Turning 40 and need help planning trip to Loire
 

My husband and I went to Provence and Cote D'Azur last year and loved it with a passion. For my 40th birthday this year, we want to visit another French Region. I have tentatively set my sights on Loire Valley. Easy to fly into Paris and take train to Loire. I have found a chateau to stay in in Amboise, but need some advice on another city nearby to stay. We will get a car. I am planning about 8 days total. Any suggestions? We love food and wine, culture, castles and the ease of French life.

Why another city - Amboise is at the Loire's best epicenter - several great chateaus a short drive away. Chinon is to me the nicest of Loire cities, followed by Amboise - talking of cities not villages. Some along the Cher River are very nice and less touristed.
Amboise has good train service -either TGV to St Pierre-des-corps (tours main station) then local train to Amboise or slower trains directly to Amboise from Paris' Gare Austerlitz (about 2 hours)

Well, if you "love food and wine, culture, castles and the ease of French life"...you are definitely heading for the right area!

I agree with PalQ that a change of venue is not entirely necessary. I also agree that Chinon is a terrific place to stay.

But if you are intent on staying in a second location, and you're already basing yourself to the east (in Amboise), I'd say check out Saumur or Angers in the west. Both are really terrific, IMO.

Angers might be a little too much of a "big city" experience for some, but the chateau is incredible (especially the otherworldly 'Apocalypse' tapestry in the dungeon). Saumur is much like Amboise, possibly even nicer.

Eight days in Amboise would seem like an eternity to me, though it's certainly a great base. I'd split the time up between Amboise and Saumur, to give you a good overview of both the eastern and western Loire.

ditto to both Amboise and Chinon or Saumur if wishing to see Saumur and Angers - most people who are in Loire but a few days dwell around Amboise, where the mega-famous castles are close by (Chenonceau, Chambord, Azay-le-Rideau) but with that much time also go east to Saumur and Angers like others said fine places. But could be tedious driving from Amboise to Angers area and expensive - gas $5-6/gal these days.

I believe Angers is west of Amboise, not east. At any rate, 8 days sounds like a lot for just Amboise. We got tired of Amboise after 3 days.
Another suggestion is to go to Bourges on the Loire/Berry border. Beautiful old town, interesting sites, good restaurants, less touristy than Amboise and the illuminated, multi-media walking tour of the old city at night is a real treat.

If you are going to visit places west of Tours, it is probably cheaper in the long run to just move over there than drive back and forth from Amboise.

The Chateau Rochecotte, in Sainte-Patrice [near Langeais] is a very nice hotel with an excellent restaurant. The menu changes daily.

These photos might give you some idea of what to see:

http://www.fodors.com/forums/pgMessa...p;tid=34670352

If you are interested in gardens, I would recommend Chaumont for its annual garden competition and Villandry for its re-creation of the medieval garden.

Dear Lexus:

I've used Angers as a base city for excursions throughout the Loire valley. From Angers, you can easily see Saumur, Chinon, or other cities in either Anjou or Touraine. Angers is a TGV as well as an SNCF stop.

Drop me a line if you have any other questions..

Regards..
Luis

For anyone interested, here is our full trip report with pix:

www.onelittleworld.com/loire_1.html

It was a very enjoyable week for us!