Loire Valley and Beyond

Pam,
My daughter and I enjoyed our stay in peaceful Amboise mainly because we were traveling via public transportation and thus were able to visit some of the beautiful castles (Chenonceau, Chambord, Cheverny, and Blois) from there.

I've not been to Bordeaux yet so can't offer any help with such.

Enjoy your time in France!

We loved our stay in Amboise in Oct this year, and it's certainly easy to fill 3 days visiting the various chateaux in the area. I'd recommend taking the train from Paris to Tours (Gare St Pierre des Corps) and renting a car from one of the rental agencies at the station. It's an easy 30 min drive to Amboise from there. You could keep the car for the rest of your stay in France, turning it in at the last town and training back to Paris.

I've never visited the Bordeaux area, so I can't comment on it.

But we did spend a week in Normandy a few years ago. Again, there's lots to fill your time, whether it's touring the D DAY beaches and other WW II sites, visiting Bayeux and seeing the famous tapestry, even day tripping to Mont St Michel. You might even stop in to see Monets garden, Giverny, on the way back to Paris. Caen is a fairly good sized city. Many posters here seem to prefer staying in Bayeux. We stayed on the coast at Courseulles Sur Mer ( because it is close to the British/Canadian D Day beaches- our primary interest).

I stayed in Amboise and was happy with the choice. I biked through Tours and didn't think it was a particularly nice city for a base, too big with too much traffic. Amboise is convenient to Chenonceau with Amboise Chateau and Clos Luce in town. A little more driving can get you to a lot of other Chateaux.

Good to rent a car for the Loire Valley; out of Paris I'd say to rent from Orly airport because it puts you right near the Autoroute.

As a base, I'll vote for Azay-le-Rideau (about 15 min south/southeast of Tours if you stay on the highway) instead of Amboise. It's a small village and not swarming with tourists as the eastern end of the Loire region tends to be. I can recommend the Hotel Biencourt, literally a stone's throw from the beautiful chateau. The village, which is very walkable, has at least 3 excellent restaurants as well as casual places to have a snack or buy food--including the Saturday morning market in the main square. From there it's about 1/2 hour easy drive to the Fortress of Chinon, and also near the Chateau of Villandry. To drive to the more popular chateaux such as Chenonceaux takes 45-60 minutes depending on traffic.

If you only have 9 days, set your priorities because you won't have time to see all the different regions of France that you've listed.

If you don't want to spend time in Paris, there are TGV trains straight from CDG to St-Pierre, where you could rent a car to explore the Loire and elsewhere. It takes about an hour and 40 minutes, very quick.

With nine days I'd focus on two regions, not three. The Loire and either Normandy or the Bordeaux area. I haven't been to Bordeaux but have spent time in the Dordogne, which we liked very much. So if the Loire is your priority, continue either north or south from there, but don't try to "cover" it all. If wine is a priority, south would be a better choice, since Normandy doesn't produce much wine. That said, you can find excellent wine, not necessarily local, anywhere in France.

Tours is under-appreciated in "Rick Steves World," perhaps because it's not a great base for the Loire. It's central, but takes time to get in and out of. I think Amboise is a better bet because it's smaller and close to some of the best chateaux east of Tours. But Chinon or Azay would also be good if you're more interested in the sights west of Tours. You don't have to choose, with your timeframe, but it does take awhile to get from one side of Tours to the other.

If you go to Normandy next, you can drive back to CDG and return the car there -- preferably the night before your flight home so you don't risk missing it. If you go south, you could drop the car in Bordeaux and get a TGV back to CDG (3+ hours), or drive up to Orly to drop the car and get Le Bus Direct to CDG, bypassing central Paris. Again, try to be at or very close to CDG the night before your flight.

My best day in the Loire was staying in Blois and cycling out to Chateau de Chambord (less than an hour by bike).

From Blois you are within easy day trip range of Chartres Cathedral, Orleans, Amboise, and most of the great chateaux.

To answer Barbra's question here:

Anyone: How does one get to Chambord by public transport? I saw the train stop at Chenonceau, but nothing at Chambord.

We took the train to Blois then the bus, Navette 41, from the parking lot in front of the train station. The bus makes a loop from Chambord to Cheverny, then to Beauregard chateaux and back to Blois and it costs €6pp. Taking this bus is not as ideal as having a car because the chateau visits are limited to less than two hours, but only if you want to visit all the chateaux on the bus' route. You can see the bus schedule here.

BTW, thanks for pointing out my error in misspelling Blois!

You really do not have enough time for both Bordeaux AND Normandy in addition to the Loire, doubly so since you are flying in and out of Paris. But you can have a lovely Normandy-Loire trip, with some time for Paris too if you like.

In case you had a bit more than 9 days, a good complement to a trip to the Loire Valley and Normandy, is to enter Brittany. Such itinerary gives a good overview of the north western part of France, even if you could spend 2 weeks in each region to really feel them.

Thank you all for the information. Amboise does sound like a great base for 3 nights. I agree that we need to only go to two regions. I really have no idea what we would see or do in Normandy or Bordeaux. All I know of in the Lorie Valley are the Chateaus. We have spent several weeks in France by not in the central or Western regions. No one in this thread mentioned Honfleur as a base to explore Normandy. I had read that this is a good base. Any ideas on what to see and do would be great.

Giverny is a good visit in Normandy as a stop on the way to someplace else. My wife and I loved Honfleur, but I would not choose it as a base for other places, it's not that close to the main attractions in Normandy. Bayeaux is an excellent base. Don't overlook Chartres for its cathedral. It is among my three favorites in Europe, and I've seen lots. We liked Chenonceau as a base in the Loire. Mont St. Michel is technically in Brittany I think, but it's a great visit too. Rouen is a good place to see half-timbered houses. I have been to all of the above except Rouen, though having researched it I would like to go there. I would not go all the way to Bordeaux, if you are going to go that far then Dordogne would appeal more to me having been there. I have not been to Bordeaux but perhaps I am overly influenced by Rick who seems luke warm on it. I concur with the person who said that driving in France can be crazy, for a country where they drive on the right it was one of the more challenging countries to drive in. The hard part is driving into congested towns at evening rush hour which we have a knack for.