Drinking and nightlife
France > Loire > Cities > Tours > Drinking and nightlife
Packed with tables and chairs, picturesque Place Plumereau, or Place Plum' as it's known locally, is the place to start the evening with an open-air apéritif and to finish it with a coffee. Giant Irish pubs, pizzerias and branded ice cream parlours are slowly making inroads into the area, but there are plenty of less commercial places to be found in the streets around, with some good café-bars on rue du Commerce. In the cathedral quarter, the bars on rue Colbert are mostly strip-lit local affairs, but the Académie de la Bière, just up from the cathedral at 43 rue Lavoisier, is a lively, student-friendly place where you can choose from among 200 types of beer.Even in summer, when local students are away, the nightclubs just off Place Plumereau fill up with backpackers, locals and language students, though things don't usually get going until past midnight. The musical diet is more good-time than cutting-edge, but you'll find decent playlists and up-for-it crowds at Les 3 Orfèvres, 6 rue des Orfèvres; VIP Club, 22 rue de la Monnaie; and L'Excalibur, in a vaulted cellar at 35 rue Briçonnet. For gigs, try Le Bateau Ivre, 146 rue Édouard-Vaillant (tel 02.47.44.72.22, www.bateau-ivre.org), to the south of the gare SNCF, which attracts international reggae, world music and hip-hop acts, as well as occasionally hosting concerts of French chanson (entry €9–18).
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