Place Plumereau

Place Plumereau Review

North from the Basilique St-Martin to the river is Le Vieux Tours, the lovely medieval quarter centered around that postcard icon, the half-timbered Place Plumereau. A warren of quaint streets, wood-beam houses, and grand mansions once home to 15th-century merchants, the Old Town has been gentrified with chic apartments and pedestrianized streets—Tours's college students and tourists alike love to sit at the cafés lining the Place Plumereau, once the town's carroi aux chapeaux (hat market). Lining the square, Nos. 1 through 7 form a magnificent series of half-timber houses; note the wood carvings of royal moneylenders on Nos. 11 and 12. At the top of the square a vaulted passageway leads on to a cute medieval Place St-Pierre-le-Puellier. Running off the Place Plumereau are other streets adorned with historic houses, notably Rue Briçonnet—at No. 16 is the Maison de Tristan, with a medieval staircase.