TOUR OF TOURS

After we picked up Ted and Rich we went for a walkabout to see a little of Tours.
We walked through little alleyways and narrow pedestrian streets into Vieux Tours. We stopped at a beautiful church that was part of a monastery of cloistered monks. As we were leaving the curé called us back to give us a personal tour. It turns out that this church is the headquarters of the Levequists – a group of followers of Archbishop Leveque, the super traditional, fundamentalist theologian who was excommunicated for daring to oppose the reforms of the Second Vatican Council.
We walked through the markets area of the city. Close to the Place de Grand Marché we found the Rue de Jerusalem. I wondered if this area had been the Jewish quarter in days gone by. A little further on we found the Rue des Deportés a clear sign that many Jewish people walked along this road to the train station to be taken to their deaths.
There are other signs of a rich past in Tours. We found several brass plaques showing the way to Santiago de Compostela. We found the place where Balzac was born. We took some pictures of the beautiful Beaux-Arts façades of the train station and the hotel-de-ville. We finished our tour of Tours with drinks in Olde Towne on the Place de Grand Marché.