For those of you who have been to the Loire, which of these towns (not including the various chateau) deserve a visit of even a few hours:

Tours
Blois
Amboise
Saumur
Angers
Chinon

In Europe, one criterion (but not the only one) is determining if a town has architectural interest for the occasional visitor is whether it has suffered from war damage. It is the case of many Loire towns, especially Tours which was rather intensively bombed in WWII. It retains some interesting old neighbouhoods, but many blocks were rebuilt in rather bland 1950's style. Tours has an interesting medieval-renaissnce cathedral, however. All other towns deserve a few hours.

My fav is Chinon...

Brain dump:
Amboise
- Chateau overlooking the Loire River
- Clos de Luce, former home, now museum of L. da Vinci

Chinon
- fortress ruins on top of the bluff, also overlooking the Loire
- center of town with timbered buildings
- vineyards behind the town
- lovely riverside park

Montresor
- in the Beau Villages group, very sweet
- the chateau is well-furnished and you can wander on your own throughout the rooms

Loches
- church, fortress and dungeon
- interesting walk through town to get to it

Author: Travelnut
Date: 09/26/2005, 08:57 am
In case it will be of some use or interest to you, I'm copying my post from another thread about 'Loire Valley':
Last October (2004), we took the TGV to St Pierre des Corps, then a local train (15 minute ride) to Amboise. We took a taxi to the hotel, but we could have walked (about 20minutes) but it was drizzling.
We stayed at le Manoir les Minimes, which is enclosed in a walled courtyard with free parking for guests, and is about 2 blocks from the beginning of town 'center' and the Chateau d'Amboise. We walked to Clos Luce, da Vinci's last home (an interesting museum of his inventions), and ate dinner at La Florentine, an Italian/ French casual restaurant.
We spent the first afternoon/night in Amboise, doing the above, then the next morning we took the local train -back- to St Pierre des Corps and picked up our rental car (booked online thru AVIS.fr, which was cheaper than AVIS.com <http://AVIS.com>, and included the CDW etc). We left out of St Pierre des Corps for the day, and drove to Chateaux Chambord and Cheverny, then to le Manoir les Minimes.
The next day (3rd day) we drove to Chinon and checked into Hotel Diderot, also situated in a walled enclosure with guest parking. Between Amboise and Chinon, we visited Loches'dungeon and castle, and Montresor, a tiny beautiful village with an interesting chateau.
The next day(4th) we drove to Azay-le-Rideau and Fontevraud l'Abbaye, then back to Chinon.
The final day in the Loire, we took the car back to St P-d-Corps and then took the TGV back to Paris.
TGV - 2 r/t tickets 124 Euro
Amboise train 12 Euro
(reserved online at www.sncf.com <http://www.sncf.com> and picked up all tickets at SNCF boutique in Paris near my hotel)
Car rental was close to 318 Euro (replacement fuel not included; Avis.fr)

le Manoir les Minimes was 120 Euro/double, 11 euro pp/brkf
<http://www.manoirlesminimes.com>

Hotel Diderot was 64 Euro/double, 6.5 Euro pp/ brkf
<http://www.hoteldiderot.com/index.html>

<http://www.chateau-amboise.com/>
<http://www.vinci-closluce.com/>
<http://www.chambord.org/anglais.htm>
<http://www.chateau-cheverny.fr/>
<http://www.tourisme-valdindrois-mont...ndex1.html>
<http://www.loches-tourainecotesud.com/accueilgb.htm>
www.chinon.com/
http://www.chinonfrance.com/chinon.html
<http://www.monum.fr/m_azay/fs_index.dml?lang=en>
<http://www.abbaye-fontevraud.com/indexflash.htm>

Angers deserves a visit for its fortress -- easy on/off the highway -- which houses the great Apocalypse tapestry.

Also recommend Chinon and Loches, as described above.

I really didn't care for Tours, except for the cathedral, and the way people spoke the French language (very elegant and clear).

I did love Angouleme, however. It was one of those pokey towns where you just wanted to shop, take strolls, eat, and drink at outside cafes. It is a very relaxing city.

I think cigalechanta has related on this site that there is a comicbook museum in Angouleme.

davidjac,
Don't know how much time you have set aside, but I think that all those on your list deserve at least a few hours.

We gave ourselves 8 full days for our Loire explorations, knowing that it would most likely be a one time visit. We took the TGV to St. Pierre des Corps, then commuter train to Tours where we rented our car.

Like Travelnut,
we also stayed at and loved the Manoir les Minimes in very picturesque Amboise, using it as our Touraine base.

From there we walked to the Chateau and the Clos de Luce. On Sun. morning we visited the large outdoor market on the quai.
Our day trips took us to very atmospheric Chinon, where we also did some wine tasting after visiting the ruins, Chenenceau (my favorite castle, so beautifully decorated, such a lovely setting), Chambord (the one that impressed me the least), Cheverny (another highlight-timed for the feeding of the dogs). Chaumont (stables quite interesting), Azay-le-Rideau (very pretty setting), Chateau de Langeais, Loches and Montresor. We spent most of Sunday in Blois.

Then we moved to the western Loire and based at Saumur staying at the Hotel Anne d'Anjou.
During our "move", we stopped in Tour to visit the cathedral and very fine Musée des Beaux Artes and at Viilandry to stroll through the spectacular gardens, a highlight!
In Saumur we did wine tasting, watched an equestrian training session of the Cadre Noir, visited the Abbaye of Fontevraud (fascinating), the Chateau de Brissac and spent an entire day in Angers and its environs for more wine tasting, to visit the cathedral, Chateau and the Apocalypse tapestries.

We decided on two bases for our 3 days, one in the Touraine and the other in Anjou, following advice on this forum. I'm glad we chose to split our time into 4 days in each location. Even with 8 days, chateau fatigue did settle in mid-way.

If Travelnut is reading here, I would be interested in your comparisons between Manoir de Minimes and Hotel Diderot. We loved our stay in Amboise, but a slightly cheaper spot on a planned couple of nights in Chinon would work. After staying at the one, was the other a letdown in any way?

I would go back to Hotel Diderot in a snap! It's like an 'inn', lots of beams, simple furnishings, rustic breakfast room with homemade jams (which you can buy). The parking area and courtyard are enclosed with a big stone wall. The courtyard/terraces have tables and chairs, and vines trailing from 2nd floor and arbors. The rooms are very clean and simple, but this is more our 'style' than Minimes (although we did love it there).

I confess I was mildly rebuked by the manager for bring outside food and drinks to one of the terrace tables, since the hotel has a bar inside. I think if we had chosen one of the resin/plastic type tables in the far back side of the courtyard, that would have been accepted but no, we plopped right down at the prime spot. We took our lunch up to our room to finish, which didn't seem to be a problem, either. Everyone was very courteous - it was just that we made a 'faux paux' and felt chastened for about 5 seconds.

We walked all around Chinon as it isn't big at all. Up up (up!) to the ruins, and down thru the medieval town, along the river and we even crossed over to the other part of town for a short stroll. On Sunday morning, there was a brocante marche in the park along the river. We ate one dinner at Maison Rouge, where the proprietress'cat attempted to join us. The food was fine for our tastes, although it is probably outdone at other establishments.

If we were to return to Chinon, I wouldn't bother looking elsewhere, because we liked it just fine.

p.s. there are two entries - the main one is thru the courtyard and into the lobby. The other is on the opposite side of the building from the street that runs behind. This is good to know because I believe it's on an incline so the back door might sometimes be better depending...

We were not in love with tours and didn;t get to Saumur.

I would definitely visit all the others if you can. But given the number of chateaux, cathedrals, etc to visit - you may not have time to do all.

My favorites were Amboise and Chinon (we stayed in a chateau near the latter and loved the experience).

Travelnut, thanks for such a prompt answer. I had seen Hotel Diderot mentioned for years in biking/hiking travel lit, so I had thought maybe it was too Americanized. The website looks intriguing however. I think I'll put it on my list.

It's perplexing to me that Valencay, one of my favorite chateaus, is very rarely mentioned. Impressive interior decoration and furnishings; a very good audio guide with lots of historical perspective, centered of course around Tallyrand.

Can be combined with a visit to Montressor--Valencay is about 30 km further away.

Loire info and pictures:

http://perso.orange.fr/guillonniere/loirevalley/

In Loches, lunch at the George Sand is a particular treat.

See http://www.fodors.com/forums/threads...p;tid=34761309 - - have you started to make a decision of where you will stay (how many nights?) and whether you will move around?

Good candidates for places to stay include Chenonceaux, Richelieu, Chateau d'Artigny (just outside Tours) and Saumur (haven't ever actually been to Saumur - - based on what I read)...

...and in fairness, I can't say that I have done any of the others justice - - but all three seem like places that provide some good "walk around" ambience/opportunities, when you are not visiting specific touristic "sights".

As others have suggested, the main asset that Tours has is its central location and proximity to "everything else". Bad reason to stay there, in my opinion. In and of itself, not necessarily any more interesting than tons of other small-to-medium sized cities (not really a "town", in my book).

Columbus, Indiana is just as interesting - - in the confines of the _town_ - - in my opinion.

Best wishes,

Rex

If you are going to be anywhere near Tours and you have a car IMO a chateau you should not miss is at nearby Villandry, a home which is apparently still in use. The gardens alone, especially in season, are an absolute delight.

Don't know if you're still looking for suggestions...

Of the cities you listed, I especially loved Amboise. The town is charming and convenient to many sights. We especially enjoyed touring Clos de Luce in Amboise. We stayed at the unbeatable Chateau Des Ormeaux, just out of town, and it was the highlight of our 2005 Loire trip, which also makes me have warm, fuzzy memories of the area. If you're in Amboise, I highly recommend staying at Ormeaux.

We also stayed in Saumur, which I liked a lot for its views of the Loire (from the Chateau) and the weekend markets in town. We visited a great Troglodyte village to the west of Saumur & would recommend that.

Tours is a much bigger city than the others. I definitely recommend seeing the cathedral in town- magnificent- but would suggest actually staying in a smaller town.

We arrived in Tours, drove to Saumur and spent the night, then drove to Amboise and stayed two nights. This worked well and we were able to see much of the region.

As for the chateaux, we especially loved Villandry. The gardens are just incredible. Chenonceau is a must-see, romantic and lovely. We also really liked Azay Le Rideu and Cheverney.

I spent 10 days driving around the Loire a couple of years ago, in May. I spent 2 nites in Tours at the beginning of my trip, and I must say I liked Tours, as the cathedral is beautiful and there are other interesting museums. It was a great place to unwind before picking up my car and heading on.

I stayed in Amboise (Manoir les Minimes) and loved it. The chateau there is great ( alot of people seem to skip it) and from there drove to some of the chateaux. From there I drove over to Loches and then to Chinon for a couple of nights. I also stayed at Diderot. It was fine, but of course not in the same class as the Manoir les Minimes. I love Chinon!

I then drove over to Saumur for 2 nights, staying at the Anne d'Anjou, which was a wonderful hotel. I didn't like Saumur as much as Amboise or Chinon, and if I didn't have much time, would skip Saumur (altho the hotel was lovely). I ended my trip in Angers to take the train back to Paris. Didn't see anything in Angers except the Chateau (which is worthwhile) as I didn't have the time. Driving in the Loire was very easy - it was my first "driving" trip in France, and I was quite nervous about it (I was solo)-but was so glad I did it and loved the Loire. Have a great trip!

Does anyone here have any details on what they saw at Fontevraud Abbey? I just checked their website. Interestingly, it also mentions a garden. (I'm in to gardens)! I've also read a lot about Eleanor of Aquitane. Is it worth a visit for that reason alone?

Also, (hijacking here--but sticking to the subject), if one has seen Chenonceau and Chambord, would the next likely choices be Villandry and Azay? I can't believe I stayed in Amboise and didn't plan time to go to the chateau as I didn't know (during trip planning) that there was one there! Am trying to be more thorough this time.

We went to France this fall with extended family, and I insisted on going to Fontevraud Abbey. I also had been reading about Eleanor of Aquitane, and became just fascinated with her, so I just had to go. After all the chateaux, the Abbey struck me as a very quiet, simple (that may not be quite the right word, maybe austere), reverent place. I know some of the members of my family would have preferred another chateau, but I just loved it. The garden though was pretty simple, probably not the reason to go.

We all loved Villandry, I highly recommend it, it was quite something. I've never seen such a beautiful garden. We were there in late September. annieladd

Fontevraud Abbey --

Extraordinary, serene romanesque church. In addition to the tomb effigies of Eleanor, Henry II and Richard the Lion-heart, there are numerous galleries, cloisters, chapter houses and mysterious corridors to wander. We spent the night. My teenage son went off to the garden to read in Waugh's Men At Arms trilogy, my wife climbed the hill to gaze and read. I poked around with a camera, then joined her on the hill. A peaceful respite from the Norman and Breton cities we'd been in earlier.

The hotel is basic, but fine. The restaurant perhaps a tad over-ambitious. The surroundings, especially after closing time, are superb.

ttt