Candes-Saint-Martin, one of the most beautiful villages in France
At the confluence of the Vienne and the Loire, it is one of the jewels of the region. Classified as one of the most beautiful villages in France, Candes-Saint-Martin offers a romantic panorama that inspires artists with its tufa houses topped with slate. Here, the white of the stone underlines the sky and the blue of the Loire. And when the sun goes down, it is a shimmer. The sandbank, the barges gliding on the water, the ambient peace wins you over! Former river port, Candes saw its apogee in the XIXth century, when the wines of Touraine, the pears, the stones of size, the salt of Guérande and the fishes of Brittany passed through here. A circuit around the heritage walks on 3,5 km along the most typical streets of the village. You will come across the collegiate church of Saint-Martin and its Plantagenet Gothic architecture dominates the tufa houses with slate roofs. Original, the castle of Candes proposes lodgings and rooms of hosts in historical buildings, in particular within the house of the press and the baker's oven rehabilitated, and especially a remarkable street art park where the giant trees are confronted with the contemporary art. And along La Loire à Vélo, via the GR3, the abbey of Fontevraud is only 6,2 km away.
Touraine houses of tuffeau and castles of the Loire
The country of Chinon is in the heart of a territory known for its castles. Nearby, Azay-le-Rideau is one of the most visited castles on the circuit of the Loire Valley. Outsider, the fortress of Chinon on its rocky spur declines its three castles saved from the ruin of narrowly which constitute today one of the major tourist attractions of the area. This jewel keeps the memory of the kings who stayed there and constitutes an exceptional setting and a cultural space of great quality with workshops, animations, conferences in particular on architecture. The Chinon region between Touraine and Anjou combines architectural styles. You can find houses in Touraine made of tufa stone.
The fortress city of Chinon
At the foot of the castle, the fortress-town, the original core of Chinon and the best preserved part of the city, has been surrounded by ramparts since at least the 14th century. It is a succession of half-timbered or dressed stone houses, prestigious public buildings and private mansions built from the 15th to the 18th century. Under the hillside a vast underground network of galleries was dug to extract the tufa stone. Rabelais quoted in Gargantua the famous painted cellars with huge vaults and impressive dimensions, located in the fortress city. They are used as a decor for the ceremonies organized by the brotherhood of the Entonneurs Rabelaisiens. The medieval district opens onto the Saint-Etienne suburb, fortified in the 15th century, which has kept its historical commercial vocation. Beautiful half-timbered houses can be seen there, especially around the Puits-des-Bans crossroads. Many historical monuments, including the old "jeu de paume", are located in this district.
Religious buildings and villages
The Chinon region is also home to architectural jewels such as the collegiate church of Saint-Martin de Candes, the collegiate church of Saint-Mexme de Chinon or the abbey of Seuilly, not to mention numerous town or village churches and heritage gems such as the Romanesque chapel of Sainte-Radegonde, a semi-troglodyte building with remarkable mural frescoes which opens its doors to the public during guided tours. The interior, with its mural frescoes, including one of a remarkable royal hunt with five horsemen in procession, is of great beauty.
There are not only castles and abbeys in Chinon! There are farms and villages with houses threatened by the floods of the Vienne. The architecture of the villages on the banks of the Vienne bears witness to the floods that the farmers had to face regularly. In the Véron, houses were built on mounds to avoid being flooded (for example the farm of Gilbardière in Savigny-en-Véron) or were lined with high walls along the Vienne river as in Rivière.
La Boule, avant-garde architecture
And for the modern version, let's go to Avoine and the nuclear power plant called Chinon, whose industrial architecture is surprising, especially in the middle of the last century, when it was built. Thus, on the banks of the Loire, a place rather known for its castles, it is an architecture of science fiction that we discover with a huge ball, witness and symbol of the reconstruction of post-war France. The country had to rebuild itself and relaunch its economic activity. The government decided to accelerate the development of civil nuclear power for the production of electricity. Chinon was to be part of this process with the construction of the first French nuclear power plant. This achievement will radically change the landscape and the local economy.
The first reactor, called Chinon A1, with its spherical structure of 55 m in diameter and 47 m high without side posts, was a real architectural feat! The Chinon Ball was commissioned in 1963. For about ten years, the experimental Chinon power plant served as an industrial pilot for teams from EDF and the French Atomic Energy Commission (CEA). Its construction played an essential role in French energy history.
Its futuristic appearance for the time inspired the popular imagination. The Boule became the symbol of scientific and technical innovation in the 1960s. Just before its commissioning, the power plant was used as a set for the film Fantomas se déchaîne with Jean Marais and Louis de Funès. The Ball becomes for the fiction a laboratory. The reactor of the Ball of Chinon ceases its activity in 1973. Its deconstruction was scheduled, but elected officials and residents fought to preserve this symbol of the industrial evolution of the region. EDF decided to turn it into a museum of the atom, which opened in 1986. In addition, there are night-time illuminations of the most beautiful effect on the Loire.
