Tours, Saumur, Angers, Nantes or something else for our Bonus Day around Loire?

Have you considered Chartres? With a night in Chartres and the chance to see Chartres en lumieres. https://www.chartresenlumieres.com/en/

I suggest one night in Tours. Enjoy the medieval city or a park or the cathedral. Have a nice dinner. Biking to Tours from Amboise or wherever else you are coming from, once you arrive in Tours at 3 pm, why hassle taking a train somewhere else? I don't know if the train is direct from Tours to Chartres; probably not. But, Chartres is on the way to Paris, so you can then have a nice day and eve in Chartres before you head on to Paris.

Last year, after we biked a week in the Loire Valley, starting in Blois, through Amboise, Tours and then eventually on to Saumur, we went to Chartres, which we loved, and Versailles, which we did not particularly enjoy. As to Saumur, I would not put it high on the list of places to go. We did enjoy the 3-day ride between Tours and Saumur, however.

Thanks for the replay Fred. I appreciate the feedback about Saumur and I'll look into Chartres.

I’m interested in the answers you get. I’m set to spend 2 nights in Saumur in October before meeting up with a tour that starts in Fontevraud l’Abbaye. I, too, had looked at walking up to the Grand Dolmen and saw some of the same things you must have seen about opening times. Have you watched any of the France with Vero you tube videos? She did one on Saumut in her series on sites in the Tours/Loire Valley area.

https://www.youtube.com/live/iQ1Y19zAF6w?si=n0uiyt0NeK6n9KLA

On the tour I’m going to be on we are visiting one of the Troglodyte homes in the area. Vero also did a short video recently about her meal in a troglodyte restaurant. She does generally public transit so perhaps this is accessible to you and would satisfy the cave need, lol

https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=pfbid0xdCmQzWdUYSm8Aj27smLMgja74d5Af5ZNzSudkCYg6YuLoBuHyGRAJfJZHLSAC7cl&id=100068905012272

Thanks Pam. I am watching it now.

Definitely stay in Tours and explore - you'll probably appreciate a day not haring around. It's a much under-visited city. The cathedral is great, with excellent stained glass, there's plenty of medieval buildings, and the Musee du Compagnonnage is a wonder. Tours is also a UNESCO Cité internationale de la gastronomie.

For accommodation try Maison Jules, although they get booked up pretty early. Otherwise l'Univers, or if you're on for a splurge , Trésorière.

You won't be able to do more than one city in a day, travel times will take care of that.

Obviously you're up for an active holiday, but you might want a rest/low key time after five days of biking, in which case I'd suggest a spot with a lot of options, both "high maintenance" and low. I would suggest Angers. I stayed there for three nights a couple of years ago and really enjoyed it. It's a "real" city, so there are lots of things to do, but it's not huge or overwhelming. The chateau is great, and there are some wonderful museums. There are also some charming places along the river to sit and/or dine.

Caroline

Thanks for the replies Simon and Caroline. I think it is true that we will enjoy staying in the same place for two nights in a row and having an easy or as you say Caroline, a low maintenance day.

I hope you’ll do a trip report when you get back to let us know how things worked out and what your kiddos (and the adults) enjoyed!

If you haven’t already, poke around on Vero’s YouTube channel. She has videos of Angers as well as many on Tours (where she lives). She’s organized the playlists by areas mostly so it makes it pretty easy to find.

And forgot to say, a definite yes to the Alignments at Carnac, Locmariaquer (has a large dolmen) and other Neolithic sites in Brittany.

If the interest for Neolithic sites continues with the kids, also consider Orkney down the line. Fabulous stuff there.