Visit Blois A fascinating city

The porcupine, emblem of Louis XII, and the salamander of François I allow us to date some of them precisely. Shaken by the Wars of Religion, the town remained the residence of kings until the death of Catherine de Médicis, a few days after the assassination of the Duc de Guise, known as Henri le Balafré, in the apartments of King Henri III.

After the departure of the court, Blois once again became a quiet provincial town, resisting agricultural disasters and exceptional flooding of the Loire. Destroyed during the Revolution, which destroyed the emblems of royalty, the sleepy town awoke under the impetus of the industrial century: the railroad, developed from the steam engine invented by Denis Papin, and Poulain chocolates, founded by a local confectioner, gave it a new lease of life.

The town’s appearance changed once again, with the construction of the outer boulevards linking the upper and lower towns and, in line with the bridge, the Rue Denis-Papin, enhanced by grand staircases in the Blésois “step” style. It was also at this time that public and official interest in the town’s art and heritage began to grow: the château was listed, along with the church of Saint-Nicolas and the Louis XII fountain, on the first Monuments Historiques list of 1840. This interest has never waned since. Today, the town boasts sixty-five protected monuments, a 44-hectare protected area and, since 2013, a unique place of wonder: the Fondation du Doubt, a collection of contemporary art.