Église des Jacobins, on the quay, was built in 1260 at the expense of St. Louis. It is now converted to military uses.
St. Laurent (near the Tour de Guise) is a ruined church of the twelfth century.
The Bibliothèque, close to the bridge, is in the old Hôtel de Ville. It is rich in works of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, and has a precious collection of historical manuscripts, including the Bible of Charlemagne (coming from St. Martin), on which the Kings of France took their oath as honorary abbés and canons of the Church. There are also books of Charles V., Anne de Bretagne, and Henri III.
The Rue du Commerce leads to the old quarter, where those picturesque houses that still stand are to be found.
The Maison de Tristan l’Hermite (Rue Briçonnet) is wrongly so called. It is of the time of Charles VIII.
The way out of Tours to Loches is by the same straight road by which one entered, and soon after passing the turning to Bléré the straight road to Montbazon is passed at a fork where the way to Loches goes to the left.
A forest country with areas of cultivation is traversed. By the roadside will perhaps be seen a woman with a herd of goats, and the cart-horses have blue sheep-skins over their collars and red tassels on their heads.
The hamlet of St. Blaise, with an old tower on the left, is passed through as the road drops down to the Indre, crossing that river by two bridges, which lead to the village of Cormery. The parish church is an interesting building of the eleventh, twelfth, and thirteenth centuries, and near it is a stone Calvary.
By the river, on the left, stand the roofless refectory and cloisters of a Benedictine abbey, founded in the eighth century by Alcuin, Abbé of St. Martin, at Tours. The upper part of the fine Romanesque tower fell recently.
Beyond the ruins, and on the farther side of the river, is the little cruciform church of Truyes, also Romanesque.