Contres offers several focal points for a stay: historic buildings, an 11-kilometre circular hiking trail and the St-Michel visitor workshop. There is also the GamOver festival, held annually in September. If you are looking for a hotel in Contres, you can plan your trip around whether you would prefer to focus on architectural history, a walk, a look at production or an event date.

Historic buildings in Contres

The Ancienne abbaye de Cornilly is a partially protected historic monument. Parts of the church have been preserved, as have the façades and roofs of the convent buildings around the former cloister area. The surviving complex therefore includes both elements of the church and parts of the former convent buildings.

The parish church of Saint-Cyr-et-Sainte-Julitte is the starting point of the circular hiking trail “En passant par la Boudinière”. It was remodelled between 1867 and 1872 by the architect Jules de La Morandière. Its history is therefore directly linked to a specific starting point for the hike: architecture enthusiasts will find a distinct local connection at the church, while the trail begins its route there.

Another historic detail is Contres’s present-day washhouse, which dates from 1885. Together with the abbey and the parish church, it offers another perspective on local history through a different kind of building. These sites can be viewed as reflecting different interests, without having the same purpose or history.

The “En passant par la Boudinière” circular hiking trail

The route description was updated on January 6, 2026. It describes an 11-kilometre circular trail starting in Contres, with the parish church of Saint-Cyr-et-Sainte-Julitte as its starting point. Natural paths make up 80 percent of the route. The distance and the proportion of natural paths describe different aspects of the circuit: the kilometre figure indicates its length, while the percentage shows that most of it runs along natural paths.

These details provide a concrete basis for weighing the hike against the other things to see in the area. If you would like to make a longer walk the focus of your visit, you can use the 11-kilometre distance and the high proportion of natural paths as a guide. If you are more interested in architectural history, the parish church and the Ancienne abbaye de Cornilly offer other points of interest. Allow for the 11 kilometres when planning your day.

St-Michel and GamOver: tour times and event date

The St-Michel family biscuit factory has been in operation since 1905 and opens its workshop to visitors in Contres. As of August 2026, guided tours of the production workshops take place year-round and include a projection room and tasting area. The listed times are 2 pm Monday to Friday and 3:30 pm on Saturdays. If you would like to fit the tour into your day, these set times can help with planning; check visiting hours before your visit.

The St-Michel shop in Contres is a separate offering: admission is free, and cakes are available to taste, including a special product range from the workshop. The tasting in the shop complements the tour offering but is a separate stop. This lets you choose according to your interests whether you would prefer a tour of the production workshops or free entry to the shop and its samples.

Older and newer video games are available at the GamOver festival, and tournaments are also on the programme. The festival takes place every year on the afternoon of the third Saturday in September. This schedule differs from the year-round tours at St-Michel: for GamOver, the September date is the key planning reference. Check the event dates for your travel year before making the festival the focus of your stay.

These attractions therefore offer different points of focus: the hike is described by its length and trail surface, the St-Michel tours by their recurring times, and GamOver by its annual event date. You can use these differences to decide what to prioritise on your trip, rather than treating the experiences as equivalent activities.

Discover more destinations: Lamotte-Beuvron, Santenay, Veilleins, Chitenay, Séris, Chissay-En-Touraine, Villavard, Feings.

For the wider travel overview: Loir-Et-Cher.