Need advice on Loire Valley
 

We will travel to Loire Valley for three nights with our three boys. Although we expect to visit a chateau or two, the boys will quickly tire of this. I read about the DaVinci house and have added this to my list of things to do. Anything else?

I am also thinking that they would enjoy exploring the area via bicycle. Any recommendations for companies to rent bicycles from? My youngest son is 5 and is able to ride a bike on his own; however if they have bicycles with piccolos this would be preferred. Any recommendations for interesting trails?

Finally I have seen canoe trips mentioned on the Loire-- is it possible to do kayak trips as well (personally prefer kayaks)? Rental companies or day trip tours?

Any other "active" suggestions?

And how about lodging that is child friendly? Restaurants?
Thanks so much!

We enjoyed our stay in Amboise and since you mention visiting Leonardo's home you might want to stay there as well. Amboise will have many restaurant choices as well as its own castle with ramparts, it's close to Tours if you are traveling to the Loire by train and it's an easy drive to Chenonceau. We stayed at Le Vieux Manoir and while I wouldn't recommend the main building for a family with children the garden cottage would be perfect. While we were there it was occupied by a family with young children.

www.experienceloire.com/canoeing.htm This website should help you with kayaking and biking in the Loire.

Best wishes on your trip

You may find the roads along the Loire valley a little fast for real comfort so try to get onto the many backroads asap. We biked down Le Loir (river just to the North) and because it is a good bit quieter enjoyed it more, also Kayaking. You will find Kayaking centres along both river for day tripping. Suggest google maps to the area you will be in and then "Kayak" or "location velo" in the search.

Scootoir, I have contacted le vieux manoir and they do have availability for us (and there are two other places in Amboise as well with availability which I think would suit us well). I agree with you that Amboise looks to be an ideal place for us to locate.

bilboburgler thanks for the advice. Is it easy to find bicycles with piccolos in this area?

While this area is good for bikes it is not a major bikes for all area (like say ile de re) so you need to do the work. I'm out of the loop on local bike rental companies

I wouldn;t let small kids ride bikes - since the roads are rural, often don't have much in the way of shoulders (no sidewalks) and bike riders are close to fast-moving traffic in a lot of places.

As for kayak - the Loire isn't really a very big river - when I saw it (end May) it was very shallow and slow moving - don;t know about either boats or kayaks, but it doesn;t look like there's a lot going on.

I also recommend Le Vieux Manoir. In addition to it being a great place to stay, Gloria, the owner, is very friendly and will help you on planning activities. She is an expert on the region and you want to make sure you go to kid friendly restaurants and activities that are good for kids. The breakfasts are special.

Another vote for Le Vieux Manoir. My friends and I stayed in the garden cottage a couple of years ago. Very comfortable, spacious. Bedrooms are up a flight of stairs. There was a video machine and stereo in the cottage.
Excellent location; pleasant walk to grocery/fruit market, Leonardo's House, and the Chateau. The Chateau was not as impressive as others in the Loire Valley, but on the other hand, your kids may have limited interest in that.

Myself and another poster just responded to a similar question on another travel forum so if you'd like to read our responses just click on the link below and read through the thread.

http://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowTopic...ey_Centre.html

We are now thinking to stay at Pavillon des Lys. Has anyone stayed at this hotel? What did you think? It seems quite nice from its web site and the reviews on tripadvisor are positive.

Has anyone gone to the light show at the Chateau Amboise? Can you describe it to me? I have tried to get more information on it, but am having difficulty in pulling up the web site on my computer. Do I need to make reservations for it in advance?

Scootoir, thank you for the recommendation for canoeing/kayaking. I see that there is a location in Amboise-- perfect!!

Also I have seen numerous biking tours for families advertized so there must be areas that are safe for children to bike (and the youngest would be on a piccolo so he would be w/ my husband). Has anyone taken a bike tour and would you recommend it?

We will probably only go to one or two chateaus-- any recommendations for other activities to do? Any indoor activities in case of bad weather?

Thanks so much!

bike riding is safe in the area. I've done it and felt very good. The main arterials along the river are just not the roads you want to use unless they have put in bike lanes ( I noticed that in Vouvray they are present. The Eu paid councils all over the continent to pu them in so may well be fully covered . We used a Uk company Headwater to organise our trip. Very good

This chateau is a great place for kids - it is the setting for Tintin books plus the feeding of the hounds in the afternoon is quite a sight.
http://www.chateau-cheverny.com/uk_accueil.php
The Loire Valley web site also has info on the bike trails -
http://www.loirevalleytourism.com/Di...elo-trail.html
The grounds at Chambord are huge with plenty of adventures for little ones also.

Bookmarking. Thanks.

DaveMM

We attended the Son et lumiere at Ambois. A cast of 400 costumed locals features jugglers, horsemen, fire eaters, and extras with highly sophisticated technology (fireworks, fountains, huge images projected onto the surroundings). The show is about the history of the chateau as well as daily life and festivities at Amboise. It is quite a polished spectacle beginning 10-10:30 PM and lasting 1-1/2 hours (seemed a little long).No need for advanced tickets,the show can be canceled because of the weather. Your hotel can sell you tickets.

dugi_otok, this sounds wonderful! Is it held each night or only certain nights of the week? Thank you for this info.

If you stay in Amboise then take the kids to the large outdoor piscine - municipal swimming pool that also has a great view of the facade of the castle just across the Loire - a view that can only be appreciated really from across the Loire from this island. I think the pool may also have kayaks to rent

At night catch the English seance of the Sound and Light Show at Amboise's chateau - bombastic - lots of special effects and a cast of locals clad in medieval garb when Francois I lived here and literally brought the Renaissance to France by luring Leonardo here in his waning days.

On the outside of Amboise is the Pagoda of Chanteloup - the only remains of an old palace that was pulled down in the 1800s or late 1700s when the owner could not pay taxes so it was demolished and sold for scrap

But the tall slender pagoda remains - a relic of the rich and royal fascination during that era of all things Chinese - and the pagoda is built in a Chinese style - you can climb it.

Hi Jeanned,

I hope it's not too late but I just remembered this place we passed driving from Amboise to Chenonceau: http://www.aquariumduvaldeloire.com/...UX/english.php

Once you have visited some of the actual chateaux your children might enjoy seeing the miniatures (depending on their ages and interests). Also last time we were at Chenonceau we found an area with donkeys as we walked back to our car. I did not expect to find donkeys near a palace.

Palenque and Scootoir thanks for you suggestions! We have not yet left for our trip. Palenque,do you know which night(s) the show is?
Thanks.

There are troglodyte caves in the Loire often with wine tastings and even some with restaurants. I think there may be a museum or two to show how folks lived in the caves. Strikes me that young kids would find that interesting.

We ate at a goat farm not farm from Amboise. It's a working farm with a barn filled with goats. Also might interest young kids. I'll dig around a bit and see if I can find the info on these options for you. And maybe someone else will have some info as well.

Here is a site with interesting info re: things to do with kids in the Loire valley

http://www.france4families.com/Loire...ritesLoire.htm

And here's the site about the restaurant with the goat farm. I was wrong, it's near Villandry rather than Amboise but none of the chateaux are too far from each other and Amboise is quite central. I would think the kids would like the gardens at Villandry as well. And as the above site indicates, the feeding of the hounds at Cheverny is a pretty interesting (if a bit gory) thing as is their room with walls covered with hunting trophies.

http://www.letapegourmande.com/indexen.html

And here's a site with info about troglodyte caves in the Loire. Enjoy.

http://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowTopic...ey_Centre.html