About The Loire Valley

The Loire Valley is a wonderful place. Rightfully famous for its famous Châteaux, there is a lot more to this beautiful valley.

This was the home of the French Kings - far enough away from the rebellious Dukes of Burgundy. As well as the Royal Palaces, there are many huge and wonderful châteaux built by royal hangers-on and other members of court. All these wonderful buildings were built from the local 'tufa' or limestone, cut from underground quarries. There are now huge cave systems formed by centuries of quarrying, and many of them are used either by local vineyards to make and store their wine, or for cultivating mushrooms. More than 70% of all the commercial mushrooms sold in France are produced in these underground 'shroom caves.

The Loire Valley is also known as the 'Garden of France', and some of the best food of any of our tours is served in the Loire Valley. The wine is also far more interesting than many people think. This is pretty far north for wine country, but there is a long tradition of winemaking in the Loire Valley including quality appellations such as Vouvray, Bonnezeaux, Saumur-Champigny and St Nicholas de Borgeuil. Some claim that here was the birthplace of the 'traditional method' of making sparkling wine, and certainly some of the finest sparkling wines in the world outside Champagne come from Vouvray and Saumur.

But above all, the Châteaux are quite amazing. The scale of Chambord inside its 32 km wall, and the beauty of Chenonceau, Catherine de Medici's château that spans the river Cher, and of Azay-le-Ridea, surrounded on three sides by the river Indre, are unforgettable.

If that were not enough, every night in July and August the largest Châteaux put on son et lumière spectacles using lasers, projections and sound to illustrate themes from the history of the châteaux. Some of them, frankly, are rubbish, but the son et lumière at Chambord is one of the highlights of the week, truly unforgettable. At Chambord, Chenonceau, Amboise and Azay-le-Rideau we stay so close to the châteaux that a post-dinner stroll enables us to visit all these son et lumière.

We also have the chance to visit châteaux at Ussé, the setting for Charles Perrault's Sleeping Beauty, Villandry, one of the most spectacular gardens in France, and Cheverny, better known to Tintin fans as Marlin Spike Hall, ancestral hall of Captain Haddock. This sounds like too many châteaux, but it isn't - they are wonderful and memorable.

One final surprise from the Loire! The mighty Si-lure, or Silurus Glanis, also known as the Greater European Wel (my thanks to Jim Tingley), or Catfish. These fish grow up to 3 metres long in the lower reaches of the Loire. I've never seen one, but it's Champagne (sorry, that should be Saumur Brut) all round when I do.