Catching the Train to the Chateau d'Azay le Rideau

The station at Tours has a series of 18 painted ceramic panels decorating the walls. Their purpose is to beautify the station concourse and entice travellers to the destinations portrayed. At present the panels are badly in need of conservation and a crowd-funding campaign is underway to raise the money to save them. Each panel will cost €8000 to clean, conserve and reattach the tiles to the walls. You can see a small test patch on this panel where conservators have cleaned to see what the effect will be. To learn more about the restoration fund and the panels themselves go to Ulule Gare Tours (in French).

We thought that it might be fun to show one of the panels every now and then, with the timetable information for how one gets there from Tours today. Azay le Rideau is a simple half hour journey from Tours. The station is on the outskirts of this attractive village, and it is a walk of 2 km to the centre of the village to get to the lovely chateau from the station.

Update: The City of Tours announced today that it would fund the restoration of a panel and has chosen this one.