Hôtel Gouin (Archaeology Museum)

Hôtel Gouin (Archaeology Museum) Review

Still closed for a multiyear renovation, this museum is set in Tours's most extravagant example of early Renaissance domestic architecture (too bad its immediate vicinity was among the hardest hit by German bombs), its facade covered with carvings that seemed to have grown like Topsy. Once the museum reopens, assorted oddities—ranging from ancient Roman finds to the scientific collection of Dupin de Chenonceau (owner of the great château in the 18th century)—will once again be on view