My wife are looking into a chateau for the 25th-26th of December for the Loire Valley. Does anyone have any recommendations? Also, what types of tours are available and how is the weather for that region of France in winter?

Do you mean you are looking to book a room at a château, or visit one, or both? A quick and random search through my Eyewitness Guide to the Loire shows just about all of the major châteaux (ones for visiting) to be closed December 25.

For château accommodations, you can check www.chateauxhotels.com

We are looking at a chateaux for accomodations. I have found a potential in the Chateau de Rochecotte. Does anyone know anything regarding this chateau? We would mainly want to tour chateaux of the Loire region on the 26th. We have a 1:10 pm flight that leaves Charles de Gaulle on the 27th.

Beautiful place to stay, great restaurant

The Chateau de Rochecotte is a terrific hotel, and it is open in December. However, if is a little out of the way for touring the major chateaux.

Since rooms will be easy to come by at that time of the year, you might want to make a last minute decision based on the weather.

if we stay at this chateau, how will we be able to tour the loire valley? does the location surrounding the chateau offer tour services throughout the region?

I would contact the hotel ([email protected]) and inquire. Knowing the French penchant for getting the most holidays possible, I should think that there might be only minimal touring options between Christmas and New Year's.

Oh, and I just realized December 26 is a Sunday, so it's highly likely that touring companies, taxis, private bus lines, etc., will "faire le pont" until at least Monday.

Hi crcash,

I took a tour of three chateau from Paris on December 24th, 2002. The weather was a little overcast, cool but comfortable.

There were no crowds at any of the chateau and it was easy to visit all the attractions. The gardens of course are not attractive at this time of year but it's a tradeoff I'm glad to make.

In the small towns we drove through it did not appear that many stores were open. I have traveled a number of times to Paris at this time of year and the weather is unpredictable but never unbearable.

==Mike

We've stayed at the Rochecotte two or three times and love it. I don't find it distant from good Chateaux to visit. It's within easy driving distance to Saumur, Angers, Usse, Chinon, Lalngeais, azay le Rideau and Villandry--and other lesser known places. I don't know, however, about openings and closings at that time of year. Judy lolling about the Rochecotte would be plenty swell on its own. Lovely place. Yes, good food too.

I think your best bet would be to forget about tours and just get a rental ca and the Michelin Green Guide to the Loire Valley--that way you can go and return when you want and see what you want. You'll probably have to take a car for 3 days, however, unless you can find an off-season deal for fewer.

underhill,
are there places to rent cars in the loire valley? we were thinking of taking the train to the loire region from paris. would you recommend renting a car in paris? also, we will only be able to be in the loire for a couple of days.

I think that our dates for the trip will be 21-28. We want to spend the first five nights in Paris, but we don't quite know how many to stay at rochecotte. We may look into staying the last two nights, a sunday and monday night. Should we just concentrate on staying monday night since most things may be closed on sunday? What about the champagne region near reims?

Your entire trip is December 21-28? That's 7 days, a week. If you want to spend the first five nights in Paris, then you really have only one night to spend elsewhere, as presumably you need to be back in Paris the night before your departure (don't even think about getting from the Loire to CDG for a flight on the same day, IMO). So you spend the 21-25 in Paris, go to the Loire on the 26th, and looks like you have to be back in Paris the 27th.

Sorry, I don't understand this plan. The way I count, you have only one night at the Rochecotte no matter how you slice it.

A lot of things in France are closed Mondays, too, and then you have the holiday factor. You can't possibly get to a second region of France (Champagne) with only the one day, unless I'm missing something here.

So should we just concentrate on day trips to those regions and use our money on paris entertainment? If so, are day trips to the Loire Valley and Champagne or maybe even Normandy possible?

I'm planning a very similar trip with the same delima of getting back to paris for a train next day. I think that Champagne and Normandy are too far. I considered hitting Normany on the way back to London, but you need a round trip on the Chunnel for the better fares (which I booked already). I think you can do Loire in 2 days and 1 night. I have the same issue as you now though. WILL IT BE TOUGH TO SEE CHATEAUS ON A SUN OR MON?

A couple of years ago my husband and I had a lovely stay at the Chateau la Bourdaisiere outside of Tours (http://www.chateaulabourdaisiere.com/) . We didn't want to rent a car, and just took taxis into Tours and then a one-day bus tour of the Chateaux, which was nice (tons of folks offer these from the info office near the TGV station). Tours is a very quick trip from Paris -- just over an hour if I recall correctly. This was a smaller, but gorgeous chateau and not too pricey. Our room had an enormous bathroom with two sinks and a soaking tub, a private balcony and was the largest room I've ever had in a French hotel. They have no restaurant (but serve breakfast in your room or downstairs), but recommended a fantastic and relatively inexpensive but good value restaurant a short walk down the street that was built into the tufa rock cave, which was cool. The wine was excellent and food as well. They recently filmed an American reality TV show there (Joe Millionaire) so maybe it's gotten more pricey/crowded though.

Staying there really helped us avoid having Chateaux envy on our trip. Not sure what their availability is over XMas, but it's worth checking out if your other option isn't available.
If I only had a day or two in the Loire, I would take an early morning train out of Paris and bring only the smallest overnight bag possible, walk around Tours a bit and book a tour for the next day, then check in at the hotel and visit the building, have dinner in the village, have breakfast in my room, then take the tour the next day and the TGV back to Paris in the evening. You could probably see at least 3 chateau in 1 day. I think we did two full day trips and saw a half dozen. Our favorite was Chenonceau: http://www.chenonceau.com/indexENG.html

Enjoy your trip! What a romantic visit...