Chinon, city and chateau de la Loire visit city and mueums Site Home - What's New? -Feedback - About Jack-  Travel/Art Links

Loire Valley

Chinon-City and its museums

Back to Loire main page

Back to Chinon contents

History of Jews-Joan of Arc

Visit of the chateau

City and museums

To get back to centre town, take the rue Jeanne d'Arc (1st street to the right in the rue de Puy-des-Bans) which leads you to the RUE VOLTAIRE, the main medieval street of Chinon, pedestrian and superbly enhanced by medieval houses and wooden facades, bordered almost along its entire length by houses from the 15th, 16th and 17th century, one more beautiful and superb as the other. Loitering around in the ADJACENT STREETS of the rue Voltaire will enable you to discover a lot of hidden treasures: sculpted wood panels, armories, corbellings, etc You can't get enough of them! Return to the place du General-de-Gaulle and enter valiantly the rue Jean-Jacques-Rousseau because the promenade continues!! At the corner of the rue de la Lamproie, on the right side, a beautiful edifice of the 15 and 16th century. A plaque tells us that Rabelais lived at no. 15, a house turned into a cabaret in the 16th century: "La Lamproie". Come back to the street is continuing the rue Voltaire and named now rue Haute-Sainte-Maurice under the walls of the castle ending at the “Grand Carroi”(the big square). To the right the rue de Grand-Carroi and to the left the rue Jeanne d’Arc leading to the castle. This is the medieval centre of Chinon. Notice in the rue Haute-St-Maurice on houses nos.38-42, the well-conserved 14th century, red brick and wooden “Maison Rouge”. The "hotel des Etats-Generaux, at no44 houses today the museum "des Amis du Vieux Chinon et de la Batellerie". It is said that Richard Lion Heart, son of Henry II, injured in the Limousin during a battle against Philippe Auguste, died here in 1199. At no.48 the Hotel du Gouverneur. At no. 58 "maison Poirier de Beauvais" 16th century, flanked by a turret. At no.73 Palais du Bailliage from the 15th century, where it is said that the father of Rabelais worked as lawyer, housing today a very comfortable hotel-restaurant (chic): Hostellerie Gargantua. A little lower, from the rue du Palais or rue Jacques-Coeur, you can admire its south façade and angle-turret and no.82, the 16th century Maitrise des Eaux et Forets with its moulded fronton, its square turret and spiral staircase.
In a dead end street of the rue Voltaire are the “Caves Paintes”(no visits allowed), corridors in the tuff hill that were painted in Rabelais epoch with dancing satyrs. Rabelais celebrated these “CAVES PEINTES” in his pages telling the joy of life of Pantagruel. The paintings have disappeared but the ancient quarries are still the temple of the divine bottle.   Today, the local “Confrerie bachique des Etoneurs rabelaisiens” still holds meetings here. In the rue de Lamproie an 18th century hotel particulier was built at the spot where the house of the parents of Rabelais lived. You can also visit the “MUSEE ANIME DU VIN ET DE LA TONNELLERIE  “tel 0247932563 in a wine cellar where animated small-scale models explain the process of wine making. About 15 natural sized automates give life to a series of tools and reproduce the gestures of the winegrower during his work in the vineyard. A lot of instruments used in the past to grow, harvest and make wine are exposed. Open every day except on Thursday from April to September. There is an entrance fee and the tasting included!
Go back to the Grand-Carroi and walk to the rue-de-Grenier-a-Sel (ancient rue de la Juiverie) going to the right. It's here that the Jewish community lived in the 15th century, before being wiped out.
In the rue Voltaire, 44 in a building of the 15-16th century, the “MUSEE DU VIEUX CHINON ET DE LA BATELLERIE » is housed in a large medieval hall where it is said that Richard Lion Heart died in 1199. It is a museum to see, not only for the museum itself but also for the splendour of the interior architecture.  Local craftsmanship and small scale ship models are exhibited, as well as a portrait of Rabelais by Delacroix. Admirable hall on the first floor and also the second floor with its beautiful vessel framework. On the ground level, eclectic exhibition of objects relative to daily life and popular traditions. But the MUST of the visit is without any doubt this oriental cloth of the 11th century: "the cope of saint-Mexme". Birds and animals are embroidered on three horizontal bands. On the braid bordering the superior part, a repetitive Arab inscription:" Happiness to its owner". Very mysterious, all this!!
And to finish this visit and walk of Chinon come back to the place saint-Mexme and, at the entrance of the rue Diderot, take right into the rue Buffon to arrive at the place Jeanne-d'Arc and the promenade du Docteur-Mattrais, planted with beautiful trees along the Vienne river. A very agreeable place for late afternoon in the summer and fit for mediation.
-----An excursion you could make in the summer is the STEAM TRAIN from Chinon to Richelieu (25 km), every Saturday and Sunday. Sometimes, in very high season, the train runs also during the week. Tel 0247581297.
Aboard a genuine express of the 1920's, pulled by a picturesque steam locomotive, you can enjoy some cute spots along the way like Champigny-sur-Veude, Richelieu etc...and have a taste of the local products in the bar-wagon.

Bibliography

Guide du Patrimoine, Centre, Val de Loire , by Perouse de Montclos (ed.Hachette 1992)—Het dal van de Loire, by A.Sperber (Brussels, ed.Harenberg 1997)—Guide du Routard 1998 (ed.Hachette)—de kastelen van Frankrijk, by L.P.Boon (1956)-Histoire de la Touraine, by Pierre Leveel (ed.LCD 1988), Histoire de l’Anjou, by  J.L. Ormieres (ed.Que sais-je, P.U.F.1998 -Rabelais et Chinon, by G. Bassompierre (ed.Dupuis 1986)