Audioguides Fresno

Fresno sits in the San Joaquin Valley surrounded by more agricultural production per square mile than almost any comparable area on earth -- almonds, raisins, grapes, tomatoes, peaches, figs -- and this fact shapes everything about it. The city is a working agricultural capital, not a tourist destination, which is partly why the food here is exceptional and the cost of living is lower than anywhere else in coastal California. The Saturday Fresno Farmers Market at the Tower District is one of the most abundant in the state, and the wholesale produce district near downtown operates from 3am onward with a seriousness that makes other farmers markets look theatrical.

William Saroyan, the Armenian-American writer who won a Pulitzer Prize for 'The Time of Your Life' in 1940 and refused it, was born in Fresno in 1908 and returned here repeatedly to write about the San Joaquin Valley's ethnic communities -- Armenian, Japanese, Mexican, Dust Bowl Okie -- with a warmth that transcended sentiment.

The William Saroyan Theatre in the convention center carries his name, and his childhood home on San Benito Avenue still stands. The Meux Home Museum, a Victorian house built in 1888 and now restored, sits in the center of what was once a residential neighborhood and is now a commercial district.