stokebailey

We're staying in Loire valley for a week in October with our teenage girls, hoping for lots of chances to practice French language on a casual basis. Do we stay in a cottage in a village, and chat with boulangers, shopkeepers, etc? Is a B&B going to be full of people chatting in Italian or in Manchester accents? Anyone have a favorite village or area for seeing chateaux, birding, biking type activities?

Dave_in_Paris

I'd search for a bed and breafkast in a village. If you want to avoid Italian and Manchester English get off the beaten path. La Charite sur Loire in far-west Burgndy is a charming, time-worn town on the Loire. There's a bird sanctuary on the stretch of the river, we often watch a heron wading by the 16th-century bridge across the Loire, the bicycling is great, and there a vineyards nearby. Not much in the way of castles, but that keeps to crowds down. There's a b&b on the main street that descends to the Loire, the Logis du Pont, e-mail: [email protected] on a quiet courtyard with very pleasant rooms for 40 euros a night. Here's the La Charite tourism office Web site: http://www.lacharitesurloire-tourisme.com

tod

Dave has given you a super idea.
I can only reccommend you & your family go on a walking tour through the Loire Valley. This lasts a week and you get to speak French to your French Guide all the time whilst you are looking at interesting villages and Chateaux.
I did the walk with a group (16 people)
called The Wayfarers.
Great food, great hotels, wonderful people from all over the globe trying to speak the little French they knew!
By the way, it's not a French speaking tour - it's English.

laclaire

I don't know how your daughters deal with social situations, but to get them practicing, they might need to set off alone. Teens tend to get embarrassed when they try out a foreign language in front of those they know. So, wherever you stay, send them off alone for a bit. If you have to buy anything, make them go and get it at the store.

And if they complain, use the great words of my grandmother: It's good for your character.

stokebailey

Thanks, all, for your helpful comments. We are landlocked in our daily lives, and hope to find a village within striking distance (~2 hrs) of the Atlantic for a beach and birding day.
I hadn't thought about the beaten path idea, since we don't know enough to realize which ones are beaten. The last thing we want is to be surrounded by tour busses. And my idea of seeing a chateau is riding past one on our bikes. Will the Loire chateau area be full of sightseers in the fall?
Any thoughts on villages further west that might have at least a boulangerie?