Tours hands out its best moments for nothing: France's oldest municipal botanical garden, Saint Martin's crypt, wild sandbanks on the Loire and free Vouvray tastings. Three days here run on picnic lunches from Les Halles and a €1 shared bike.
France's oldest municipal botanical garden, laid out in 1843 across 5 hectares, with glasshouses, a small free animal park holding wallabies and goats, and peacocks wandering the lawns. Gates open 07:45 until dusk daily.
The 1902 neo-Byzantine basilica keeps Saint Martin's tomb in a crypt you can walk into free, open 09:00-19:00. Two towers survive from the medieval collegiate church pulled down in 1802: Tour Charlemagne and Tour de l'Horloge.
A 5-hectare English-style park designed in 1874 by the Bühler brothers, with a cast-iron bandstand, a swan pond and roughly 200 labelled tree species. Open from 07:45 every day and the cedar benches take a picnic well.
A free river island in the Loire, reached by footbridge from Quai Paul Bert, with gravel paths, unmown grass banks and long views back to the cathedral towers. Locals bring bottles and bread here for sunset on the sandbanks.
Wednesday and Saturday mornings the plane-tree boulevard fills with flower growers, plant sellers and a long food market, running 07:00 to about 13:00. Browsing costs nothing and cut flowers start around €3 a bunch.
A century-old bakery on the corner of the old market square where a filled baguette, a chausson aux pommes or a slice of tarte Tatin runs €3-5. The counter opens at 08:30 and the pastry queue thins out after 13:15.
The covered market on Place Gaston Paillhou trades Tuesday to Sunday, around 40 stalls deep in rillettes, Sainte-Maure-de-Touraine goat's cheese and Loire charcuterie. A baguette, pâté and cheese for two lands near €7.
A seasonal open-air bar on the sandy left bank below Pont Wilson, running May to September. Deckchairs on the gravel, free concerts most evenings and a half-pint for about €3.50; you may bring your own food to the tables.
Pick up a city bike at the Vélociti station outside Gare de Tours for about €1 the first half-hour, or €14 a day from a hire shop. The waymarked Loire à Vélo route runs flat along the levee east towards Rochecorbon.
A 15th-century watchtower balanced on the tuffeau cliff above the village, reached free by a stepped path off Rue Vauvert. The chalk face below is honeycombed with cave houses that people still live in year-round.
The growers' co-operative on the D952 cut 3 km of galleries into the tuffeau rock. Tastings of dry, demi-sec and sparkling Vouvray are poured free at the counter, and a bottle of the méthode traditionnelle starts near €7.
A slim suspension footbridge over the Loire, free and open at any hour. From mid-span the sun drops straight down the river channel with the cathedral roofline on one side and Pont Wilson's arches downstream.