Loire Valley, France

I lived and studied in the Loire Valley (in Tours) back in the early 1990s and I was excited to go back to this wonderful area and show it to the kids. And, I was looking forward to seeing some of my favourite châteaux again.

We stayed in a nice little 2 floor apartment in a small town called Les Montils which was just south-west of Blois. Due to our limited budget, we realised that we couldn’t visit all the châteaux that we wanted to, so we bought a combo pass that included 3: Chambord, Chenonceau and then one of a choice of Blois, Amboise or Clos Lucé. After much family negotiation, we agreed upon Amboise. However, we decided that we would still go and visit the town of Blois.

Chenonceau

First up was Chenonceau which has always been my personal favourite. This château is built over a river spanning it from one side to the other which makes it unique and beautiful. The castle was drastically expanded and really had its heyday during the mid-1500s when Catherine de Medici did a lot of work on it. During WWI it was used as a hospital and during WWII it was used to move Jews and resistance fighters from one side of the river (occupied by Nazis) to the other side of the river (unoccupied zone). The gardens are quite extensive and include a hedge maze, an enormous vegetable and herb garden and a little farm. Here are some photos of this beautiful castle:

Amboise

The next château we visited was Amboise, built on a cliff in the centre of the town. Although Leonardo Da Vinci lived in a château about 300 meters down the road (Close Lucé), he asked to be buried in the chapel at the Amboise château and the king granted his wish. Amboise has some cool circular towers where horses could go up and down from the town and a good interactive iPad to tour the castle with. The gardens aren’t as extensive as Chenonceau, but the castle offered nice views over the Loire river. After visiting the castle, we decided to walk the 300 meters through town to Clos Lucé where Da Vinci lived- the last image below) although we didn’t go into this one. The walk was interesting along the bottom of the cliff – there were several houses and caves cut into the cliff face.

Blois

We visited the town of Blois although we didn’t go into the château here. The town is really nice and has a lot of impressive architecture and a beautiful cathedral. I would highly recommend spending at least a few hours here for anyone coming to the area.

Chambord

Probably the most famous château in the Loire valley – we saved it for last. One of the most impressive things about this château is the double helix staircase in the middle of it. The castle was used mostly used as a hunting ‘lodge’ for royalty and looking out over the extensive lands, you can see why. There were several paintings and tapestries within the castle depicting hunting. But the outside of the building is what’s most impressive to me. The detail of the carving is exceptional.

Fougères-sur-Bièvre

On our last day in the area, we felt like we would like to see just one more castle… So, I found one on Google maps that was in the next town over and was much cheaper than the bigger ones (6 euros per person as opposed to 24). What a great find! It was a Middle Ages castle owned by a nobleman (not royalty like so many of the other castles) and was more of a fortified castle as opposed to a palace. There was an art installation at the castle when we visited and the best thing about it was that it was FREE if you enter in the morning! All up, a great castle – I highly recommend it for a visit.

Chèvre

One of the other things this area is famous for is its goat cheese. We enjoyed trying different types from the supermarket and one day we visited a goat farm where they make cheese and we bought a sample platter of 10 different types – absolutely delicious!! 😋

The area also has some decent wines which I enjoyed immensely last time I was here, but since we knew that Bordeaux was our next stop, we decided not to visit any wineries on this visit.