Getting Around Tours
Tours is a compact, pedestrian-friendly city, and most visitors will find that walking covers the historic centre comfortably. For longer hops across the city and its suburbs, a single integrated public transport network ties together trams, buses and a shuttle train. Here's how the options fit together.
Walking
Central Tours is compact and very pedestrian friendly, so walking is usually the easiest and most pleasant way to get around. Many city-centre streets are so narrow that the public transport network doesn't directly serve some of the major attractions, which makes exploring on foot the practical choice rather than just a nice one.
A free visitors' guide with a recommended walking route can be picked up at the tourist office on the corner of rue Bernard Palissy and boulevard Heurteloup.
Public Transport: Fil Bleu
Fil Bleu is the authority responsible for all public transport in Tours and the surrounding agglomeration. Its network is made up of buses, a single tram line and a shuttle train, all covered by the same ticketing.
Tram and Bus Rapid Transit
- Tram A is the city's single tram line. It links the north of Tours near the airport with the city centre, the L'Heure Tranquille shopping and entertainment complex, and the suburban town of Joué-lès-Tours. Trams run every 4 to 8 minutes during the day and early evening, and roughly every 10 to 20 minutes late in the evening.
- Tempo 2 is a bus rapid transit line connecting the north and north-east of Tours and the airport with the city centre, the south of Tours and the suburban town of Chambray-lès-Tours.
Buses
Fil Bleu operates a comprehensive network of buses throughout the urban area, including several high-frequency routes. The most important routes run at intervals of between every 2 to 5 minutes and every 10 to 15 minutes, while less important routes follow a significantly less frequent timetable.
Shuttle Train to Saint-Pierre-des-Corps
An SNCF / Fil Bleu shuttle train (the Navette) runs between Tours and Saint-Pierre-des-Corps railway stations at regular intervals throughout the day and evening. Its travel time of five minutes is considerably faster than the equivalent bus journey, making it the sensible link if you're connecting to or from mainline trains.
Hours of Operation
Buses and trams generally operate between 05:00 and 01:00 every day of the week, though services are often reduced early in the morning, late in the evening, and on Sundays and bank holidays. The Fil Bleu website offers timetables for every route and an electronic journey planner.
Tickets and Passes
- A single Fil Bleu fare costs €1.50 and can be used for up to an hour on any route, including changes.
- The fare for two journeys is €2.70, and a day pass costs €3.70.
- Numerous other fares are available for families, concessions, groups and other types of journey; details are on the Fil Bleu website.
- Tickets can be purchased and recharged on board any bus (from the driver, cash only) and at every tram stop (using the machines on the platform), as well as at the Fil Bleu information centre on rue Charles Gille and in certain newsagents around Tours.
You must validate your ticket or pass each time you board a bus or tram, even when making transfers, by pressing it to one of the blue touchscreens on board. There are frequent inspections on the network, and travelling with an unvalidated ticket or pass is treated the same as fare evasion — you may be given an on-the-spot fine. Maps of the Fil Bleu network can be downloaded from their website.
Cycling
Cycling is one of the best ways to see the city. Tours lies at the heart of the Loire à Vélo project, which has made the entire Loire Valley cyclable, and there are numerous bike rental stores.
Vélociti is the municipal bike hire scheme provided by Fil Bleu. Those staying several months in Tours may rent a bike for €5 per month from the Fil Bleu travel centre at 9, rue Michelet.
Driving and Parking
Tours is compact enough that you will generally not need a car to get around town. A car is useful, however, if you plan to explore the towns, châteaux and countryside outside Tours, though many sites of interest can be reached by public transport and by bike.
The city is easily driveable and not often congested, but the many pedestrianised and limited-access streets in the city centre may mean your desired address isn't directly accessible by car — there will always be nearby on- or off-street parking. Numerous underground car parks serve the centre, including at place du Général Leclerc (underneath the large square in front of the railway station), place des Halles (underneath the Halles market hall, ideal for visiting the old town), and place Anatole France (easy access to the shops on rue Nationale).
Arriving by Train
Tours receives direct trains from Blois, Bourges, Caen, Dijon, La Rochelle, Le Mans, Lyon-Perrache, Orléans and Poitiers, as well as numerous smaller regional destinations.
Saint-Pierre-des-Corps, on the eastern edge of Tours, is a hub of the national railway network, sitting at the junction of the north–south LGV Atlantique high-speed line, the east–west line along the Loire Valley, and several radial routes around the region. Visitors arriving from the directions of Angers, Bordeaux, Lille, Nantes and Strasbourg will need to change here for the fast and frequent shuttle train into Tours proper.
From Paris, the high-speed TGV is the fastest option, running from Paris Montparnasse to Tours central station in just over an hour. A slower Intercités train from Paris Austerlitz passes Orléans and Blois and takes a little over two hours. From the United Kingdom, Eurostar from London St Pancras takes around six hours to Tours, changing to the French national network in either Lille Europe or Paris. If you change in Paris, you'll need to take the Metro from Gare du Nord, where the Eurostar terminates, to Montparnasse-Bienvenüe, close to Gare Montparnasse where the TGV to Tours departs; this can be done in around 30 minutes via Line 4 of the Metro and costs only a couple of euros for a single fare, though it isn't included in your train ticket.
Getting from the Airport into the City
Tours Val de Loire Airport (TUF) is the local international airport. It is small, though it receives regular year-round flights from London Stansted, Porto and Marrakech (all operated by Ryanair) and seasonal flights from Marseille, Dublin (both Ryanair) and Corsica (Figari, operated by Corsicatours).
The airport sits north of the city centre, and there are car-hire services and a taxi rank on-site. Options for reaching the centre:
- Taxi: expect to pay €15–20 to get to the city centre.
- Tram: the nearest tramway station, Vaucanson, is a 20-minute walk away, though it claims to serve the airport. To save money, you could hire a taxi to Vaucanson from the airport and catch the tram the rest of the way — €1.50 for a journey time of 20 minutes.
Reaching Tours from Other Airports
- Paris Charles de Gaulle (CDG): receives by far the largest number of international flights into France. TGV trains run direct from the airport to Saint-Pierre-des-Corps, from where you can pick up a shuttle train into central Tours; the journey takes approximately two hours. If you're hiring a car, the drive via the A3, the Paris ring road (boulevard Périphérique), the A6B and the A10 takes about three hours in good traffic.
- Paris Orly (ORY): is closer to Tours than CDG but harder to reach by public transport. You'll need a combination of local services to get to Paris Montparnasse railway station in order to catch the TGV to Tours. By car, the journey is relatively straightforward once you pick up the A10 motorway and should take between two and three hours in good traffic.
- Nantes (NTE): serves a decent number of European destinations. By car, Nantes Airport can be reached in under two hours; by train, expect a journey lasting between 1.5 and 2.5 hours.