Tours and other things

Into Tours last weekend. We went primarily for an exhibition at the Château de Tours and for lunch with an Anglo/French group at La Maison Coté Sud. But to begin with the two of us were wandering around trying to get to know the city a little better. Our introduction to Tours was about four years ago with an annual event called L'Art au Quotidien - a big crafts fair - at the Vinci Centre   that can take about 3000 people. We can't get to it this year, but the link is to the site, advertising this year's show.  There are all sorts of different cultural events going on throughout the year, but the Vinci Centre also hosts major conferences. At present we mostly come in for exhibitions and special festivals, but Tours is also our connection to Paris via the TGV (Train à grande vitesse), which door to door, takes about two hours. 

At present Tours is in a state of upheaval. A new road system is being installed involving trams, which began three years ago and won't be finished till September 2013. Travelling in by car therefore can be a bit of a trial. We go mid-week from Chinon by train, which is quick. But this time, being a Saturday when the trains are infrequent and stop early, we drove in. At 9.30am the roads were easy, no problems parking, but an hour later, phew - the traffic was just chockerblock.

Tours is the 'capital' of the Indre et Loire region. Historical and contemporary districts with their mixtures of architecture sit comfortably alongside each other. Side streets and squares are buzzing with cafés and restaurants.  As well as a vibrant cultural life, it's a very good food produce centre. Tours like most places these days has larger stores, but it also has a great array of smaller shop fronts, which give it more character and individuality. 

There are also two markets - one indoors and one outdoors. They're more or less next to each other and both cover large areas. Milling around with the Saturday shoppers was quite an experience. A lot of people were out. The markets are very well supported and the range of foods as well as the quality is exceptional. In my travels probably the only other one I've come across that is on a similar scale, is in Málaga, Spain. Cravant is slightly too far away for us to use Tours as a regular shopping centre. But we've both said that once we're here, we want to use it more often than we do. Perhaps that means the markets as well.

The Anglo/French group I mentioned is called English Connection. We weren't sure about the name at first, but there is a really good mix of French and English people.   The group meets fairly regularly, probably once or twice a month. We share cultural events which generally are as useful as they are interesting. I'm not sure how many members there are, but they seem to be based more in Tours and its surrounding area. Occasionally events are in someone's home, or we meet for lunch, quite often somewhere new. This last Saturday we met at La Maison Coté Sud which was very good. Great atmosphere and busy! We were upstairs with a table for fourteen people. Then we headed off up to the Chateau de Tours which is well established as an exhibition venue.  We'd come to see a photographic exhibition by Pierre Bourdieu. His link is in French but there are images which were taken during 1958 - 1961 when the French/Algerian conflict was in full swing. Every now and again and major power comes face to face with an aspect of its colonial past. This exhibition focussed on such a moment. The images were all in black and white and gripping in their simplicity. There is also a film, eventually released in 1974, having been banned since it was made in the 60s. It's called The Battle for Algiers. Quite superb and is regarded as one of the foremost commentaries on guerilla warfare. It's out on DVD and very much worth seeing. 

There was also a smaller photographic exhibition by Norwegian artist Per Barclay at the chateau. Equally engrossing, the images were a series of optical illusions in industrial spaces, created through reflections using oil. If you go to the link and check under exhibitions there is some reference to the exhibition and some images. There are many similarities to the work of highly acclaimed British artist Richard Wilson, which personally I love.

The final exhibition of the day was in Chinon and yet another photographer, Arnaud Vareille.
The work on display concentrated on landscape and textures, but his portfolio is much wider. If you have a moment to look at the link you'll see just what he can do. His work is terrific. 

We had a really brilliant day. It couldn't have been better. By the time we got home, we were both totally exhausted. At least I didn't have to cook anything!