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Overview
Valence is over 2,000 years old and has a university tradition dating back to 1452, the year Dauphin Louis (later King Louis XI) established a university for the city. Today, educational institutions still flourish and include a Regional Arts School and a National Music School. Valence's geographic location between Paris and the Mediterranean is one of the reasons for its popularity, and the city features tourist spots on either side of the Rhone River. The Fine Arts Museum lures visitors with paintings from the sixteenth to the twentieth centuries, and a collection of red chalk drawings called "Les Sanguines," by Hubert Robert. Another attraction is the Maison Des Tetes, which was built around 1530 by Antoine de Dome, and boasts gothic flourishes and carved heads representing symbolic characters like Wind, Fortune, and Time. The Soyons district's caves are just outside of Valence and draw many visitors as well. The prehistoric caves help trace human history back 150,000 years.
