Stage town for the first time
Sub-prefecture of Indre-et-Loire (37)
Population: 8,200 (Chinonais, Chinonaises)
Personalities: Joan of Arc. Charles VII. François Rabelais. Muriel Moreno (singer).
Specialities: fouace (a pancake baked in a bread oven), winegrower's pie, Chinon and Loire Valley wines.
Sport: Avoine Olympique Chinon Cinais (football), SC Chinonais (rugby). Competitions: Roue tourangelle (cycling), Chinon Marathon.
Economy: administration, health. Avoine nuclear power plant. Wine-growing. Tourism.
Culture: BD en Chinonais (March), Medieval Market. Vignerons dans la ville (April). Chinon in jazz (June). Guitar journeys (September). Rock Chinon rien. Nuits des Lumières,
Motto: "Small town, big name. More chimneys than houses".
Labels: Ville d'art et d'histoire / Plus Beaux Détours de France / Val de Loire listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site for cultural landscapes
Websites: www.ville-chinon.com / www.azay-chinon-valdeloire.com / www.chinon-vienne-loire.fr
CHINON AND CYCLING
The Tour de France has already visited several Loire châteaux (Chambord in 2005, Blois on four occasions, not forgetting its eight visits to Tours and 19 to Angers) but had never made a diversion via Chinon. Now it has, and as is often the case, the Tour de l'Avenir gave the Indre-et-Loire sub-prefecture a chance to test itself in 2023 with a stage from Nozay. Victory then went to Canadian Riley Pickrell, who began his professional career in 2024 with Israel-Premier Tech.
SIGHTS
Royal fortress of Chinon
Construction: 10th to 12th centuries.
Style: medieval.
History: Henry II Plantagenet was designated heir to the crown of England in 1153. He made Chinon his continental capital and the castle took on its current dimensions. Henry II and Eleanor of Aquitaine married and had eight children. Two of them were to become kings: Richard the Lionheart and John Lackland. In 1173, Henry II had Eleanor locked up in Chinon before sending her to England under house arrest. Chinon would also be his final resting place: abandoned by his children, he died there on 6 July 1189. His greatest achievement in Chinon was the construction of Fort Saint-Georges and its palace. On 23 June 1205, Philip Augustus's armies captured the town after a nine-month siege. The court of Charles VII moved there in 1427 and Joan of Arc joined him in 1429 to urge him to be crowned in Reims. The castle then took on its definitive configuration. After the Hundred Years' War, the fortress, unsuited to modern warfare, lost its importance and fell into ruin.
Characteristics: the royal fortress of Chinon is a group of three castles: Fort du Coudray, Château du Milieu and Fort Saint-Georges.
Current use: a vast restoration campaign began in 2003 to enhance this exceptional heritage and open it up to the public.
Listed as: Historical Monument in 1840 and 1926.
Fortified town
At the foot of the château, the fortified town, the original core of Chinon and the best-preserved part of the town, has been surrounded by ramparts since at least the 14th century. The main thoroughfare, rue Voltaire, runs from east to west, and is extended by rue Haute Saint-Maurice, where a succession of timber-framed houses (maison rouge, maison bleue) and ashlar houses (65, rue Voltaire), public buildings (Maison des États généraux, palais du Bailliage) and 15th, 16th (Maîtrise des Eaux et Forêts), 17th (Hôtel du gouverneur) and 18th-century mansions (Hôtel Torterue de Langardière) can be found. The district is served by the church of Saint-Maurice.
Painted cellars
Located in the fortified town, the painted cellars are part of the vast network of galleries dug under the hillside to extract the tufa stone. Some sections have been reused as wine cellars. The huge vaults of the Caves Painctes, mentioned by Rabelais in his works, house the chapters of the Confrérie des Bons Entonneurs Rabelaisiens, founded in 1961: the chapter of Saint-Vincent (January), the chapter of the Fleur (June), the chapter of the Vendanges (September) and the chapter of Diane (December).
Carroi Museum
Construction: 14th to 16th centuries.
Style: Renaissance
Museum opening: 1973.
History: In the heart of the historic town, the Maison des États-Généraux, dating from the 14th, 15th and 16th centuries, is one of the most representative buildings in Chinon's architecture. It was here that Charles VII convened the Estates-General in 1428, to convince them of the need to raise the money needed to fight the English and Burgundians.
Special feature: the Estate-Generl Room features a portrait of François Rabelais painted by Eugène Delacroix for the town of Chinon in 1833.
Current purpose: the building became an inn in the 17th century, then a bakery (from the end of the 19th century until 1968). It was restored in the 1970s and now houses the Carroi Museum, run by the Chinon Vienne et Loire Community of Municipalities. It offers visitors collections of works of art and objects illustrating local history. The museum's centrepiece is the cope of Saint Mexme, brought back from the Second Crusade by Eleanor of Aquitaine.
Listed as: Historical Monument in 1926.
TO DRINK
Chinon wines
Chinon is an AOC wine: produced around Chinon. It covers 2,300 hectares, with Cabernet Franc and Cabernet Sauvignon used as grape varieties for red and rosé wines and Chenin for white wines. The vineyards cover both banks of the Vienne as far as the confluence with the Loire and extend over 26 communes in Indre-et-Loire. Most of the wines produced are reds, with only 13 pc rosés and 2 pc whites. Chinon red can be a wine for laying down; the greatest vintage, known as the "millennium vintage", was the 1989 harvest. The red wines go well with white and red meats, poultry, game and light cheeses.
