Angers Base - Loire Valley

One of my favorites is Chambord....very large, but unique with its roofline and "two-way" staircase inside, as well as beautiful grounds. If you can only tour one inside, choose Chambord. For exterior loveliness, you can't beat Chenonceaux. Their gardens are lovely also. We are driving family on their first trip to France, renting a car on the outskirts of Paris after a week there, and dropping it off at CDG at the end of our two week road trip, finishing in Epernay. We spend the night before our return flight in Meaux, a short drive to CDG, and thus avoid any driving in Paris. We have always followed our own path in France. Avoid the autoroutes unless you are short on time. ,It's much nicer to take the local roads, although they are much slower. But that's what vacations are for.

One night of our trip will be spent in Saumur, which I hear is worth visiting and is a short drive from Angers. To judge time as well as distance to places from Angers, I recommend the website Via Michelin. It's invaluable and usually gives you 2-3 route options between places, as well as tips on where the roads are curvy or narrow. I find having a Michelin map of the areas I will visit is helpful to see the big picture, especially in your pre-trip planning. They are great maps and worth the price. You can find some at Barnes and Noble, Amazon, or in France. Bon voyage!

I'll agree with Chenonceaux as being near or at the top for exterior beauty, but it has a lot of competition. I'm not a huge fan of spending time in the interior of chateaux, but there are so many that are beautiful on the outside, including some more modest ones that usually fall under the radar, such as Chaumont and Montresor (here's a link to my blog covering our recent visit to those villages, as well as a winery nearby: http://mainelywinenews.blogspot.com/2016_04_01_archive.html).
As to location, you might want to consider staying a little further east, say Amboise. It's closer to most chateaux, although there's wineries everywhere. Not that there's anything wrong with Angers at all.

Chambord was my favorite because of the architecture and explanation of how it was built. The walk along the rooftop was fabulous! I also liked the chateau in Amboise. I recommend having a car there; it saved us time and allowed us to see everything at our own pace.

Angers is at the western end of the Loire Valley chateau country, much nearer to the chateaux that are less often visited (and pretty much out of range for a Paris day trip). Is that why you chose Angers?

You will be near Fontevraud Abbey, the fabulously restored Fortress of Chinon (which is in the midst of gorgeous vineyards and has a lovely wine shop right next to the public parking lot), Chateau Villandry, et al. You'll also be near the town of Saumur where you can see the "Cadre Noir" performing horses. See http://www.ifce.fr/en/cadre-noir/

If your top priorities are the more famous chateaux in the east like Chenonceaux and Chambord, stay in Amboise or thereabouts, or else you'll have an extremely long daily "commute" from Angers. The RS guide to France gives a very helpful evaluation of the various chateaux and other points of interest throughout the Loire region.

Do you want to rent a car and drive from Paris, or take the train to Angers and rent there? Pros and cons either way. If renting in Paris, I would pick up the car at Orly Airport which is right by the Autoroute you want to be on (A6B, connecting to A10). We made the mistake of picking up our car at Gare Montparnasse, and it took us more than an hour to drive through Paris to reach the Autoroute, rather stressful. Note when you take the A11 through LeMans, it runs parallel to the A28 for a few miles and the signage could make you think you've taken the wrong merge. Follow signs to Nantes and you should be OK.

We loved Villandry for the gardens. We are not really garden people until we visited Villandry, and we loved it! We got some gorgeous views of the garden with a church in the background.

You really can't go wrong just mapping out the chateaux and just driving by, but stopping at some. Of course Chenonceaux, but also Chambord for the exterior and the roof top.

I really loved Blois! The chateaux isn't pretty at all, didn't go in, but walk over to view the city below. The roof tops are amazing! I think I sat there 30 minutes just taking in the view.

Ambois is a a great village to walk around in. We love walking the streets and checking out houses in medieval villages.

We came from Paris and trained to St. Pierre de Corps and picked up our car right there at the train station. It was simple. Just know that cars are really small in Europe. We watched a family of four try to get 4 large suitcases into their rental without much luck, but a hilarious sight!

I agree with epltd that a more eastern base is better to visit the more famous châteaux. For moving around there a car remains the best option. Considering driving times you can combine Chenonceaux with nearby Amboise and if there is time left with a visit there to Château du Clos Lucé (what is more a mansion) where Leonardo Da Vinci remained the last years of his life.

If you like gardens to my opinion Villandry is the best place. Lovely too is Azay-le-Rideau, but is if I am not wrong still undergoing serious restoration works and the exterior covered with scaffoldings. Think Chambord is a bit too far from Angers, but the outside is really impressive. If you have the energy and don’t care about driving long distances I think it is worth the effort.

Do not underestimate driving times for local roads, in theory the 14km drive between Chênonceaux and Amboise can be about an half hour, but local trafic, various speedlimits and finding a parking place need way more time. Driving times for freeways are more accurate if you plan with ViaMichelin or Google Maps.

Thank you all for the wonderful suggestions. Work is taking my spouse to Angers, thus the need to use it as a base. Our plan is to take the train from Paris and rent a car once in Angers. I can take day trips, but his schedule allows us only 1 night together to stay deeper in the heart of the Loire Valley. I will research Amboise as that seems to be a clear favorite.

Any other foodies? We'd like to have one 'splurge' meal in the LV.

We had a fabulous dinner at Les Closeaux. It is way out in the countryside, beautiful, and fresh ingredients from the surrounding farms.

www.lescloseaux.com

Work is taking my spouse to Angers

I want that kind of job.
As to places to eat, we recently had dinner at Le Moulin de Chaude (http://www.lemoulindechaude.com/), which I wrote about in the blog link I previously attached. It was great, but it might be a little too far east.

Maybe the visits to the châteaux can motivate you to see more, so Château d’Angers is also worth a visit if it is just for the view over the city and river Maine and seeing the big medieval tapestry there. However founded a bit lesser intriguing as the one in Bayeux, nevertheless impressive. Btw. Angers itself is a pleasant place to hang around too.

Last June I stayed near Brissac-Quincé, some 20km south-east of Angers. The château there is not a royal one like those famous along the Loire, but very well comparable, no crowds and I think worth to consider. http://www.chateau-brissac.fr/english-home/

I enjoyed the gardens of Villandry but didn't tour the inside. I also liked Clos Luce in Amboise.

My favorite was Chenonceau. I thought it was nicest all around - gardens, beautiful building, furnishings, history.

I also liked the Abbey and Chinon, mostly for the historical connection to Richard the Lionhearted and Eleanor of Aquitaine - plus they offer some variety from the Loire chateaux.