The Loire Valley is a UNESCO World Heritage site located less than two hours out of Paris. The area is dotted with over three hundred chateaux built by French royalty and aristocrats from the 10th century. With so many beautiful castles to visit and without access to a car; we bought tickets for a minibus tour of four famous residences. Our recommendation would be to spread out your chateau visits across multiple days (enjoy the vineyards instead), as it is too easy to become overwhelmed by visiting multiple castles in one day and everything starting to look rather the same.
Day 1
London to Paris by Eurostar
This visit took place in early June and was likely our seventh visit to Paris - all using Eurostar. Once we had selected the weekend for the trip, we counted back 90 days to work out when the (cheapest) rail tickets would be released. The 90 day rule is quite general, some tickets may be released earlier than this / or you may be able to find special price ticket deals by signing up to newsletters. We prefer to lock our tickets in as soon as possible to avoid paying higher prices if we forget and leave it too close to the departure date. We also avoided booking seats on Eurostar that were at the start/end of the day as they are more popular (expensive) to cater for the trans-Channel commuter. Our trains departed around 4pm on Thursday afternoon and were due to arrive in London on Sunday by 5pm.
Hotel in Montparnasse
In prior visits to Paris, we had booked rooms in the area of Saint-Michel metro station. On the plus side it was centrally located around restaurants, near the main tourist sites (The Louvre, Cathedral of Notre Dame de Paris) and had the convenience of a direct connection to Gare du Nord. However the benefits came at a substantially higher room-rate than other Paris neighbourhoods; not ideal for this trip as we only required a room for the night before an early morning train to Tours.
So we studied the Paris Metro map to consider options based on the station for our onward train journey - Gare Montparnasse. As Metro Line 4 connected from Gare du Nord to the front of Gare Montparnasse, this met our criteria for an easy transit. Using a map search tool (available on Bookings.com / Trivago.co.uk) it is easy to judge a hotel's distance from public transport / tourist sites vs the price on offer. It is also good to check reviews of the hotel prior to booking. However, one or two negative reviews will not necessarily stop us from booking a hotel, as you need to judge whether the reviewer is making a genuine point or whether they traveled with excessively high expectations.
On this trip we stayed at Hotel Miramar, on the corner outside Gare Montparnasse. Besides the good location - so close that we were woken by the trains in the morning; it served its purpose of being a clean bed for the night.
Dinner at Mai Do
The Montparnasse district is full of international restaurants and Breton creperies. As we expected to eat French cuisine for most of the trip, we went for Vietnamese food for dinner. Several cafes popped up via a Google search. We chose Mai Do for its rankings that were higher in comparison to its competitors. The menu was written in French/Vietnamese and although we could recognise popular dishes like pho, the staff spoke English and helped us with ordering. We ate a mixed platter of starters, dried beef salad and then went straight for the soup noodles.
Vietnamese dishes for dinner
Dessert at Le Cafe de la Place
When we walked back to our hotel, we crossed a few laneways and stopped by Le Cafe de la Place on the corner of Rue d'Odessa and Rue du Montparnasse for coffee and pancakes - classic lemon/sugar for Mei and Nutella/banana for Olie.
Pancakes for dessert
Day 2
Travelling to Tours
From Gare Montparnasse, we took the 7am train to Tours (Gare de Tours), a journey of 1.5 hours and the most convenient place to base ourselves for exploring the Loire Valley. The station faces a large public square / coach stop. Across the street is the Tourist Office and on the other side is McDonalds, next to Rue de Bordeaux. We stopped at La Mie Caline - a franchise patisserie where we ate Quiche Lorraine with coffee.
Gare de Tours
Exploring Tours
Our hotel - Best Western Central was a short walk from the station in an elegant white building with its own resident cat that enjoyed strolling around the reception area. After settling in, we went to explore the main parts of town, starting with the Cathedral.
Saint-Gatien Cathedral
The Cathedral is located in an old part of the city with the old Roman wall running parallel to one side. Standing outside the Cathedral when we arrived were at least a hundred school children celebrating end of exam week in fancy dress. We walked inside the Cathedral and around the perimeter, admiring the Romanesque and Gothic architecture and decorations.
Front door of the Cathedral
Collage of highlights from visiting the Cathedral
Rue Nationale
Tours is split in half by the Rue Nationale - a pedestrian boulevard with a tram line. Our hotel was based on the side with the cathedral. The old medieval area with iconic wooden buildings - Place Plumereau / le Vieux Tours is located on the other side. Walking back and forth built up our appetite and we stopped by an ice-cream stand for a morning snack.
Rue Nationale
Ice-cream for morning tea
Pretty statues
Decorations on churches
Basilica of St Martin
Next to Rue des Halles is the Basilica of St Martin, containing the tomb of the saint and was a popular pilgrimage site during medieval times. Only the towers of the church remain with an outline of the original building marked on the pavement.
Lunch at L'Amarena
Nearby Rue du Grand Marche has many restaurants and bars with outdoor seating, perfect for enjoying the sunshine and people watching. We ate at L'Amarena restaurant, chosen because it offered an excellent value 14.95 euro three course menu and the waitress kindly translated all the options into English for us.
Place Plumereau / le Vieux Tours
The Place Plumereau and surrounding streets are enhanced by the pretty half-timbered buildings that appear to lean on each other for structural support. The atmosphere in this square is best from lunch time to early evening, packed with both tourists and locals. We returned to this place several times during our trip to visit the many ice-cream stores nearby.
Place Plumereau
Buildings that look like they struggle to stay upright.
Peak time to look for a free table
Jardin botanique de Tours
To work off our lunch, we walked to the Botanic Gardens that were established in the 1800s with medicinal and exotic plants. It has a number of wide walking paths, fountains and lush lawns. Lying on the grass is tempting but we were told off by the ground-staff as it was not a 'public' area where such activities are allowed. We visited the small number of animal enclosures - a couple of emus, wallabies and a petting zoo with a pig, chickens and goats that Olie fed with leaves from the nearby trees.
Pond in the garden
One big pig
The curious goats that would eat anything Olie gave them
Dinner at Restaurant Les Linottes
For dinner, Olie had tried to book a steak restaurant that was highly ranked on TripAdvisor. The restaurant had not confirmed the booking and when we arrived to have a look and possibly try for a 'walk-in', it wasn't yet open for dinner service. As the place was more of a trendy nightclub than traditional bistro, we referred back to TripAdvisor. We walked to the No.1 ranked place but that only catered for lunch-time service. By coincidence, as we were hanging around the closed restaurant, the owner saw us and came outside for a chat. He had a friend with him, the chef of the restaurant three doors down. She asked us if we would like to try her restaurant instead and sourced seafood from St Malo (which we had enjoyed on a previous trip). We were convinced and that turned out to be a great decision. We ate a three course meal with local red wine. The dishes included eggplant slice, langoustine with leeks, steak (best dish of our trip) and berry based desserts.
Collage of dinner's dishes
Day 3
Four Chateaux Tour
This day was devoted to sightseeing and we were lucky that the weather held up. The tour had been pre-booked with the Tours tourist office - check out their website for a range of different chateaux day-trip options. On payment we received a voucher that we exchanged in person at the tourist office for physical tickets. There were a number of other minibus tours available on the day and a person from the tourist office had the job of pairing people with the right drivers. Our tour had eight people (including a couple from Canada who gave us great tips on travelling to Vancouver) and it operated more as a shuttle service. The driver would drop us off at a chateau and we had entry tickets included in the package. We were given between 1-2 hours to visit the chateau before meeting the driver at a set location for transport to the next destination.
On these multi-stop tours, it is critical to keep an eye on the time and meeting point to avoid annoying your fellow tour group members if you are inconsiderate and late returning to the bus - there are many horror stories on TripAdvisor and other forums where part of the tour has been cut-short due to time restrictions.
Stop 1 - Chateau de Chenonceau
Built in 1513, this castle was owned by Diane de Poitiers (mistress to the French King) and Catherine de Medici. It is furnished and contains a museum with different artwork and tapestries. When we visited, the two-storey interior of the iconic bridge section contained an exhibition on how the castle was built. Another highlight was walking through the formal gardens.
Selfie from the balcony
The Gardens
View with flowers
Side view by the river
Other side of the bridge
Drawbridge and moat
The inside of the bridge (lower level)
Stop 2 - Chateau d'Amboise
This was a royal residence during the 15th century but now only a fraction of the buildings survive. It sits high on a hill in the middle of the market town of Amboise, who were celebrating with a parade on the day that we visited. The chateau is known as the burial place of Leonardo da Vinci (in the Chapel of Saint Hubert) who was a guest of King Francis I and worked in the nearby Clos Luce.
Main building of Chateau d'Amboise
Views from the chateau and parade in Amboise
Gothic carvings on the Chapel of Saint Hubert
Lunch at Restaurant Bigot
Included in the tour package was a voucher for a two course meal at the Restaurant Bigot in Amboise that had a chocolate and bakery section. We each ate a sizeable salad with local charcuterie and then finished with a fruit tart.
Restaurant and bakery, Bigot
Salad for lunch
As we travelled to the next destination along the Loire River, the driver stopped the minibus by the side of the road and allowed us to take photos of the picturesque town of Blois.
Profile of the town of Blois
Stop 3 - Chateau Chambord
This chateau is built in the French Renaissance style by King Francis I. It was used as a hunting lodge and the symmetrical dimensions of the building and the double-helix staircase suggest that Leonardo da Vinci was involved in the design. The castle is mostly empty and was last used during the Second World War to house some artworks from the Louvre. The castle grounds are used for entertainment. A small farmers market was operating when we visited and many visitors came to sit in the gardens for a picnic.
Outside of Chateau Chambord
Collage of views from inside the castle
Hunting paintings
Stop 4 - Chateau Cheverny
Our last stop was at the castle that inspired Marlinspike Hall from the Tintin comics. The castle is still used as a residence by the owners and is well furnished with historical artwork and weapons. Cheverny is also famous for the hundred hunting hounds that are kept on the estate.
Chateau Chverny
Some of the hundred hunting hounds
The cafe at the bottom of the gardens
Dinner (again) at Restaurant Les Linottes
We arrived back in Tours close to 6:30pm and had pre-booked dinner again at Les Linottes. We tried a different bottle of wine and dishes with pork, duck, cheesecake and cheese platter.
Nightcap at Pont Wilson
As it was Saturday night, there were a lot of people hanging around the Pont Wilson bridge and surrounding riverbank. A bar had been set up and the sun had not fully set. We enjoyed the beer, soaked up the atmosphere and walked home around 11pm.
River bank fully of people enjoying Saturday night
Pont Wilson bridge
Day 4
Train to Paris
We caught the early train back to Paris and had a couple of hours before our Eurostar service back to London. We found a Japanese restaurant, Yakitori in Montparnasse where we could enjoy our meal outdoors, eat gyoza, grilled duck and scallops, sashimi and wash it down with a can of Sapporo.
Goodbye Paris, until next time
For the trip back to London, Olie picked up two small bottles of white wine at the duty free store and a small round of goats cheese - a lovely travel picnic for our journey back to St Pancras station.
Afternoon tea
Video of the trip
We have published a short video of this trip on YouTube - although we are having some issues with it being viewed on different device types. If the video doesn't load from this blog post, here is the link: <http://youtu.be/7fzSehJN7JM>
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The Loire Valley is a UNESCO World Heritage site located less than two hours out of Paris. The area is dotted with over three hundred chateaux built by French royalty and aristocrats from the 10th century. With so many beautiful castles to visit and without access to a car; we bought tickets for a minibus tour of four famous residences. Our recommendation would be to spread out your chateau visits across multiple days (enjoy the vineyards instead), as it is too easy to become overwhelmed by visiting multiple castles in one day and everything starting to look rather the same.
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