My husband and I are going to the Loire Valley from Paris for 3 nights. We leave in about 2 weeks, mid-November. We booked the Choisel in Amboise for lodging, but nothing else yet. Can we rent a car with GPS from the station in Tours? Do we need a reservation?

Also, we love good wine, but do not know too much and would love to drink it, sample it, maybe (and maybe not) take a case or 2 home, and learn about it. November might be a tough time for this?

I got a few good restaurant suggestions, but would always take more. We'll go to Chennonceau and maybe one other place, undecided.

Also, we would love to bike, but weather might make it tough in November. If it is sunny, we'll go.

You need to rent your car here, now. Yes, you need a reservation. Call AutoEurope or Kemwel. Yes, they will have cars in Tours, assuming you'll be picking up Monday through Saturday during normal business hours.

You can do a dégustation of Loire valley wines any time of year. YOu'll see signs all over, and every town will have wine stores. I personally never take a case or two home because I can find the same wines here for the most part and Customs doesn't allow me to bring in cases (and how on earth would you transport it?).

You're spending three days in the Loire and going to Chenonceaux and maybe one other place - that's it?

You should wait until you get there to decide about the biking. Le Choiseul can help you get a rental if the weather's good, I'm sure. If you have a rental car, though, how does the bike fit in?

We arrive on a Sunday having flown overnight from US, then train to Tours. So maybe we get to Amboise another way the first day?

We can see the town, market and Chateau, then the next morning get either a bike or car. Would the hotel arrange the car maybe? or will they charge a huge upcharge to do that?

My "one other place" meant, Amboise, Chennonceau, and another town. I guess if we get a car one day we could visit many towns in one day, but we don't want zombie-state from running all over. We want to relax a little before hitting Paris afterwards.

What would you recommend?

If you have 3 days in the Loire Valley, stay in one hotel, one location. When you arrive at Tours (or St. Pierre des Corps) rent a car and drive to your hotel. I usually do not recommend driving after an all night transatlantic flight but to most hotels or to Amboise is only 30 minutes or less from Tours.

One day visit Cheverny, Chambord, and Chenonceau. The other day visit Azay-le-Rideau and Villandry. The Château Amboise, 80% of which was destroyed during the Revolution, is best viewed from across the Loire. I shouldn´t spend the money/time for an inside visit unless you really have extra time. Le Clos Lucé might be a more compelling visit but not by any large margin.

I would take the rental car to Paris, a slight detour to visit the cathedral in Chartres could work nicely. If you are apprehensive about driving into Paris (you shouldn´t be but some are) you could leave the car in Chartres and take the train into Paris or leave it at Orly which is along A6.

Arrange for your car now:

http://www.autoeurope.com

Three day rental will cost about the same as a one day rental.

The Bon Laboureur in Chenonceaux is a top country inn, with good accomodations and a very nice restaurant.

I'd stay at Fontevraud Priory and eat at the Unicorn one night. You will find that Saumur and Angers (and others Chinon, Bourgeuil etc) have a central tasting area/building which makes the visitor's life a little easier than tramping around the villages and you can get to talk to a sensible soul.

Thanks for your help!
In the US it is way more expensive to return cars to a different spot than picked up. Not true there? Also, since we arrive at the airport in Paris and need to get through customs etc before getting the train to St. Pierre des Corps, I was hesitant to buy a ticket ahead of time. Do you have advice on how to do this? And can you use a credit card for this? And is the train station in the airport?

HUGE DISAGREEMENT WITH SARASTRO -- I'd definitely go inside the Chateau d'Amboise and take the carriageway exit. Between Da Vinci's tomb and the gargoyles in the carriageway exit, the Chateau d'Amboise is highly worth your while.

I think Cheverny is nice from the outside but nothing special inside. The Tintin books available at Cheverny (Marlinspike Hall is inspired by Cheverny) are quite interesting because the shop will sell unfiltered copies of the originals (including all the rampant racism of Tintin in the Congo -- which, considering the author Herge was Belgian, demonstrates why the Belgian Congo was the most brutally run European colony in Africa).

I agree that you should also visit the Abbey de Fontevreaud and the other chateaus Sarastro suggests, but Azay-le-Rideau and Villandry are smaller and less interesting than Chambord (which is a colossus) and Chenonceau. Visiting Villandry on a rainy day would suck because its main attraction, by far, is the gardens. The interior is not special and has been completely revamped in the past 100 years.

As long as you return the car to France - anywhere in France - as opposed to another country, there is no extra charge.

If you buy a PREM ticket 3 months or less in advance on the TGV to Tours you will save a bundle of $$. But you will need to account for the time between landing and boarding a train. It also depends on what terminal you land at. The SNCF station is in aérogare 2, so you may have to switch terminals. I would buy a ticket online (yes, you use a credit card and print out your own ticket - there are numerous threads on here that explain how) that gives you a good 2 and a half hours from landing time. They are nonexchangable, nonrefundable tickets.

I think in StCirq's reply there were two things that could be further explained. The reason it is suggested to reserve before you leave from the US is it's usually much cheaper than on the spot especially through one of the discounters like AutoEurope or Kemwell. The reason it is suggested you plan to pick up your car on a weekday is that hours of car rentals in smaller cities in Europe are often limited. For example in Tours both Avis and Hertz are closed on Sundays at all locations even the Tours airport.

If you are arriving on Sunday and you want to train to Tours you might ask your hotel what they recommend as to transfers between Tours and Amboise and pick up your car Monday morning in Tours. Or pick up your car when you land in Paris on Sunday and drive to Amboise rather than train.

I have encapsulated my years of experience in traveling to and living in the Loire Valley in just a few brief paragraphs above. You may indeed disagree with me bigruss, that is fine, but I believe that the draw to Amboise and le Clos Lucé is in the Leonardo name more that anything else. I believe that Château Blois for example offers more architecturally than what is left of Amboise. If people had the same easy attachment to François I, or Diane de Poitiers, or Catherine de Medici, that they have with Leonardo, visitor priorities would certainly change.

At the heart of my recommendations, are these principles:

1. Two châteaux visits a day is ideal. I include Cheverny because it is one of the few fully furnished examples one may visit, because of its close proximity to Chambord, and because of the recent upgrade of its grounds and the accompanying story which is too involved to include here.

2. Geographically, one day is east of Tours, one day is west. Admittedly Villandry is a better visit in summer when the gardens are at their best but the owners have recently improved the interior. Villandry could be substituted by Loches, Chinon, or Langeais; Ussé is best view from the exterior only.

3. Car rental is really the best way to explore this region. Only the US companies in France charge for one way drop off. Citer, Sixt, or Europcar do not hence by suggestion to use the car for a portion of the return to Paris. Do not drive from CDG to the Loire Valley after an all night transatlantic flight. You safety is more important than the risks you take by trying it.

4. On my short list of hotels for this region is the Bon Laboureur as suggested by Michel_Paris. Others include:

The Cheval Blanc in the small village of Bléré
Hostel du Roy in Chenonceaux
la Ferme des Berthiers just south of Tours

5. Taking the train from CDG is always problematic but the OP leaves in only two weeks so the possibility of obtaining inexpensive tickets is limited. You might take a look at last minute deals on the www.voyages-sncf.com website. The site is in French only but it is the only place to my knowledge to obtain deep discounted tickets just days before any given departure date. Otherwise you will probably need to pay the walk up price of approximately 60€ for the train.

Amboise is one of my favorite castles in France and by far my favorite in the Loire. Leonardo da Vinci has little to do with it. I just find the notion of inviting folks to dinner and defenestrating them one of the greatest historical anecdotes ever. Plus all the other fascinting history surrounding it.

Thanks for all the tips. We will be safe and not drive from Paris after our long flight. We have not driven in Europe before. I think we will train to Tours, then may have to take a taxi to Amboise. We can easily spend the day there without a car and get one in the morning in Amboise. I loved the suggestion to return the car in Chartres on the way back to Paris. In choosing which chateaux to see, do any of the ones mentioned have better translations, tours, or headsets than the others? I speak some French but my husband does not.Chennonceau has been recommended by a friend, so we will go there. Cheverny is a wine we have had and liked. Maybe that could combine wine tasting and castle and Chambord together?

We got a great deal on a car from Avis through http://www.bonjourlafrance.com/ . Rented a nice Volvo for 12 days, pickup at the St. Pierre des Corps TGV station (near Tours) and returned at CDG for hundreds less than we found with Avis (US) and the major European agencies.

We picked up on Saturday, when their office is open, except Noon to 2:00 p.m.

Everything went exactly as you would expect at a "first-tier" rental company corporate site. No problems on either end.

As far as wines, my experience in France is that -- unless you know enough to hunt out producers with higher-end wines and limited distribution -- there's no advantage to bringing back wine. I usually hunt out one or two "trophy" (at least for me) wines in the 75-125 euro range.

To our taste, the various Loire wines are delicious and there are many excellent (e.g., white Sancerre's and several appelations that produce lush reds from Cabernet Franc) and good, less expensive wines (e.g., Muscadet), but these aren't wines we acquire to put in our cellar.

On our recent trip to the Loire and parts of Brittany and Normandy, my "score" was a relatively limited, top-drawer bottle of Calvados at about $80 less than you can find in the US, when you can find it at all.

I went to France for the first time recently and loved the meals we had at the Loire Valley. Best meals we had:
Le Favre d'Anne in Angers - http://www.lefavredanne.fr/
Auberge de la Diligence near Segre - http://www.diligence.fr/

I would go back to the area just for the meals.