Coverage France
Audio Guide Chinon
app, one-time €4.99
Chinon is a compact Loire Valley town where medieval France comes into sharp focus: the hilltop fortress where Joan of Arc identified the disguised Charles VII in 1429 still watches over the tuffeau limestone streets below. From cave-cut chapels to Renaissance writers, the town packs an outsized history into a single riverside ridge.
14+ researched places in the app
Yes. Parroo is a self-guided audio guide for Chinon: 14 researched places, from Royal Fortress of Chinon to Clock Tower and Equestrian Statue of Joan of Arc, each with a short summary, a full article, and a roughly three-minute audio story in German, English, and French. Buy once, no subscription, no booking. Start whenever you like.
Audio sample: Royal Fortress of Chinon
Chinon
Places researched in this city
A selection of the 14 places we've researched in this city. The full set is in the Parroo app.
- Medieval fortress
- Troglodytic chapel
- Historic squares
- Renaissance heritage
- Riverside quays
-
01
Royal Fortress of Chinon
The site where Joan of Arc picked Charles VII out of a crowd of 300 courtiers in 1429, this fortress stretches 400 to 500 metres along its promontory and has been occupied in some form for roughly 3,000 years. Henry II Plantagenet made it the continental capital of his empire, and Philip II of France later turned it against him.
-
02
Clock Tower
Built around 1200 as a fortified gate with drawbridge and portcullis, this 22-metre tower has kept time since 1399 thanks to a monumental clock; its bell, Marie-Javelle, is one of the oldest surviving in Touraine. It now marks the entrance to the Château du Milieu and frames the panorama over the Vienne.
-
03
Equestrian Statue of Joan of Arc
Unveiled in 1893, Jules Pierre Roulleau's bronze statue weighs nearly 7 tonnes and rises 7 metres on a granite pedestal, showing Joan in full armour with English soldiers beneath her horse. It stands on the square that bears her name, a few minutes' walk from the fortress where the real encounter took place.
-
04
The Great Carroi
The medieval crossroads at the heart of Chinon hosted the Estates-General in 1428, the assembly Charles VII called to fund the army Joan of Arc would lead the following year. The Maison des États Généraux at its corner dates partly to the 12th century and spent several decades operating as a bakery before anyone thought to protect it as a monument.
-
05
Collegiate Church of Saint-Mexme
Founded in the 5th century by a disciple of Saint Martin, this church had already been rebuilt on a basilica plan and given an impressive double-towered western facade by around 1050, a design considered exceptional in Touraine for its time. Today it serves as a cultural venue, with medieval wall paintings still visible inside.
-
06
Chapel of Saint Radegund
Half carved into the hillside tuffeau and half built out from it, this 11th-century chapel marks a site that tradition says Queen Radegonde of the Franks visited in the 6th century to meet a hermit whose miraculous spring was already drawing pilgrims. Its mural of a royal hunt is the kind of image that rarely survives, and here it did.
-
07
Painted Caves of Chinon
These underground limestone galleries were quarried from the 12th to the 15th centuries to build the fortress and city walls above; François Rabelais later described murals near the entrance depicting a bacchic dance of women and satyrs, though those paintings are long gone. The caves are now the home of the Confrérie des Entonneurs Rabelaisiens, Chinon's wine brotherhood.
-
08
7 more places to discover
In the Parroo app
Good to know
14 researched places, from the Royal Fortress of Chinon and the Clock Tower to lesser-known spots like the Chapel of Saint Radegund. Each one has a short summary, a full article, and a ~3-minute audio story.
Yes. Every place has a ~3-minute audio story, written from the perspective of a guide standing next to you and produced with premium narration, not the article read aloud.
German, English, and French. Pick whichever you'd rather read or listen in.
No booking, no signup. It's a self-guided walk you start whenever you like. You do need a connection for now to stream the audio and load articles; offline support is something we're still building.
A one-time €4.99 for the whole city, no subscription and no recurring cost. You buy Chinon once and keep access to all 14 places with text and audio.
Open this city in Parroo
Get the full articles, audio stories, and map for this city in the Parroo app. One payment per geography. Yours to keep.
Updated: 2026-09-25