Tours Market Visit & Cooking Class

Your experience begins at Les Halles de Tours, the city’s iconic covered market and a true temple of local gastronomy. Here, you meet your passionate local chef and wander through lively aisles filled with artisanal producers, cheesemongers, butchers, and vibrant stalls of seasonal fruits and vegetables. As ingredients are selected together, the chef introduces you to regional specialities, trusted vendors, and the rhythms of daily life in Tours, turning the market visit into an authentic culinary immersion.

With your basket complete, you head to the chef’s nearby private atelier, an intimate and welcoming kitchen designed for hands-on learning. Guided step by step, you prepare a traditional three-course French menu inspired by the season and local flavours. From starter to main and dessert, techniques are explained with clarity and enthusiasm, whether you’re crafting a delicate goat cheese tart, a rustic rillettes de Tours, or a classic fruit-forward tarte Tatin.

Once the cooking is complete, you gather around the table to enjoy the meal you’ve created together, paired with carefully selected local Loire Valley wines. This shared moment is relaxed and convivial, inviting conversation, laughter, and a deeper appreciation of how food and wine bring people together in French culture.

Open to beginners and seasoned home cooks alike, this experience is less about perfection and more about sharing, tasting, and discovery. Through fresh ingredients, traditional recipes, and time spent with a local chef, you experience the spirit of the Loire Valley in its most delicious and human form.