The best way to find out!

La Forteresse - Chinon

This morning I discovered Chinon has a Facebook page! Not that it's very helpful. There's one page that mixes up historic buildings, restaurants and hotels, some of which do link back to individual websites, others don't. But there's not even a single photo from around the town or Chinon chateau loaded on to the page to make it more interesting and attractive.  Chinon as an entity in its own right, doesn't seem to exist. 'What's On' information has been left to the Tourism Office which is a normal part of a marketing mix and Chinon's T.O. does have a page on Facebook, along with all sorts of individual pages for activities, services, groups, events, festivals etc., which can be found under 'Chinon'. The lack of Facebook presence probably doesn't matter. It's a question of what we're used to individually. We have friends who can't stand Facebook, so wouldn't, under any circumstances, use it as a source of information. But it did get me thinking about where someone goes to discover what's going on around town here. As always, so much depends on who you are and why you're here. We're both used to publicity in the sense that we've designed, written, produced and delivered it for years in the UK, but also understand the other end of the chain from the point of view of the client or punter. 

From March to October, peaking August and September, Chinon is on a cultural non-stop merry-go-round. It's difficult to provide a clear indication of the level of activity here, other than showing a pdf of our diaries - no chance! So if I say Chinon isn't as busy culturally as central London, but is significantly busier culturally than a large town like Bath, which has museums and theatres, galleries, cinemas etc you might get a feel for what I mean. There's a lot going on in Chinon. And as a result there's loads of information being pumped out. The amount of money spent on print here is huge, and ranges from the most stylish of French design and print, using beautiful textured and/or weighted paper with excellent photography, to the basic photocopied black type on yellow, often found under windscreen wipers or handed out in shopping centres or (in the UK) at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, as I've done several times in the past. So where to go in Chinon to find out what's on and when?


There's no obvious corporate Chinon website. However outside the Town Hall (it's a big building) on the entrance wall, suspended from the top, are two massive banners, which give an all year round listing, by month, of key events. The Tourism Office  is an obvious place. You can drop in or maybe check the Facebook page, accessed through their website (see above link).  Both are flooded with information of events from all over the region and sometimes further afield.  Among all that will be individual flyers/leaflets from Chinon and nearby villages, but they're not always easy to pick out. There's poster flying, banners, leaflet racks in restaurants - the usual sort of thing. You'll find the monthly cinema leaflet in all sorts of outlets. The reception area in Chinon's town hall is another place.  The 'local paper' - La Nouvelle République (NR) is syndicated across the regions. It's a daily paper, carrying details of Chinon and surrounding villages and Tours (another big town) and its suburbs. Big events tend to happen at the weekends, and quite often the NR doesn't include information about them until the day they're happening. When you're local - word of mouth is key. For example, last year  Vignes Vins and Randonées came to Cravant for the first time - representing Chinon.  A local wine producer, Patrick and his wife Nadia, came round here for drinks one evening and told us about it. Hadn't seen or heard anything about it anywhere, until then.  He happened to be leading one of the walking groups. It sounded great, so we ended up going with his group. As a result we went again this year.

The maroon-red door

There is however a simple answer to this dilemma, which is the maroon-red double garage doors on the rue Rabelais just along from place Mirabeau and opposite Sylvie's wonderful delicatessen. It is clearly (see right) not state of the art. However, anything that is anything goes up here. Monsieur, whose house lies beyond the closed double doors, is very active in the cultural life of Chinon. We've seen him loads of times at events, but as yet don't know him. At the end of every week, like today, old information is removed and new local stuff is put up. Exhibitions, shows, dance, concerts, gigs, workshops, activities for children, festivals and other annual events. It will all be there.  Envelopes for smaller handbills have been made and stuck on the doors, so you can take one away with you.

The rue Rabelais is a semi-pedestrian zone through to the centre of Chinon and the main shopping square, so it's always busy. The number of times we've seen people grouped round the doors, writing down information, picking up leaflets. It really does work. It's always up-to-date and is now our first option for information.