Loire Valley day trip from Paris- please comment

I'd pick #1. Chenonceau is my favorite chateau. Amboise is a charming town, and Clos de Luce is the home where Leonardo de Vinci lived. All very worthwhile. And a nice lunch would top it all off. Chambord is my second favorite chateau, and it's unfortunate you'll miss it, but you can save it for next time! Either choice will be very enjoyable.

What wonderful choices you have.
Choice 1) is a taste of the Loire valley in smaller but nonetheless extremely interesting, historical chateaux with time for a real lunch. Chenonceau is one of the favorite chateau in the Valley. Amboise probably began as a fortification, as opposed to a luxury home. I don't have reference to give you more info and I don't know the third chateau. Your day would be broken up with a meal. Choice 2) has two very large and architecturally significant Chateaux--Blois being built over several centuries in several styles, while large Chambord has multiple architectural features of interest. Cheverny is a large, later-built estate, still in private hands. Wine cheese and charcuterie would be considered more of a snack. It appears that more time would be spent touring the buildings, but you'd need to ask the tour companies more precisely.

Two of my top three chateaux are Chenanceaux and Chambord. Of these Chenanceaux is generally the favorite of most people, wonderful site built over the river, also has delightful grounds and outbuildings- Chambord is LARGE and impressive (but a bit overwhelming). Clos Luce is worth visiting (mostly to see the Leonardo Da Vinci exhibits). Cheverny is somewhat limited in what you can see. Amboise and Blois are a toss-up. So overall I would choose #1, mostly because of Chenanceaux. There is a great restaurant about 100 yards from chananceaux- if thats where you are having lunch I would choose that tour just for the lunch

I agree, I think the top two (by far and away) are Chambord and Chenonceau (for me, it's hard to choose one of those over the other - they're both "5 stars" - or in Rick parlance, "three triangles" :) ). After that, the others are less critical. There's no way you can work it out to hit both Chambord and Chenonceau? I'd try hard to see those, and would worry less about the others (actually, for me, I'd prioritize seeing those two, and if necessary I'd skip the wine, cheese, etc. - I can get wine and cheese at home, but I can't see those chateaux - yeah, it would be nice to have the complete package, but if I had to choose....).

Thank you all so much for replying. It sounds like from the comments that I should do both!!! Unfortunately, that just will not be possible. We will be in Paris for 8 days and then we are heading to Provence for 4 days. After researching the Loire Valley sights, I tried to figure out a way to go to the Loire Valley for 2 days en route but because we are traveling by train it really isn't feasible (despite the best efforts of the agent at Rail Europe). I am hoping that Loire Valley Tours will be a good company to go with. After looking at all the options I could find, they seemed to offer the sort of tours we are looking for. If anyone has any experience with this or another tour company please feel free to share your experiences. Again many thanks - Rick Steves folks are the best!

Choice #1, hands down.

Definitely No. 1. Chenonceau is spectacular. The wine tasting is a nice bonus too.
Three chateaux is enough in one day. We did a 4 chateaux tour last September and had had enough by No 4 (Cheverny). It was a l-o-n-g day.

I don't understand why you say it's "not possible" to see both Chenonceaux and Chambord? Just because that tour company doesn't offer a tour that includes both, it doesn't mean it's impossible. Why not just take a train to a town nearby (Orleans, Bloise or Tours), and rent a car there for a day? Drive to one chateaux, visit for a few hours, take a break for lunch, drive to the other one, rinse and repeat. Drive back to the train, drop the car, and off you go. If you really feel that you must have a guide, there are guided tours available at the chateaux. Get a car with a GPS and it's not challenging. Only limitation is that one in your group (the designated driver) would have to skip any wine tasting.

We recently used the company link paris (linkparis.com) to visit St Malo/Dinan/Mont St Michel. They also have 3 Loire Valley itineraries that might fit your needs. Instead of a bus from Paris, it is a slightly different arrangement. You take the train to Tours and then they pick you up and run the tours as small groups in mini vans. Our group to Mont St Michel was only 7 people so it was very nice. I was impressed with them, they were local guides.