Loire Chateaux

Chenonceau
Villandry (gardens)
Chaumont (and garden festival)
Chambord
Azay le Rideau
Close Luce

Agree with the previous poster in terms of the order. I will say that I enjoyed them all very much, they are all very different so there are differing characteristics that make them interesting.

Agree! Was pleasantly surprised at the GORGEOUS gardens of Villandry.....and would give a heads up to staying in Amboise at Manior les Minimes. It was a great base to come home to each night after driving from chateau to chateau. Do not miss the unbelievable fresh flower arrangements that are daily put in Chenonceau......they are incredible.

Great list CJean.
My only quibble would be to somehow include Abbey Fontevraud, admittedly not a chateau, but close enough IMO. (Touring a large building/ set of buildings, with interesting exteriors, interiors and a rich history).
The only thing is, I don't want to remove one from your list to keep it to 6.

We only saw 3 up close, the others were more of drive by....

I was surprised how much I adored Villandry. I knew we wanted to see Cheninceau and Chambord but we wanted to add one more so randomly we picked Villandry. This was early November and I did not hold out a lot of hope for the gardens but OMG I was wrong. GORGEOUS. Turned out to be our favorite one.

I can only list the ones I went to:

Favorite was Chenonceaux. Villandry for the garden. Amboise because that's where I stayed. I also visited Chinon fortress, Fontevraud Abbey and Clos Luce to do something besides the regular Chateaux.

I would have gone to Azay but it was covered with scaffolding when I visited (September 2016).

Can anyone comment on the weather at the end of September? We may be in the Loire Valley the last week in September. Wondering how cool it is, especially in the evening.

We were in the Loire twice in September. We felt the weather was fantastic. Mid to high 60s during the day, sunny, evenings perhaps low 60s. We were very comfortable eating at outdoor brassieres. I wore dresses/skirts, short sleeves and my husband shorts--yes he stands out as a tourist but he gets hot. ;)