and the chateaux of the kings.
Tours is on one of the main lines of the TGV. You can travel down the Western coast to Bordeaux in two hours and a half, or to the Mediterranean coast via Avignon and from there to Spain and Barcelona. It takes one hour by train from Tours to Paris by TGV and one hour and a half to CDG airport. Tours has two main stations, a central station and ''St Pierre Des Corps,'' which is just outside the center, and is the station which trains that don't terminate in Tours go through.
Tours Loire Valley Airport connects the Loire Valley to London Stansted Airport. This link is provided by the Irish airline Ryanair. National connection to Figari on Corsica is available during the summer, too.
Tours doesn't have a metro rail system, instead there is a very efficient bus service, the main central stop being ''Jean Jaures,'' which is next to the Hôtel de Ville, and ''rue Nationale'', the high street of Tours. A tram is planned to be built in the next few years.

Miscellaneous

Catholics from Tours

Tours is a special place for Catholics who follow the devotion to the Holy Face of Jesus and the adoration of the Blessed Sacrament. It was in Tours in 1843 that a Carmelite nun, Sister Marie of St Peter reported a vision which started the devotion to the Holy Face of Jesus, in reparation for the many insults Christ suffered in His Passion.
The Venerable Leo Dupont also known as The Holy Man of Tours lived in Tours at about the same time. In 1849 he started the nightly adoration of the Blessed Sacrament in Tours, from where it spread within France. Upon hearing of Sister Marie of St Peter’s reported visions, he started to burn a vigil lamp continuously before a picture of the Holy Face of Jesus and helped spread the devotion within France. The devotion was eventually approved by Pope Pius XII in 1958 and he formally declared the Feast of the Holy Face of Jesus as Shrove Tuesday (the Tuesday before Ash Wednesday) for all Roman Catholics.

Births

Tours was the birthplace of:

★ Honoré de Balzac (1799-1850), novelist

★ Berengarius of Tours (999-1088), theologian

★ Bernard of Tours (fl. 1147, d. before 1178), philosopher and poet

★ Yves Bonnefoy (born 1923), poet

★ Abraham Bosse (1604-1676), artist

★ Georges Courteline (1858-1929), dramatist and novelist

★ Emile Delahaye (1843-1905), automobile pioneer

★ Philippe Néricault Destouches (1680-1754), dramatist

★ Jean Fouquet (1420-1481), painter

★ Gabriel Lamé (1795-1870), mathematician

★ Nâdiya (1973), a famous singer

★ Philippe de Trobriand (1816-1897), author, American military officer

★ Louise de la Vallière (1644-1710), courtesan

See also

★ Bishop of Tours

★ University of Tours

★ Tours FC - a soccer club based in the town.

★ [[1]] National Choreographic Center of Tours - Centre for contemporary dance creation.

External links

★ Official website

★ Tours on French version of Wikipedia

★ Tours and its agglomeration on video (from www.toursmetropole.fr)

★ Architecture of Tours

★ François Rabelais University, Tours

★ Official Website of the Tours Volley Ball, French champion 2004 and European Champion 2005

★ Visiting Tours (in English)

★ Satellite picture by Google Maps