Two Weeks in the Loire Valley - Too Much Time?

Some will say it's too long but, personally, I like to plant myself for a week or two (or more) in a place and really enjoy it. With a car it will be easy to spread the chateaux out, only one in a day is a good idea. Some of them have wonderful park like grounds to explore with kids, let them run a bit. Kids will also enjoy the evening light shows at some of the chateaux in the summer.

Here is a good website for the markets in the Loire Valley: http://www.experienceloire.com/loire-valley-markets.htm

I'm sure the kids would enjoy the Guedelon castle building project. I've never actually tried two weeks at one home base, on the premise that it would be too much back-tracking, after a while.

Two weeks seems kind of long to me, even at one per day I'd eventually run out of good chateaux. On the other hand there's a lot to be said for a familiar "home" environment with little ones instead of moving a lot from place to place. Guedelon seems like a good idea. Another would be the excellent zoo at Beauval, near St-Aignan.

I would be happy with just one week which would still be quite a leisurely time. Enjoy the 3rd week in the Dordogne, or Brittany, or the beaches around Bordeaux-Biarritz.

I love the Loire Valley but I would do 1 week each: Paris (not the suburbs), Loire and Burgundy.
In Paris, your kids would love the Luxembourg Gardens (with a wonderful playground, donkey rides, marionette shows, carousel) and the Jardin d'Acclimatation in the Bois de Boulogne park on the western side of Paris. It's a wonderful, old fashioned amusement park for young kids.
We lovvvve Disneyland but not a fan of Paris Disney.

Two weeks just in the Loire sounds like a lot. My wife and I blew through in two nights on our 2003 trip, I think five to seven nights might be about right. We did see four chateaux during that time. I would combine it with Normandy, and consider adding on a visit to Chartres. I am not sure about the with kids part, as we don't have any kids, but you seem to have a pretty good grasp of the constraints that implies. Some of the chateaux are more like castles which might be of greater interest to the kids. Cheverny used to have dogs that you can witness them feeding, too. Gardens at Villandry and Chenonceaux might be fun for kids too.

The feeding of the dogs at Cheverny might not be a good experience for small children. They (the dogs) are very thin and hungry. They fall ravenously on the food that's set out in their kennel, fighting over the scraps and sometimes drawing blood., The smell is pretty overpowering too. And it's very crowded, at least in nice weather, with people trying to get a good look through the bars of the enclosure. If you're teaching your children about Darwinian natural selection and survival of the fittest it would be a good lesson, but more likely it will frighten the little ones and maybe the older one too. As a 60+ adult I found it interesting in a morbid kind of way, but I can imagine that as a young child it might have made me fearful of dogs, at least for awhile. An unfortunate lesson to learn.

The chateau at Cheverny is excellent, though, fully furnished and occupied (upstairs). The grounds are beautiful and extensive, and it's close by several others you'd want to see. Time your visit for morning or early afternoon. I think the dog feeding is around 4:00, easily avoided if you want to.

Dick, as an adult, the dog feeding sounds awful. Glad I've never seen it. Sounds inhumane to me.

I would say 1 week in the Loire Valley is enough: it is a very pleasant place with beautiful towns, but after 4 or 5 castles the pleasure is usually not exactly the same. I would combine 1 week in the Loire Valley with 1 week in Brittany, quite close, along the Atlantic ocean. There you can either relax along the coast, or discover the rich heritage (many beautiful towns as well, and a different culture) and even easily mix both.

I agree with splitting up the three weeks into Paris (not suburbs), Loire Valley, and a third location. Paris has many delightful sights for young children and an excellent public transportation system. I suggest the Dordogne for the third week. You can raft on the usually gentle river, sample the Saturday market at Sarlet, and explore the cave paintings.

Expanding on Brittany ...
Basing yourself in Rennes for a week, it is about an hour by car to St Malo (Mont St Michel), Dinan and Nantes, with Quimper more than 2 hours drive away. Traditional domestic architecture in these authentic towns would be a nice contrast after the upper class formality of the Loire Valley.

We went to France a few years ago with the older child and did a week in Paris, four days in Normandy (including Mont St Michel), and a week in the French Riviera. We took her to Disney Paris, but we only went to one of the parks - the main Magic Kingdom one, not sure what it's called. We also did the Tullerie Gardens, the playground, Montemarte, Eiffel Tower, Notre Dame, and a whole bunch of other stuff. I love Paris, but I want to avoid doing the big city with the twins. I want to go to Chartres as one of our day trips from our first location, two days in the Disney Parks, one day in Provins, maybe Versailles, and a day or two to visit family in the area.

Here is my rough outline of what to do each day (in random order):
1 - Drive to Loire Valley
2 - Visit Fontevraud Abbey
3- Chambord Castle
4 - Louches
5 - Chenonceau Castle
6 - Blois
7 - Amboise
8 - Vineyard Tour and Cheese Farm
9 - Market - Antiques Hunting
10 - ?
11 - ?
12 - ?
13 - Drive back to Paris and stay in airport hotel
14 - Go home to USA

If I can't think of other stuff to add to the itinerary, I think I'd just shorten the stay to around 10-11 days in the Loire instead of adding another region. I have several other potential trips to France in my mind in the future. The castle building site looks interesting.

And in fact, we will definitely return in the future to see more of Normandy and Brittany because we loved that area so much back when we first saw it. The antique markets up there are great as well. Eventually, I want to do a Dordogne region trip, one Provence trip, and a trip to Corsica (my grandmother grew up there).

With three year old twins and an eight year old, it's not too much time. You are traveling like a French family who would go to the Loire for a vacation getaway. They would see some chateaux, go for walks in the woods, visit local sights that could amuse the children, dip in a pool or some body of water. You can't do too many outdoor activities with little ones. If you did break it up, Brittany, as suggested, would be a good choice due to all the outdoor activities on both the north side and the south side of Brittany.

One caveat: Loches may be tricky with kids, even the 8 year old as there are some steep steps and no barriers.

Finally, there is another chateau I recommend because it is very early medieval and built underground--yes, they even had underground stables and a chapel--Chateau de Brézé. http://www.chateaudebreze.com/castle-france-loire-saumur.html It does have a typical Renaissance chateau built on top of it above ground. That is the most interesting chateau I have ever seen. It's further west, in a part of the Loire that I find much more interesting, called the Anjou. We've seen menhirs, and a very family friendly underground village and farm http://www.troglodyte.fr/pagesgb/museegb.html among other sights in the Anjou part of the Loire.

I agree with Bets that you can have a very lovely vacation. We did a three week vacation in Provence and a 4-week vacation in Burgundy when my youngest was about the age of your oldest and they were both wonderful. There were days when we did not go and see any what I will call historical sights. In both places, we rented a house with a pool and the kind of yard that children love to explore. Frankly, I am willing to bet that an 8 year old and two 3 year olds would enjoy some days playing in the yard, swimming etc.

Like some of the previous posters I too would vote for a rental (or exchange) with a pool and nice yard for the kids to play in. Coming home to a pool at your residence in France during most of the summer can be a great way to unwind and make memories. We've stayed in homes with pools several times in France and they are refreshing, especially if the house doesn't have air conditioning or just a room air conditioner. If you place yourself in a town that has restaurants, supplies and gathering places for the kids and you can visit your must see sites easily from this one location, I think you'd greatly enjoy 10-14 days exploring the Loire region.

I have to agree with Mona... her description sounds like a perfect vacation.

in addition to what Mona and Bets said, which I agree would be lovely, is bicycling. The area is so flat and makes for lovely cycling. See if you can stay in a rental that has bikes available (with carriers for the littles!).

When you stay in one place for two weeks you are just having a different sort of trip than people who are trying to do say Venice, Rome, Naples, FLorence and the Amalfi coast in two weeks. It is more a lifestyle trip than a punch the ticket trip. If you enjoy cycling, driving around visiting serendipitous little castles and abbeys and such and shopping at local markets and cooking what you find, then this is delightful to have two weeks to get to know the area. Choose a small town with bakery and market and a few restaurants as a base. It is nice to be able to walk out to dinner some nights and also to be easily able to leave town to tour the region.

We have done this in Burgundy and it was delightful; we have spent less time in the Loire but it also has many lovely towns, chateaux and such.

I'm starting to warm up to the two-weeks-in-Loire idea too (sans dog feeding). Maybe you can find a nice cottage through Gites de France. With that much time, you could also stay in two different places to reduce driving on the days you venture forth.

I am of the camp that votes for staying put for a while! We regularly plant ourselves somewhere for weeks at a time and thoroughly explore a place. When our son was little this was perfect because we could see the sights, take walks, rent bikes, go to parks, check out kid-friendly amusements, local swimming pools, morning markets, obscure museums, etc. Once you start looking around you'll find plenty to do. It's so nice to be able to go at a slower pace!

Ok, then. I think I'll just have faith that we will love this area and all of the castles. Most of our other trips have been similar in style to this proposed one, and it's worked out well for us so far. I love history, culture, and French cheese and wine. My husband will be happy with good food (that he makes using some of the local market ingredients), great photography opportunities, and unusual items at some of the brocante markets. The kids just want to pretend to be princesses and knights and run and play, so they're the easiest to please. It seems that most people only visit this area for a few days and some even just one day, which had me a little worried that there wasn't enough of interest here. I may look for one of those Center Parcs or Eurocamp places to stay in so the kids will have a pool and potential friends to play with.

I took my kids on a visit to the Chataeau de Saumur . It was fairly small but quite interesting. We visited Chinon in the same day and I thought Chinon is definitely something to see. Just a slight spelling error-----the city is Loches, not "louches." Louche means "shady/strange" or a ladle, among some other things. :). (pronounced Lowsh ) Loches is very nice little city and the historic sights are very nearby. The dungeons delighted my students and the castle was nice, too.