CHINON (in the Middle Ages Castrum Caino), a town of France, capital of an arrondissement in the department of Indre-et-Loire, pleasantly situated on the right bank of the Vienne, 28 miles S.W. of Tours. It has a tribunal of primary instance, a communal college, a town house, and some trade in grain, dried fruits, wine, and brandy. Here Henry II. of England died in 1189; and on the rock above the town there are extensive ruins of the castle where Charles VII. of France resided after the occupation of Paris by the English, and first gave audience to Joan of Arc. In the castle-rock there are large quarries known as Les Valains, from which building materials have been obtained for ages. Rabelais was born in 1483 at the farm-house of La Devinière in the vicinity, and his house is shown in the Rue de la Lamproie. Population in 1872, 6553.