Day trip to Loire Valley

Your question: "We will be in Paris for 10 days and we want to take a day trip to the Loire Valley."

You said Loire Valley. Just so you know, Fontainebleau is not in the Loire Valley, I didn't know if that was going to be quite clear to you from the first post. Fontainebleau is some ways southeast of Paris.

The suggestions made in the first post are good ones--I just wanted to clarify this one point.

If you've got to see just one chateau, make it Fontainebleau. It's as good as Versailles and has a lot more history -- it just didn't get as famous for a treaty and that Austrian chick.

A tour from Paris is probably not worth it. The price of a car for one day would be disproportionately out of sight.

There will have to be a train to Avon, probably from Gare de Lyon. Buses run from the Avon station to the Chateau.

With ten days in Paris, you can spare most of one to dash down there and back. Wild guess is three hours total travel time and four hours there. The TI is right by the chateau.

If you're just going down into the valley for the heck of it, don't. The sucker is hundreds of miles long (from a hundred miles north of Nimes to Saint-Lazaire) and the part south of Paris is sure not the best of it.

For simply a day trip to the Loire, there are many guided tours available for purchase in Paris. I've done the guided tour in 2004 and last year drove and stayed in the Loire Valley for a week. I'll say the car rental will be less expensive than the guided tour for sure.

It really depends if you're looking for an educational experience about the history of the Loire and its castles or you just want to experience the beautiful scenery.

In either case, its 3 hours each way between Paris. If you don't want to be rushed and can manage driving in/out of Paris on your own, I recommend the drive. You can always hit a TI if you want tourist information about any of the local sites.

Monday is a great idea...but Sundays are good too as you may be able to hit a local outdoor market or flea market to experience life as the locals do there.

Have a wonderful trip!

http://www.minitraveler.ca

We spent 6 days in Paris and then rented a car and drove down to Amboise. We stayed there 3 days using it as a homebase to see the Loire Valley. The Loire valley is definitly worth it, but you might find the guided tour a better way to see the chateaux in short time frame.

There are high speed trains you can take. It can take a long time to drive out of the Paris region and even longer trying to get back as traffic starts to jam miles before you get to Paris. Several people have enjoyed day trips to Amboise.

We just returned from 34 days in London and Paris. We took Gray Line (Cityrama) tours in both places. We took the one to the Loire Valley. We saw three castles. It wasn't that exciting. We also went to Mt. St. Michel. That was a big waste of money and time. It isn't even nice to look at inside. The view from outside the Mount was nice, but that is about it. We also went to Normandy. It poured rain, but was still very moving. We slightly imagined what our troops had to encounter. That tour was great, as we had a van and there were just five of us with the driver. Gray Line (Cityrama) is a good tour compnay to consider. We have used them in Australia, New York, Canada, London and Paris.

"We saw three castles. It wasn't that exciting." I guess the ones at Disney Land are more exciting, being the real thing and all.

Thank you all for the advice. I noticed that Fontainebleau is on the Museum pass, and we were considering driving thru Amboise to Tours. Any advice on those places?

We just did a day trip to the Loire Valley. We used Gray Line/Cityrama tours and they were great. It was a full day, but we saw everything we needed to.

Strangely, Elaine has changed her mind about the Loire Valley, Previously she said she saw three castles and it was "not that interesting". She also trashed Mont Saint-Michel, saying it was "a waste of time", so maybe she has changed her mind about that as well. I see that Bruges still gets a thumbs-up from her. Gott bedanken.