Continental_Drifter

Bonjour! Does anyone know of a private driver / tour guide for the Loire Valley?

We would love to find someone local who will pick us up at our Paris hotel and drive us through the Loire, stopping at a few chateaux and a couple of vineyards.

I have done the research and have found many options on the internet, but would prefer a personal recommendation based on your experience.

Thank you in advance!

nytraveler

If you're thinking about a one day tour - you really can;t get to a "few chateaux and a couple of vineyards" in that time. We spent 6 days seeing chateaux and other sights and found out 2 per day (even when starting from Chinon) is what you can see - unless you do a son et lumiere in the evening.

So I would pick one major chateaux if you are going to drive to and fro Paris (unless you start at 7 am) and see a couple of vineyards as well.

Continental_Drifter

Thank you for the response and you make a good point. I could spend days there also. Last visit, we rented a gite and stayed in the valley, but this time, we do just want a one day tour this time.

This time, we are traveling with friends who have a short attention span for the chateaux. They've asked us to select our two "must sees" and add the wineries, so we thought we'd customize a tour with a private driver.

We've done the 7AM departure tour from the Louvre also. I'd rather have someone pick us up at the hotel, drive us and drop us off. That way, we can tailor our day a bit.

So to the question - does anyone know of a private driver who does this trip?

FrankS

imo- Instead of having a driver pick you up in Paris, take the TGV to Tours and have your driver pick you up there

Continental_Drifter

Great thinking Frank... I looked at that also and it's an option. Still need a driver. LOL

FrankS

Cant help with the driver, we normally get our own car. I know our hotel there, Chateau d'Artigny, had some top notch looking fellas showing up in the morning to escort guests around the local area. And I heard nothing but praises from one of the American guests about their guide. Chateau d'Artigny is in nearby MtBazon if you want to contact the hotel for specific names, & I would guess they could easily pick you up at the train station in Tours

Continental_Drifter

Thank you so much! That's exactly the kind of referral I need!

FrankS

My Pleasure

Christina

I think you could easily see a couple chateaux and vineyards in a day, depending what you mean by "see". I don't think I've ever spent more than a couple hours in a any particular chateau. I admit they aren't that fascinating to me, big old stone houses for rich people, but some are empty, anyway, so there isn't really much to look at. I prefer the ones that have some furnishings in them.

annhig

Hi CD,

what time of year will you be there? this may affect which chateaux you want to visit.


Also your/friends' interests are important - eg if you are gardeners, Villandry and Chaumont [where there is a garden show every year] might be good choices. The theme for 2015 is Collectors' Gardens which sounds like fun.

Neither of them are really about their interiors - it's the gardens that you go for.

nytraveler

Well if one doesn;t like chateaux there's not a whole lot of point in going.

But if you head for a place like Chambord - with 440 rooms it's hard to see much of anything in 2 hours - in fact you probably will spend more than 30 minutes getting to and from the car and into the actual chateau.

I would ask your friends what they are looking for - some have gorgeous gardens, some unique architectural features, some a reasonable amount of furnishings, some a wonderful historical background - so they aren;t disappointed. (I'm always amazed that everyone just HAS to go to Neuschwanstein - which is recent, mainly faux - and apparently the major attraction is that it resembles the Disney World castle.)

FrenchMystiqueTours

You can contact this person, who lives in the Loire and does château and wine tours:

http://tourtheloire.com/

rhon

I was about to suggest this site as well, but I see FMT has beaten me. We have not used this company as it is way out of our budget. But they get rave reviews from people who have. So for a once in a lifetime experience , they might be worth considering. We spent a week in the Loire earlier this year and we had just arrived in the pretty village of Chedigny when one of their wonderful old cars glided past. Was just a little envious.