Joanne28

We'd like to spend a few days in the Loire Valley in Oct & I was wondering how the transit system is? We plan to stay in Saumur (ancestal village for me) & the trains seem to involve going to Tours & then backtracking.

We don't really want to rent a car as that's no fun for the driver & we're quite happy to take local buses etc.

ira

ttt

Keren

From Saumur you could easily train to the small town of Langeais and its wonderful castle, to the marvellous city of Angers and to the little town of Montreuil-Bellay, that has a beautiful castle as well. On that route there are sometimes buses instead of trains. And Saumur itself is lovely, although its castle is shut down right now. The views from outside are wonderful and there's space for sitting down and soaking it all in.
Look here for timetables of trains:
http://www.sncf.fr/indexe.htm
I printed them all and it turned out to be easy to use the train in that area. I was staying in Angers for 1 week and did 4 daytrips.

A longish trip from Saumur would be to visit the small town of Clisson and its park.
http://www.clisson.com/
And yes, it's as pretty as it looks in the photo. You'll need to train to Nantes and change there. Nantes' beautiful Jardin des Plantes is right across from the train station and is very much worth seeing.

Joanne28

Keren,
Thanks, just the kind of info I wanted. Shame about the Saumur castle being closed down right now, but oh well. We were originally going to go to Vimy Ridge, but the Monument is being restored right now also. Not having too much luck.

PalQ

And you could train to Tours and at the station there, or tourist office opposite, hop mini-bus tours that take you to a few castles in a half day or more in a full day. Otherwise bus transit in the Loire is lacking and impractical to use - but trains as noted above can get you to many castles - Chinon, Chaumont, Amboise, Chenonceau, Azay-le-Rideau - practically all of them save Chambord - for it train to Blois then connect with shuttle buses from there to Chambord.

Keren

Joanne,
Saumur won't be open until 2008, part of it collapsed some years ago so it's being renovated. If you ever going to be in Nantes, it has an amazing castle as well, which is also being renovated right now (was supposed to reopen this September but it has now been delayed). It's worth a look from the outside though, as well the one in Saumur, which is amazing. And PalQ is right in saying that many of them are reachable by train. I think you'll find more than enough to do in the Saumur area for a few days without having to rent a car.

PalQ

www.ACCO-DISPO.com for one of several mini-bus castle tour operators.

annhig

We stayed in Saumur for 3 nights a few years ago and loved it. Here's plenty to do in the town itself; it's big enough to have shopd and bars; but small enough to be friendly and cosy. Also Tours would make a good base, especially as it has a fast connection to Paris.
Good luck!

PalQ

And Tours itself should not be neglected - it has a neat old town center with beaucoup restaurants - very amibiant - as well as two great old churches - one the cathedral and a small zoo (if it's still there) and of course lots of shopping.