Help with Loire Valley planning

Just curious as to why you chose Tours. I've always stayed further east near Blere and Amboise to be closer to your days 1 and 2 activities.

Matt

Hi Matt, the old town part of Tours looks really appealing. From what I've read, it's lively and fun and has really good food. We also plan to catch the last of their "summer nights" that look like it's a fun social outing with food and music. It's central and I guess we will find out for ourselves about the traffic. I've gotten mixed feedback on that but actually a good amount was positive!

I should add that I am really into ruins so Loches does appeal in that regard as it may be the only sight in ruins we'd see this trip.

Personally I was very impressed with Fontevraud Abbey and really enjoyed my time there, but that was in 2012, not sure what current management has done. Azay-le-Rideau, Chinon, and Fontevraud Abbey are all fairly close together and I think you should be able to get to all three in one day. All three are worth seeing and I think visiting the abbey would be a good idea as it's quite different from the chateaux. The chateaux are all somewhat different and all have their uniqueness but it can be easy to get chateaud (?) out if you do too many in a short time.

I haven't been to Tours but I've stayed in Amboise on two RS tours and although Amboise has its points of interest, it doesn't offer the experience Tours seems to. Judging from photos of Tours, it looks like it has locations with medieval ambiance, half-timbered houses and locals eating at the restaurants. Amboise has nice-ish restaurants but I don't think too many locals eat at these.

Judging from photos of the Tours market and the Amboise market, Tours seems preferable. Is the Amboise market in just in a few parking spots along the river?

Looking at the France 2015 book, RS divides the Loire valley to the east of Tours and to the west but seems to completely exclude Tours itself.

The Fortress of Chinon was really lovely, I thought. It has some motion-activated sound effects that some people might consider a bit corny, but I thought they added to the atmosphere. It has lots of informative signage, including info about Eleanor of Aquitaine, and a well-stocked gift shop. There are a couple of wine shops nearby selling locally made wine. We regretted not having time to walk through the old town.

Azay-le-Rideau is also lovely (the chateau and the village). The village has a couple of very sophisticated restaurants, if you're into haute cuisine. We stayed there in the Hotel Biencourt, which I can highly recommend. The innkeepers are incredibly pleasant and helpful.

With Tours as the base, I would not try to drive all the way to Fontevraud and back in combination with Azay. Also, when you drive from Tours to Azay and/or Chinon, stay on the main highway as far as possible. There's an exit sign for Azay-le-Rideau while you're still well within the city of Tours, and if you get off there (which we did) you end up driving several miles on a nonscenic urban surface street. Once you leave Azay for Chinon, it's a straight shot.

Chinon is mostly ruins so you can get your "ruins fix" there. It's well worth seeing. So is Loches if time allows. I haven't been to Fontevraud in so many years that I couldn't comment.

Rick Steves inexplicably leaves Tours out of his guidebooks and itineraries. His preference seems to be basing in one place east of Tours and one place west of Tours for a multi-day Loire visit. That's a valid approach of course, but so is yours. Maybe you'll post a trip report when you return, focusing on the pluses and minuses of Tours, for the benefit of others.

Thank you all for your ideas. If we decide on Chinon, perhaps we keep Fontevraud in our back pocket as a last stop if we have time.

Nancy, exactly - we don't want to cram chateaux and have them be a blur at the end of our trip.

Greg, yes, the perceived ambiance of Tours is very appealing!

epltd, it sounds like Chinon has a lot to offer and could be great to explore. Thanks for the tip on roads! We don't frequent haute cuisine spots very often, but we will be looking for good lunch spots following our chateau tour. Will have to do some research on that, depending on where we go next.

Dick, I will absolutely come back with a trip report. I love writing them for my fellow travelers as a way to "pay back" for all the great advice I find here. Good to know we can get a ruins fix in Chinon.

So, another thought: what LV towns are favorites for just wandering, cafe sitting, and enjoying picturesque scenes? I'm thinking it could be a nice way to end our LV time with a relaxing afternoon soaking up some smaller town/village atmosphere and scenery somewhere versus squeezing in more tours/sights. I've stumbled across Montresor and it looks incredible, obviously well deserving of its beautiful village title. It's a little bit of a drive from Azay-le-Rideau though. We could visit Loches if we went that route possibly...but Chinon looks great too. Other ideas?

Interesting discussion. In comparison to RS guide other favorite towns (like Dinan, Beynac, Arles, etc) I wasn't all that impressed with Amboise. I will take a closer look at Tours next time.

Would definitely like to hear how this works out for you Julie as this is exactly what I was thinking of doing next May. Was planning on staying in Amboise but now . . . Please post a trip report :)

I biked through Tours and felt like it was too big of city for me. I stayed in Amboise and felt it was about right, fairly small but had cafes, some shopping and was convenient to several chateaux.

Skipped Azay because it was mostly under construction last fall. I liked Fontevraud because of it's history. I was there last September and didn't have any problem. There are some private areas, maybe that's what they are referring to? I'm glad I went. I'm also glad I added Chinon because it's a different look, era, and history, than the luxury hunting lodges. Chenonceau was my favorite chateau because it's a beautiful building, has nice gardens and interesting history. I was also pleasantly surprised by Clos Luce, the gardens are quite large, you could spend an afternoon just enjoying the garden.

It definitely boils down to personal preference (cities versus towns). I have read mixed reviews about Amboise so that's why I decided to dig a little deeper to see what other options we could find. I feel like we'll be taking a bit of a chance by basing in Tours since so many choose Amboise - hopefully it will be the right decision for us! I'll be excited to report back.

Brad, I'll be excited to see Azay and our timing will be good since I think the restoration work should be complete? The gardens at Chambord are also newly renovated so I am excited to see those. I am anticipating that Chenonceau will be my favorite but of course you don't know until you go but it looks beautiful. I just realized that the afternoon we were thinking about spending more leisurely after Azay will be on a Monday. Most likely, many places will be closed :( So, we may just go to Chinon and see the castle and then go on to Fontevraud if we have time and feel like it. Glad to hear you had a good experience there. I'm guessing most of the towns will be sleepy that day so we won't be able to do much poking around in shops and things of that nature.

The scaffolding at Azay-le-Rideau was taken down July 7th, and the restoration is supposed to be spectacular. If you go, let us know what it's like now.