In front of the railway Station of Tours, the story of this garden which formerly belonged to the Visitation convent began in 1634. The nuns living nearby decided to buy this large ground to build their gardens and a convent. On March 1st 1804, the by-law settled the prefecture there. The prefect will then make the property more attractive and will change its mystical side to newly arrangements in the style of an English park.

Now, the former garden is divided in two parts with the prefect’s private garden and the public garden ‘Jardin de la Préfecture". The creation of this garden was left to Louis and René Descorges in 1932. The garden took then the appearance of a composite style garden and showed to advantaged particularly since the forties with the opening of ‘Buffon’ street (to the west). Even if the prefect’s garden enables no admission to the public, the beautiful plane trees can be seen from the public garden.