Sights & Attractions in The Loire Valley

Pick up the Loire River halfway along its course from central France to the Atlantic Ocean. Châteaux and vineyards will accompany you throughout a 225-km (140-mi) westbound course from the cathedral city of Orléans to the bustling city of Angers. Towns punctuate the route at almost equal distances—Orléans, Blois, Tours, Saumur—and are useful bases if you're relying on public transportation. But don't let the lack of a car prevent you from visiting and overnighting in the lovely villages of the region, because a surprising number can be accessed via train, bus, or taxi. Although you may be rushing around to see as many famous châteaux as possible, make time to walk through the poppy-covered hills, picnic along the riverbanks, and sample the famous local wines.

Tours, the capital city of the province of Touraine, is the gateway to the entire region, not only for its central position but because the TGV high-speed train can deposit you there from Paris in little more than an hour. This chapter is divided into two tours, and the first explores a string of fine châteaux east of Tours; Blois, Chaumont, and Amboise lead the way, but two of the area's most stunning monuments lie south of the Loire—romantic Chenonceau, with its arches half-straddling the River Cher, and colossal Chambord, its forest of chimneys and turrets visible above the treetops. By heading westward from Tours, our second tour allows you to enter a storyland par excellence, address to such fairy-tale châteaux as Ussé and Azay-le-Rideau and the more muscular castles of Chinon and Saumur. From Angers you can drive northeast to explore the winding, intimate Loir Valley all the way to Châteaudun, just south of Chartres and the Ile-de-France; or continue along the Loire as far as Nantes, the southern gateway to Brittany.

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