Favorite Non-Chateau sites/things-to-do in Loire

Looking forward to suggestions!

If you like to ride bikes, that’s a beautiful area to enjoy it! I stayed in Tours and saw a lot of people riding bikes and also along the river and countryside.

Amboise should be high on your list. It's an absolutely lovely town. Leonardo da Vinci's house in that town is a very interesting visit.

Also Saumur is really beautiful, right on the river and close to the fascinating troglodyte caves.

I like Orleans a lot, but part of a small minority that can pass on Tours. Your mileage will certainly differ.

The ride bikes suggestion above is great, also eat and drink yourself silly. It's a fantastic food in wine area.

Tours makes absolute sense. It's the transport hub for the region, so getting to places will be a lot easier. Otherwise you're restricted to places you can walk or cycle to, or catch a train to Tours and take it from there.

There's plenty of non chateau things to do, but you don't say if you will have a car or not.

Make sure to check out Saumur to see the Abbaye Royale de Fontevraud, which houses the tombs of King Richard the Lionheart and Queen Eleanor of Aquitaine. Also in Saumur is the Musée des Blindés, this is one of the top 3 best tank museums in the world. They have many different tanks from WWI to Modern and from many different countries too. The Musée des Blindés hardly known to most foreign tourists so when I went there I had most of the museum to myself.

Angers has a chateau, but it's a medieval castle rather than the kind of pleasure palaces that are more famous farther east. It also has the 14th-century Apocalypse Tapestry, definitely worth seeing if you're in the area. And, east of Tours, the Zoo Parc de Beauval is considered one of the best zoos in the world. It occupied us for the best part of the day after we got chateau-ed out after several days in the Loire.

Thanks for the ideas everyone! To be clear, I will have a car.

Chedigny has its rose weekend in May. The flowers are fabulous. It's a tiny village gets crowded, so it's best to go the week or weekend before. The village is packed with roses, clematis, and loads of perennials. There's a Jardin de Cure behind the church with a tearoom.

Loches has an excellent market two days a week. Lots of good restaurants in Loches, though check for their open hours. Just across the stream is Beaulieu les Loches, which is never crowded and has some terrific architecture and quirky community gardens.

It's worth a walk around Montresor, downhill and across the stream.

acechrist,
If I remember correctly, Saumur has some mushroom caves to visit, near the river, I think. We unfortunately missed them due to lack of time, but it sounded like a fun way to pass an hour or two.

Hot air balloon ride was a highlight of our trip. We went in the evening and it was magical.
https://www.aerocom.fr/

I stayed at a BnB in Blois in 2018, which was a converted mill & pond. My host recommended that I visit Loches on the day of the farmer's market. I did and loved it. Lots of unusual (to me) food offerings. I also got to visit the nearby Chateau de Loches (9th century) with an 11th century Keep. I had never visited a Keep before and it was amazing. You can go to the top where you have a view of the valley. There are torture chambers, a freestanding prisoner cage and a moat. Not your typical chateau.

In Blois, the nearby Loire River had pleasure boaters and a bike trail, but I didn't partake. I did watch villagers play Pentaque (French boche ball) in a park by the river. They even invited me to join them.

We found Chinon an attractive place to walk around looking for dinner. Nice Joan of Arc statue. However, you may find many restaurants that are already full. Unusual in-town Chateau that is completely a ruin, but older and historically important. With a car, there's a nuclear power plant you can drive close enough to actually see somethimg. Of course there are no tours.

Azay has in-town chateaux, but is a very nice place. Home of the invention of Son et Lumiere, which is very seasonal, by pre-booking only. Some chateaux have a few exterior candlelight illuminations per summer.

Fontevraud Abbey is extremely worthwhile.

Véro is a Rick Steves guide who lives in Tours and does walking tours of Tours when she’s not leading a RS tour. I highly recommend her.

https://francewithvero.com/

This summer I did something similar to what you are planning.

I took the TER train from Paris to Orleans with the possibility of changing to Blois but decided to spend the afternoon in Orleans...well worth your time. One can see why that city was a key military objective in the 1940 and in 1870.

To go Blois one can easily change in Orleans and in the Blois station the bus leads you to the chateaux.

I decided to save Blois for next time, ie summer of 2024.

I heartily recommend the suggestion above to see the Tank Museum in Saumur, the biggest in France. Compare and contrast it with the huge display of armour offered in England, the Bovington Tank Museum in Dorset, an easy trip from London Waterloo.