Museums and Heritage of Tours

Begin your morning at the Musée du Compagnonnage, the world's only museum devoted to France's centuries-old craft guild tradition, where over 400 masterpieces — from intricate wrought-iron gates to architectural models made of sugar — fill the vaulted halls of a former Benedictine abbey. Step next door into the adjacent Saint-Julien Church, whose Romanesque bell tower dates to 966 and shelters rare 11th-century frescoes alongside striking modern stained glass by Max Ingrand. Cross the street to the CCC OD, a contemporary art centre designed by Portuguese architects Aires Mateus, where Olivier Debré's monumental canvases hang in a nave eleven metres high. Continue to the Hôtel Goüin, a Renaissance townhouse from the 1490s whose ornate Italianate facade is one of the earliest examples of Renaissance decoration on a civilian building in France. Nearby, the Natural History Museum houses taxidermied collections rebuilt from scratch after the 1940 bombing, plus a vivarium sheltering some sixty species of rescued exotic animals. End your day admiring the Belle Époque splendour of the Grand Théâtre, with its allegorical ceiling paintings by Georges Clairin. Plan this route for a Wednesday through Saturday, as several venues are closed on Mondays and Tuesdays; Grand Théâtre guided tours run on selected Saturdays only (October–June) and require advance booking.