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Chinon
Photo: Benjamin Smith, CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons

Town · Centre–Val de Loire · Altitude 69 m

Chinon

A long royal fortress above the Vienne where Henry II died and Joan of Arc met her king, a slate-roofed old town and red wine from cabernet franc.

Why go

Chinon is the Loire without the crowds of the big châteaux. Its fortress is not a Renaissance pleasure palace but a medieval stronghold stretched along a ridge, where the stories are of Plantagenet kings, imprisoned Templars and a teenage girl from Lorraine who came to find her king. Below, the old town of pale tufa and slate runs along the Vienne, and the vineyards that make one of the Loire’s best-loved reds begin at the edge of town.

History

The rocky spur above the Vienne, about ten kilometres from where it joins the Loire, was fortified early: a Gallo-Roman castrum stood here by the fifth century, when Saint Mexme, a disciple of Saint Martin, founded a monastery to the east of the town. In the Middle Ages the counts of Touraine and then of Anjou held the fortress, at the meeting point of Touraine, Anjou and Poitou.

Henry Plantagenet, count of Anjou and from 1154 king of England, rebuilt and extended the castle and made it one of his favourite residences and an administrative centre of his empire. Defeated by his own sons, he died here in July 1189. His son John Lackland lost Chinon in 1205 to the French king Philip Augustus after a long blockade and siege, and Philip built the great round keep known as the Tour du Coudray.

After Philip the Fair had the Knights Templar arrested in 1307, their Grand Master Jacques de Molay and other leaders were held in the Coudray keep. A century later, during the Hundred Years’ War, the future Charles VII, mocked as the ‘king of Bourges', kept his court at Chinon, and early in 1429 Joan of Arc came here to meet him and persuade him to give her an army to relieve Orléans.

François Rabelais was born in the 1490s in the countryside of Chinon, and his comic giants roam its landscapes. In 1631 the town passed to Cardinal Richelieu, who let the fortress decay. Prosper Mérimée’s intervention in the nineteenth century saved the ruins, and a major restoration completed in 2010 made the Forteresse royale what it is today. Since 2000 Chinon has been part of the UNESCO-listed Loire Valley.

UNESCO World Heritage: The Loire Valley between Sully-sur-Loire and Chalonnes (2000)

What to see

Forteresse royale de Chinon

Three castles in a row, separated by dry moats: Fort Saint-Georges, the Château du Milieu with its royal lodgings, and Fort du Coudray. Look for the carvings on the walls of the Coudray keep traditionally attributed to the imprisoned Templars, then walk the ramparts for the long view over the Vienne.

The old town and the Grand Carroi

The rue Voltaire and its continuation, the rue Haute-Saint-Maurice, follow an old east–west axis beneath the fortress, safe from the Vienne’s floods, past half-timbered and pale tufa houses from the late fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. At the Grand Carroi crossroads, by tradition, Joan of Arc turned up towards the castle.

Banks of the Vienne

Cross the old stone bridge to the sandy south bank for the classic view of the fortress strung out along the ridge above the slate roofs, best in the evening light. In summer the shallows and sandbanks of the Vienne invite a lazy afternoon, and riverside paths lead off upstream and down.

Collegiate church of Saint-Mexme

Built on the site of the monastery founded by the town’s patron saint in the fifth century, the old collegiate church keeps a nave dating from around the year 1000 and an imposing façade. It has been restored as a cultural centre in the quieter eastern quarter of the town.

La Devinière and the vineyards

A few kilometres away at Seuilly, the farmhouse of La Devinière, where Rabelais is said to have been born, is now a museum. Around it and around Chinon, cabernet franc vineyards produce the Chinon appellation’s reds, along with some whites from chenin blanc.

Chinon
Photo: Benjamin Smith, CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons

Climate

Météo-France normals 1991-2020, station Savigny - Veron (33 m, 9.6 km away).

0°10°20°30°8101417212426272318129JFMAMJJASOND
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
High °C8.59.913.817.020.624.426.526.622.817.712.39.0
Low °C2.82.44.26.19.612.614.013.810.78.75.23.1
Rain (mm)584546525246494450646765
Rain days1099997767101111

When to go →

Timeline

  1. 5th c. Gallo-Roman castrum; Saint Mexme founds a monastery
  2. 1189 Henry II Plantagenet dies at Chinon
  3. 1205 Philip Augustus takes Chinon from John Lackland
  4. 1307 Templar leaders imprisoned in the Coudray keep after the order’s arrest
  5. 1429 Joan of Arc meets the future Charles VII
  6. 1631 Chinon passes to Cardinal Richelieu
  7. 2010 Major restoration of the fortress completed

Uncertain or disputed

  • Joan of Arc’s arrival in Chinon is dated variously to around 23 February or 6 March 1429; a plaque in the town gives Sunday 6 March.
  • Rabelais’s birthplace: French sources place it at La Devinière in neighbouring Seuilly, while some English sources simply say Chinon; his birth year is also disputed.
  • The graffiti in the Coudray keep are traditionally attributed to the Templars; their authorship is debated.

Crowds: Busy at peaks. Summer weekends and school holidays bring families to the fortress; mornings outside July and August are quiet, and the town itself rarely feels crowded. (editorial judgement)

Protected food & drink from here

AOP and IGP products whose official area includes this commune (INAO). Regional food: AOP & IGP →

Cheese

  • Sainte-Maure de Touraine AOP · goat's cheese

Meat & charcuterie

  • Agneau du Poitou-Charentes IGP · lamb
  • Bœuf du Maine IGP · beef
  • Rillettes de Tours IGP · charcuterie

Wine

  • Chinon AOP
  • Crémant de Loire AOP
  • Rosé de Loire AOP
  • Touraine AOP
  • Val de Loire IGP

Festivals within 15 km

From the Ministry of Culture’s national list; it gives a season, not dates.

FestivalDisciplineSeason
Avoine Zone Groove AvoineMusic21 Jun – 5 Sep
BD En Chinonnais ChinonBooks & comics1 Jan – 20 Jun
Chinon en jazz ChinonMusic1 Jan – 20 Jun
Cinéma d'Ailleurs ChinonFilm21 Jun – 5 Sep
Confluences AvoineMixed6 Sep – 31 Dec
Festimontois Beaumont-en-VéronTheatre, dance & street arts1 Jan – 20 Jun
Festival BAR / Blues d'automne en Rabelaisie Beaumont-en-VéronMusic6 Sep – 31 Dec
La Dive Musique SeuillyMusic21 Jun – 5 Sep
Voyages en guitare ChinonMusic6 Sep – 31 Dec

Also in this part of France

1h40 Town · Pays de la Loire Saumur A white-stone town on the Loire, crowned by a fairy-tale château, home of the Cadre Noir riders and sparkling wine aged in caves. 1h30 Town · Centre–Val de Loire Amboise A royal château over the Loire, the manor where Leonardo da Vinci spent his last three years, and a chapel that holds what may be his bones. 1h21 City · Pays de la Loire Angers The old capital of Anjou: a striped fortress of seventeen towers guarding the greatest medieval tapestry in the world. 2h33 Coast · Nouvelle-Aquitaine La Rochelle An Atlantic port guarded by medieval towers, with arcaded streets, a stubborn Protestant past and a long tradition of doing things by bike.

Sources

Original text. Train times computed from SNCF timetables (ODbL); climate Météo-France; products INAO; festivals Ministry of Culture. Methodology.