Descartes
 Descartes
is set
on the river Creuse, the town was where the famous philosopher René ("I think therefore I am") Descartes was born and there is museum dedicated to him in the house where he lived. |
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  This Loire Valley village has a very good, busy Sunday morning market, where
you can buy the locally made, famous goats cheese, Sainte Maure de Touraine, fresh home-grown produce and wines of
the region or simply enjoy the atmosphere. There is a choice of well-stocked supermarkets in the
town
that make an ideal stop-off, if travelling down
from Tours, to pick up some fresh fruit and veg, local
wines and cheeses to get your holiday off to a
pleasant
start.
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 For leisure Descartes offers a heated outdoor swimming pool complex with slides (open July and August, no outdoor shorts allowed); baby pool, 25 metre pool and large sunbathing area, cafeteria, children's play park, crazy golf, fishing, canoeing on the river Cruese, tennis and a
beautiful walk through the shaded
riverside gardens. |
The town also has a lovely little
cinema that shows 'art films' - with films in English
shown once/month.
 You can hire canoes which can be
taken up-river to Le Guerche
or Barrou to allow you to return
downstream at your leisure. |
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The town and surrounding area has a link with World
War II in that the line separating occupied and
free France is on the road heading out of the town in
the direction of Barrou / Le Blanc. |
| Another sad connection with WWII
can be found nearby in the
village of Maillé, in the direction of St.Maur-de-Touraine
where on June 10, 1944 as Paris was being liberated, the
village residents (124), mainly women and children, were
the victims of an organized massacre from the occupying
German army in retaliation for actions of the
resistance.The massacre
lasted all morning. In the afternoon and late into
the night, the village was bombarded with
artillery shelling completing its destruction. There is a small
museum dedicated to the victims.(Closed on Tuesd |
 You can also explore the troglodyte dwellings at nearby St Rémy-sur-Creuse. Ethni'Cité, as it is
referred to gives you a glimpse - just a glimpse- of
what cave dwelling living and working was like.The
exhibits are presented in this unique setting carved
into the rockface.
In the Middle Ages these caves were the refuge of
lepers. Weavers later used the caves as workshops,
benefiting from the presence of underground streams.
There was also, allegedly, a fortress on the top of the
outcrop built by Richard the Lionheart. A small tower
buried under heavy vegetation is all that now remains.
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copyright : Experience Loire |
