Visiting Tours for the Rugby World Cup
Tours will be the Ireland team’s base camp during the pool stages. Though Ireland won’t be playing a match in Tours, the team will have an open training session in the city on 2 September at 11.00am local time. Tickets can be picked up free of charge at a number of locations in Tours city centre from 21 August. You can find more information here.
Getting there
Tours Val de Loire Airport has two weekly direct connections with Dublin. You can travel from the airport to the centre of Tours on tram line A or bus line 2. Tours is also serviced directly by multiple trains from Paris Montparnasse station each day.
Getting to the open training session
The Ireland team’s open training session will take place at the Stade Vallée du Cher. If you’re planning on watching the team train in Tours, the 16 and the 83 bus lines from the city centre stop close to the stadium. Further information on transport in Tours can be found here.
What’s on in Tours?
Passing through Tours’ central train station? Keep an eye out for an Embassy exhibition that tells the story of Ireland’s relationship with France on the rugby pitch over the last 120 years. If you can’t catch the exhibition in Tours, it will also be showing in the Centre Culturel Irlandais in Paris throughout the tournament!
Top tips from a local
An ideal day in Tours would probably consist of a morning spent wandering around the Musée du Compagnonnage; a fascinating museum showcasing the huge variety of trade guilds still present in France, followed by a visit of the old town with its medieval wood-frame houses and shops. The Place Plumereau is the heart of the old quarter and a great place to enjoy lunch “en terrasse” or enjoy an ice cream at Tutti Gusti.
On the subject of food; Les Halles de Tours is a covered food market located very close to the old quarter. With 38 speciality food vendors gathered under the same roof, it’s a wonderful opportunity to sample many of the culinary delights the region has to offer. Make sure to try the local goat’s cheese called Sainte-Maure de Touraine, the pork Rillettes (delicious on a baguette) and the celebrated cake confection known as Nougat de Tours.
A walk around the gothic Cathedral Saint-Gatien should be on the schedule for the afternoon followed by a visit to the Musée des Beaux Arts right next door for those artistically inclined. Look out for Fritz, the elephant who escaped from the circus in 1902. His embalmed form is on display in the museum’s gardens.
Alternatively, if the weather is good, the botanical gardens located to the west of the city complete with orangery, pet farm and water-lily ponds are a wonderful way to while away a couple of hours on a sunny afternoon.
Evenings in Tours tend to gravitate towards the old quarter with the cobbled streets of the Rue Colbert and the Place du Monstre lined with a variety of bars and restaurants to suit all budgets.
Louise Taylor, a native of Boyle, County Roscommon, moved to France after college. Eighteen years later, she has a life that is divided between Paris where she runs her own property management business called TAYLORED PROPERTY, and the Loire Valley where she has a house with a view on the Loire river.