The Hôtel Goüin is the most beautiful private mansion in Tours, an Italian-influenced Renaissance house built around 1510 for a silk merchant. The carved limestone façade survived the bombing of 1940 that destroyed most of the surrounding block. After decades as the headquarters of the Société Archéologique, the building has been restored and now hosts temporary exhibitions.
Even without an exhibition on, the courtyard façade is worth a detour. The shell motifs and putti carved into the spandrels are Loire Renaissance at its earliest and most exuberant, predating the great chateaux of François I by a generation. Tucked away on Rue du Commerce; signposted but easily missed.