Loire chateau pass?

Yes, you can buy package passes for a variety of Chateau at the local Tourism Offices. We purchased passes for 5 chateau and saved about 5 euro on each ticket. Our favorites included Clos Luce and Amboise (with the Da Vinci connection), Chenonceau and Vallandry (which have the most beautiful gardens). We just left the Loire yesterday and really had a wonderful time!

Thanks, Melissa. You can view the brochure from the Amboise Tourist Office online.

Thanks for asking this Nigel. This might come in handy for us. When do you plan to go to the Loire?

thinking of popping over to see Giverny and a handful of chateaux towards the end of July on a long weekend with a couple of days added in, Andrea.

Thanks very much for the link to the webpage, Laura and Melissa.

Nigel, Giverny was one of the highlights of our month long trip to France! We stayed at a B and B in Vernon and walked to the gardens. There is a beautiful walking path the entire way (about 4K in distance). Though it was a Saturday, it didn't seem crowded, and the gardens are just going to get better and better (if that is possible) as the Summer continues! There is a nice museum of Impressionism in Giverny that is well worth a visit too with a show of American Impressionists.

"thinking of popping over to see Giverny and a handful of chateaux towards the end of July on a long weekend with a couple of days added in, Andrea."

Lucky you! I wish I could just pop in like that!

I loved Giverny. I was there in mid-October, just 2 weeks before they closed for the season. It was still beautiful. Some day I hope I can return in the late spring or summer to see the flowers then. We will be in Paris in mid-October this year so I don't know that we will go to Giverny since it's the same time of year. We will be in the Loire for 3 nights. I'm looking forward to that!

I've been making plans for the three that I think we may visit, Chambord, Chenonceau, and Villandry (because it apparently has a nice garden).

Basing in Amboise, are there others which are visible from the road - we will have our car - or which have spectacular gardens?

We are much more interested in the architecture than the interiors. Do any places sell grounds tickets instead of interior tickets?

Thanks

"Basing in Amboise, are there others which are visible from the road - we will have our car - or which have spectacular gardens?"

Villandry has beautiful gardens.

My mother and I are planning a Loire chateaux and gardens trip in October, so I've been reading up. I understand Chaumont-sur-Loire has a garden festival from mid-April to mid-October, which we plan to visit. Each year there's a theme; this year it's "Garden of the 7 Deadly Sins." Hmmmm.

Tickets to the garden festival are 12 euros; you can add the chateau, stables, and the rest of the sights for 4 more euros.

Thanks for asking this question; I had been wondering about a multi-chateau pass since we hope to visit eight of them during our week there; the discount tickets and ability to skip lines will be much appreciated. At age 86, Mom doesn't stand on lines very well any more.

Nigel, you asked about other chateaux and noted your interest in architecture. Though it isn't a drive-by and doesn't have gardens, the chateau of Blois has four distinct architectural styles, each on one side of the courtyard, from 15th-century through 17th. As you might imagine, there's a lot of variety in the interiors as well. Plus the room where the Duke of Guise got his just deserts (imho) and other spots full of history. But it's in the middle of a city and lacks the unity and grace of places like the ones already on your list.

And, of course, if you're staying in Amboise, there's that one, overlooking the river. The chapel, with antler ornamentation, is worth a visit (even though Leonardo isn't buried there, despite the story).

Like Andrea, I envy you the ability to pop over to Paris and the Loire and such on a long weekend. It's all I can do to get to Seattle or Portland. ; )

Nigel, if you are based in Amboise, I would suggest that you visit both Amboise and Clos Luce, they are within walking distance from each other as well as the town center and if you are looking for beautiful grounds, Clos Luce is beautiful. AND, Leonardo Da Vinci spent the last three years of his life in Amboise, staying at Clos Luce and is buried at Chateau Amboise. Lots of history here with connections to many other Chateau in the area. Of the three that you suggested, I would pick Chenenceau and Villandry. Chenenceau is built on the River Cher and is absolutely beautiful, your typical fairy tale chateau. Unlike many that we have visited, it is also worth the visit inside too. Villandry is a "must see" just for the beautiful formal gardens. Really amazing! We decided not to tour the inside and spent our time wandering around the gardens and enjoying the beauty! Chambord was good, especially the double helix staircase that Leonardo Da Vinci designed, but given a choice of only two out of the three that you have noted, I would go to the other two. Have fun!

Melissa

What was the name of the B&B in Vernon? We're thinking of doing the same thing.

Thanks,
chun

Not sure about the others but Villandry definitely sells tickets just for the gardens without having to buy a ticket for the inside. That's what I did as I'm also more interested in the architecture and gardens than the insides of the chateaux. Those gardens were the highlight of my Loire trip.

Chun, we stayed at La Villa Geraldine. I don't know what your expectations are, but at 70 Euros p/night (we stayed two nights) it was a clean, no frills place, beautiful grounds, a couple of blocks from the Seine and about 3K from Giverny. You will have to drag your luggage up a narrow flight of stairs and share a bathroom, but we were satisfied. You might want to check out Giverny.org which is the tourist office website. I really suggest the walk which was absolutely beautiful! There is a walking path that keeps you out of the traffic right as you cross the Seine.

Thank you, Melissa. I will file away the info.

We had a fabulous taster trip - one which indicates that we will definately return for a much longer one at some time.

So how did it go?

If you have a car stay away from Rouen at the moment. Lots of roads up, very long diversions around - not fun.

We got to Giverny in the mid afternoon and wished that we had had longer by about 2 more hours. He did have about 3 hours altogether. There was a fair number of people but by no means overcrowded. We easily found a car parking spot under a tree - important as the air temperature was about 30C. We loved everything about the place - the house (that's where we would have spent more time), the formal garden (could have spend more time there too - but it was quite hot and that was using umbrellas as parasols - but gorgeous) and the lake garden. It was well laid out - well look who was doing the laying out! - and people gave each other room. Just took about 300 photos. I would live to spend days there, watching the light change and seeing the gardens in the different seasons. Even with all the people the gardens were magical, I could really imagine the Master painting there and what he saw.

We had been to the water lily paintings in the Orangerie in the Spring and could really see what was going on.

We were moved to change our plans for the next day. The plan had been to drive straight to the Loire Valley by the most direct route but we decided to visit the Monet Marmottan museum in Paris on the way to see more of Monet's work. The drive in to Paris on Saturday morning was easy with parking directly opposite the museum. What a fabulous museum, especially right after Giverny. It was a good choice.

Then an easy run on the autoroute down to Blois near which we were staying.

The forest around Chambord is still full of wild boar and deer. We saw plenty deer but no boar. This is a place to remember for spring and autumn walks for sure. A truly delightful forest with plenty of easy parking areas, easy by bike, a bit huge for walking.

tbc

I think I could spend an entire day at Giverny. The Marmottan is definitely on my agenda in October and if we have the time I'd enjoy revisiting the Orangarie. I can't get enough Monet!

Did you buy the chateaux pass in the Loire? What was your favorite chateau? Do you think the gardens at Villandry are worth a visit is late September?

The chateau at Chambord itself is massive - much larger than we wanted to tackle on this trip. There are fabulous views from across the lawns and the grounds are free to visit. So that's what we did. There is a big €4 car park but we found free parking in the village. It looks to me that to do Chambord properly would take at least a long half day.

Oh - before I forget - we passed on the the multiple chateau pass. Our hostess at the chateau where we stayed gave us little coupons which were good for at least €3 per adult off most of the eastern chateaux and €2pp off at Chenonceau. That worked out well for us because we only needed to buy tickets for the ones we wanted to go into once we had driven up.

Although we were staying only the odd 6 km from Blois, the town attracted us not at all. We would have gone into its chateau to see the staircase but found the outside so pig ugly and traffic so anarchic that we never pursued it. Perhaps if we had arrived by train the traffic would have bothered us less but we would still have been greeted by the fairly ugly town of Blois.... Maybe one day...

Chenonceau is worth every penny of its small admission fee, maybe double. We spent the best part of two days there.

tbc after a nights sleep

"Chenonceau is worth every penny of its small admission fee, maybe double. We spent the best part of two days there."

I totally agree with you Nigel. My all time favorite. I've spent entire days there and hated leaving. So glad you enjoyed your trip!

Part of the attraction of Chenonceau is the chateau itself - every room is different with different furnishings and it keeps the attention, and the walking through plan visits everything and with the very informative free booklet not a lot is missed, but the other great attraction to that particular chateau is the grounds. There is a lot to see, from a carriage collection to formal gardens, to a vegetable garden and cutting garden - those were among our favourites - to donkeys and a large woods with walking paths and of course the river. So many different views were available of the chateau, we even saw tourist boats.

Yes, let me go back there for another whole day and I promise I won't be bored.

We saw a number of of chateaux from the car as we drove by. Maybe my favourite is the one to which Diane de Poitiers was evicted to when she was thrown out of Chenonceau - Chaumont sur Loire. You have a fabulous romantic view of the chateau from across the river on the Onzain side and at the bridge for Onzain the commune has put up a viewing platform and a car park right where the best view is. There is little traffic on the D952 much of the time so getting a good photo is easy. The chateau looks pretty good close up, too. Yes, I'm afraid poor Diane de Poitiers suffered terribly after her boyfriend died. ... NOT ...

Cheverny looked very nice from the outside, as did its village, but we didn't have time to visit inside. I think I might on a later trip.

I want to visit and explore more of the Cher valley next time. All that area was active with the Resistance during WWII and I want to follow it up more. Interesting is the town of Montrichard and its dunjon.

Oh, and along that line, the farmhouse where we stayed near Giverny had, on the window of our room, names scratched in the stone of several British airmen and soldiers who had been hidden there before their escape back to England. It was quite moving to see where they had left their mark, and dated it. One of them came from the same village as one of my ancestors.

I can see that that there is much to draw us back to the region, and I haven't even mentioned the fields after fields of massive sunflowers, so evocative, and the beautiful forests, and the bread and ...

Yes, we'll be back.

Nigel, thanks so much - both for posting your original question and then noting that you actually didn't use/need the passes. My mother, sister, brother-in-law, and I are spending a week in the Loire/Cher valley in early October. Mom is 86 and not a speedy sightseer and she gets tired standing for long stretches; I was thinking about the pass primarily to skip the lines since the money saved is relatively small. Did you run into significant lines? Any thoughts on whether this will be an issue for us in October? We are tentatively planning to see all the chateaux described in Ina Caro's book plus a couple more RS recommendations [Fontevraud abbey [not a castle I realize], Chinon, Loches, Amboise, Blois, Chenonceaux, Langeais, Villesavin, Chambord, Chaumont, Cheverny...] but the daily sights decision will depend on everyone/s interests and energy levels.

Your thoughts are most helpful, and any advice on line lengths to be expected in October would be very much appreciated.

Kathleen

One a day is my prescription, with a couple of days doing something else. There are a lot of stairs (no elevators hundreds of years ago when these were built) and a lot of walking (they are really big and often in their own grounds, quite large). Both my wife and I got tired at each chateau.

We were there for 5 nights and went into only Azay le Rideau and Chenonceau. We went up to the ticket hall at Chambord so we could get good photos (free entry to the grounds) and didn't have the energy this trip to go around the interior of this huge huge place.

This was mid July, mid week, mid day. We never saw any lines to get tickets. No, not entirely true. On one of the days at Chenonceau we got a discount so had to go to the ticket line and there were 4 people ahead of us and we waited a couple of minutes. The other time we used one of the several ticket machines and there was no line at any of them.

The others on this trip we wanted to see from the outside and we did. We had our own car. There were pretty big crowds in Amboise on the street in the evenings near the outside of the lower chateau so although I wasn't there when the crowds would go in - we went each evening to walk around (free parking in certain parts of the town after 1800) - it is possible that there may have been queues there. I just don't know.

I never had any problems parking anywhere in the Loire valley.

I don't think that I could complete your list in a week. You and your family may move more quickly than we do.