Vendôme is located 22 miles (35 kilometres) northwest of the city of Blois and 40 minutes from Paris by TGV train. The town lies on the Loir River, which here divides into numerous arms intersecting the town.

On the south, it is overlooked by an eminence on which stand ruins of the castle of the counts of Vendôme. The abbey-church of the Holy Trinity has a fine façade in the florid Gothic style. Abbey buildings of various periods lie round the church. The church of La Madeleine (15th century) is surmounted by a stone spire, an indifferent imitation of that of the abbey.

The tower of Saint-Martin (16th century) represents the vanished church of that name.

Other remarkable monuments are: the old gate, the Porte Saint-Georges; its river front is composed of two large crenelated and machicolated towers, connected by a pavilion, and the ancient hospital of Saint-Jacques that afterwards became a college of the Oratorians, then a lycée for boys and that is now occupied by the town administration offices. The charming chapel, in the most florid Gothic style, is preserved. In the garden surrounding, is located the tourism office in an ancient building called l'Orangerie (facing the public library). The town has a well-known archaeological and scientific society, and possesses a library with more than three hundred manuscripts, and a museum, mostly archaeological, in front of which stands a statue of the poet Pierre de Ronsard. There is also a statue of Marshal Rochambeau, born at Vendôme in 1725. Some interesting houses of the 15th and 16th centuries survive.

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