
What makes France's Loire Valley a world heritage wonder
After travelling there for the first time, he wrote: 'Can you imagine, dear Paul, that ever since I saw Chambord, I have been asking anyone and everyone: Have you seen Chambord?' Standing before it myself, I know just how he felt.
Looking up at this fairy-tale castle, crowned with its carnival of cream-and-grey turrets, I want to tell everyone about it too. Commissioned by François I in 1519 and eventually completed in the 17th century, it is considered a masterpiece of Renaissance architecture. At its centre is a double-revolution staircase inspired by Leonardo da Vinci.
While Chambord is arguably the most famous, every one of the celebrated châteaux in the Loire Valley, of which more than a hundred can be visited, has its own individual charm. Then there are the renowned vineyards, the historic towns and the flower-filled villages. And, at the heart of it all, is the longest river in France.
A world-renowned destination
It's perhaps no surprise then that a vast swathe of the Loire Valley was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2000. That makes this year its 25th anniversary. Spanning 174km from Sully-sur-Loire to Chalonnes-sur-Loire, it's one of the largest listed sites in the country.
This also means it's nigh-on impossible to see everything in the UNESCO area on a single trip, let alone the wider region, but what better excuse to plan a return visit? Especially as it all begins just an hour's train ride from Paris.
If you're coming from that direction, an ideal place to start is in Orléans, sometimes described as the gateway to the Loire Valley. Among the oldest cities in France, it was famously liberated by Joan of Arc from the English siege of 1429. Even today, her presence is everywhere – from the imposing statue in the main square and the street bearing her name to the stained-glass windows in the Gothic cathedral of Sainte-Croix.
This relaxed riverside city is also known for its attractive waterfront, Renaissance buildings and vibrant street art. Here, names such as M. Chat, Tag Lady and MifaMosa are uttered with almost the same reverence as Joan of Arc herself. I'm also tempted by the various museums – and, in particular, the intriguing-sounding tours taking in the city's subterranean spaces.
Today, however, we are visiting the last surviving vinegar maker of Orléans. The city became famous for its vinegar in the Middle Ages when the slow-moving shipments on the Loire meant the wine would sometimes sour. Founded in 1797, Martin-Pouret continues the tradition to this day. As well as their boutique in the centre, which sells specialist vinegars alongside other products like mustard and sauces, they offer tours of their workshop just outside the city.
On the trail of châteaux
The next morning, we make the half-hour journey to one of the more unusual castles on our list, Château de Meung-sur-Loire. Known as 'the castle with two faces', while one side maintains its medieval exterior, the other has an 18th-century façade in salmon pink. Outside, a dragon-themed trail features impressive animatronics, including a 14m-long basilisk, while a zen-like rose garden emanates calm.
Beyond the châteaux, another must in the Loire Valley is a vineyard visit. As one of France's leading wine regions, there's an impressive diversity – from Sancerre's flagship whites and Saumur's sparkling varieties to Chinon's highly regarded reds. Back at Chambord, they are now producing their own organic, hand-harvested wines, reviving an age-old tradition on the estate. During the 'obligatory' tasting, a sparkling rosé called La Favorite lives up to its name.
That evening, keen to connect with the river itself, we take a boat trip on the Loire in a traditional wooden vessel. For this, we join an excursion with Moments de Loire, whose knowledgeable guide teaches us all about the river's ecosystem. Although we don't spot the resident beavers, we do spy brightly coloured dragonflies and a huge heron swooping past.
Where gardens meet fairy tales
For garden lovers, the nearby Domaine de Chaumont-sur-Loire shouldn't be missed. Alongside its remarkable château, once home to Catherine de' Medici, the estate hosts the International Garden Festival. This year's theme, 'Once upon a time, in the garden', has yielded some magical results.
It's also well worth making the detour south to see the Royal City of Loches. One of the finest fortified cities in the country, it has an ensemble of architecture that began around a thousand years ago. At its heart is the Royal Lodge, once favoured by Charles VII, and a medieval keep that's among the best preserved in Europe.
Not too far from here, the village of Montrésor – officially one of France's 'most beautiful' – offers picturesque streets, a verdant valley and, yes, a lovely château. Also, look out for the statue of the 'Fallen Angel' by Constantino Corti. Its haunting beauty drew the admiration of Sir Mick Jagger, no less, who has a home in the region and can occasionally be spotted buying a baguette at a local bakery.
On that note, if you're seeking a bite to eat in this corner of the Loire Valley, the eco-friendly restaurant of DorDinAire, in Nouans-les-Fontaines, is hard to beat. Run by the charming Valérie and Thierry, they offer sensational seasonal dishes made with local produce.
The Da Vinci connection
For our final day, we visit one of the region's best-known landmarks: the Château Royal d'Amboise. Overlooking the Loire, this 'palace on a promontory' was a favourite of the French kings. With its Renaissance splendour, panoramic views and aerial gardens (designated a 'Jardin Remarquable'), I can see why.
This is also the final resting place for Leonardo da Vinci, whose tomb can be found in the exquisite little chapel of Saint-Hubert. In contrast to a certain painting at the Louvre, we are practically the only people there. At the nearby Château du Clos Lucé, where he spent his last days, his life is celebrated in one of the area's leading cultural attractions.
We then make a sojourn south again, back towards Loches, to squeeze in a visit to Chédigny. The only village to have the status of 'Jardin Remarquable', it is home to one thousand rose bushes, among many other plants and flowers. The annual Festival des Roses comes highly recommended, as does lunch at Le Clos aux Roses with its wisteria-covered terrace.
Au revoir, not goodbye
Later that afternoon, for our last stop-off, we head into Tours. Here, we find a city buzzing with locals, students and visitors, enjoying the rich heritage, eclectic mix of shops and array of museums. I make a mental note to return for the cathedral of Saint-Gatien with its flamboyant façade, the atmospheric exhibition space of Hôtel Goüin and a yoga session atop the Tour Charlemagne.
For now, we indulge in a gastronomic tour with the lovely Sheena from Food Tours in Tours. A highlight is the lively square of Place Plumereau with its timber-framed buildings surrounding canopied tables.
We end at the Guinguette de Tours, where we sip local wines as people sway to the sounds of swing and the sun sets over the river.
It's been a whistlestop tour but a wonderful week. My only regret is that I wish I'd seen more. Next on my list is the troglodyte caves, the riverside cycle route and a visit to Blois. In the meantime, like Victor Hugo with Chambord, I'll be asking anyone and everyone: Have you seen the Loire Valley?
Hashtags

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles


Euronews
12 hours ago
- Euronews
Can this ‘Air Scooter' cross the English Channel safely?
Imagine riding a scooter to your friend's house for a barbecue – not on the road but in the air. A French aviation start-up wants to make that a reality with an aircraft resembling a gigantic scooter. 'Air Scooter' is an ultralight aircraft pre-programmed to fly a route. Thanks to the computers doing a lot of the heavy lifting, the pilot's input is much less important than in a traditional helicopter. "It's a kind of flying robot,' Franky Zapata, the CEO of Zapata, said. 'When you are inside, you just ask the machine to go somewhere. You feel like the pilot. But the machine only executes what the computer wants, so it's extremely easy," Zapata added. Zapata says the hybrid vertical take-off aircraft is easier to fly and cheaper to learn, compared to traditional aircraft. The company says it hopes to democratise air travel. "You need to be skilled to pilot an aeroplane. You need to be skilled to pilot a helicopter. And it's very expensive to become a pilot. The machines are expensive," Zapata said. Fly over the English Channel The French pilot and inventor will attempt to cross the English Channel between France and England in a stunt designed to serve as a proof of concept for his Air Scooter on Friday. He will take off from Calais, France, and will cross the Channel and plans to arrive at St Margaret's Bay, close to Dover, in the UK. He has told the media that there's no parachute to use during this trip in case he has to bail out in an emergency. Zapata has already made a crossing, in 2019, on another of his machines, called the Flyboard Air. The flying hoverboard successfully surfed the sky on the second attempt, a week after his first bid failed halfway through. He completed a 36-kilometre journey in 22 minutes, reaching a top speed of 202 kilometres per hour during the crossing. Zapata admits the flying hoverboard required lots of skill to operate, and the Air Scooter is a much easier vertical takeoff hybrid aircraft. 'What is very different compared to the Flyboard Air is the fact that this machine is able to be piloted by everybody. It's not something so technical or so hard, so dangerous as the Flyboard". For more on this story, watch the video in the media player above.


Local France
a day ago
- Local France
14 Essential websites and apps for summer in France
Please note: links here are to the websites. You can download apps from your usual app store. Météo-France Knowing what the weather will be like is always useful - and France can do torrential showers and glorious sunshine in a single day - but the French national weather forecaster Météo France does more than a simple 10-day forecast. It's also updated regularly with the latest weather warnings, covering everything from high temperatures and heatwaves , to sudden and dramatic storms that can bring down trees and cause floods. France has some serious weather which can put lives at risk, so it's a good idea to be aware if a warning is issued. READ ALSO Explained: What does a red weather warning mean in France? You can check alert levels for each area via Météo-France, while anyone in France is advised to sign up for the FR-Alert system , which sends text messages in the case of emergency, including orders from local authorities to evacuate. Advertisement Soleilrisk Soleilrisk is an app developed by the French National Union of Dermatologists in conjunction with Météo-France that helps users get a glowing tan while avoiding risks thanks to daily UV index readings across the country. Alerts can be activated when the UV index is high, and users also have access to a directory of dermatologists. Everything you need for safe sunbathing…. Bathe safely Is it safe to take a dip in the sea?You'd like to think so, but you can be sure with the Infoplage app, which offers real-time information on the quality of the bathing water, weather conditions and the colour of the safety flags at beaches the length and breadth of the country. Feux de Forêt Linked to the weather, summer is wildfire season in France – when high temperatures, low rainfall (despite those sudden storms) and strong winds combine to heighten the fire risk. This is a particular problem in the warmer south of the country. Firefighters have already had to deal with numerous blazes – and some parts of the Mediterranean arc are on high alert for forest fires, which can cause (and have caused) widespread damage and travel disruption. READ ALSO Is France ready for a summer of increasingly severe wildfires? There is an app that allows anyone from any location to monitor forest fires in France, called 'Feux de Forêt' and is available for download on iPhones and Android. It sends alerts of any new fire outbreaks in your area. It could also be particularly useful for second-home owners, as you can also monitor ongoing fires from a distance by updating your notifications to decide which départements you would like to get alerts for. Bison Futé There are some days – particularly during the long summer holidays – when it's best simply to leave motorway travel to everyone else. There are days when it seems like the entire population of France is on one of the country's autoroutes or another, with a good chunk of northern Europeans also using France as a rat-run to southern Europe, and the sun. Advertisement Fortunately, the busy days are mostly predictable. Keep an eye on France's roads watchdog Bison Futé, which forecasts traffic levels on the country's main arterial routes, and signals trouble using a colour-coded map of France. Green is good. Red is not. Black is, basically, nationwide gridlock. And avoid, at all costs, the chasée-croisé . SNCF Connect There is no better way to see France than by train – this is just a fact. The SNCF Connect app allows you to book your rail travel, using any discount cards you may have, and provides real-time updates on train times, platform changes, or delays on the line. Michelin Route Planner This handy map app from the tyre manufacturer and food critic does everything other map apps do – and also estimates how much your planned journey will cost in fuel, time, and any tolls. The Fork Speaking of food, if you want to eat out, The Fork lists a huge selection of restaurants (around 40,000) in every one of France's main cities, with ratings, comments, photos and special offers. Advertisement The app is easy to use, and you can book a table via the app without having to speak a word of French. Pollen Index One for allergy sufferers. France has developed an early warning pollen forecast device, called the Atmo France Pollen Index. It's calculated and updated using real-time statistical data, pollen readings, weather forecasts and information from the Copernicus platform, which provides a three-day air quality and pollen count forecasts nationally, regionally, and right down to individual towns and villages. The website offers an interactive map of the country, which shows pollen levels using six different colours. You can even get information and pollen forecasts for the next couple of days at a commune level. Paris If you're visiting Paris there are a few specific apps and websites that you might find helpful Bonjour RATP / Ile de France Mobilités Two website / apps in one here, but both are indispensable for using public transport in and around Paris, and allow you to buy tickets on the app, without having to queue at ticket machines in the stations. They also offer real-time updates – handy in summer because of station closures – and a handy Metro route-planner. The Citymapper app is also for planning a journey in any of France's bigger cities. Advertisement Paris en Seine This summer, for the first time in more than 100 years, it's possible to swim in the River Seine, in three designated areas. You'll need to check the opening times in advance, and check the regularly updated map of water quality - the water is tested every day and if pollution levels are judged too high for safe swimming, the bathing spots will be closed. This can happen after heavy rain. La vasque If you were watching the Paris 2024 Olympics you might remember the spectacular hot air balloon rising over the city. Well, it's back this summer - the balloon is tethered in the Tuileries gardens and rises into the air each night at sunset. This site gives details of the rise time, as well as updated if the lift-off is cancelled due to bad weather. . . . and a couple of language options Google Translate Translation apps still aren't as good as knowing a language well enough to hold a conversation, but for the basics of day-to-day holiday living, they'll do just fine. With Google Translate, you can take a picture of a sign – or, say, a menu – on your phone and a translation will appear in your preferred language. The much-touted conversation feature – which is supposed to be able to automatically identify spoken language – is still very much a work in progress, by all accounts, but a little lateral thinking will get you by. British consumer watchdog Which? recently found it – and rival translation tool DeepL – were the most accurate of four big language apps tested (the others were Microsoft and Apple). DeepL, it said, was better on colloquial language you might encounter – but the sheer number of languages available on Google, and the fact it works offline, counts in the internet giant's favour. Both Google Translate and DeepL, it has to be said, are pretty good with French. Duolingo Conversations via translation app are one – slow and jarringly disjointed – thing, but nothing beats being able to hold a conversation with a local in their language. And if you don't mind being emotionally abused by an imaginary owl, then Duolingo will help you do that. We're not about to suggest Duolingo will get you from zero to fluent in a matter of weeks (if learning French was that easy, everyone would do it), but you'll gradually pick up more and more without referring to your translation app, or heading off in the wrong direction after listening to a blizzard of directions from a speed-talking Toulousain.


Le Figaro
a day ago
- Le Figaro
In Hong Kong, Madeleine Progin Keeps the Flame of French Literature Alive
Some 12,000 kilometers from Paris, the founder of the independent bookshop Parenthèses remains steadfast in her mission: keeping French literature alive in Hong Kong. One walks into the Parenthèses bookshop in the heart of Hong Kong as as one might enter a church — quietly. On the second floor of the Duke of Wellington House building, which is aristocratic in name only, this shrine to French-language literature stands in defiance of a world in constant acceleration. No stress, no pressure. Time can be savored like a priest reading his prayer book, far from the hustle and bustle of an overheated city where luxury and finance reign supreme. Madeline Progin, the high priestess of Parenthèses, settled in Hong Kong over forty years ago. Originally from a small village near Neuchâtel, Switzerland, the self-described 'country girl' followed her city-dwelling husband, Marc, to the ends of the earth, convinced that the whole adventure would only last a short time. Enchanted by this 'city where anything is possible,' the young woman decided to make a childhood dream come true there: to open her own bookshop. Publicité "There were no books at home, but I knew how to read before I went to school. My father was a farmer, and my mother worked a variety of odd jobs. I'd scour the village library, stealing books from girlfriends. Every Christmas, every birthday, I'd order books. They were my greatest gift," she recalls. When she arrived in Hong Kong, there was only a very modest French-speaking outlet on the fourth floor of the same building. It sold books, but also chocolate, champagne… Books that travel halfway around the world "Hong Kong was a city of entrepreneurs with incredible energy. People worked night and day, it was all very exciting," recalls this emblematic figure of the French-speaking community. At the age of 26, the young woman obtained assistance from the French Consulate and bought the business with her husband. A few years later, the Parenthèses bookshop was approved by the Centre national du livre (CNL) and became a 'benchmark French-language bookshop.' "We receive around 150 to 250 kg of books a week. Novels, biographies, fiction, poetry, but also comics, history, mathematics, cookery, language learning — 95% of our books come from France," confides the bookseller, as she sweeps a half-amused, half-despairing gaze over the walls of this discrete sanctuary where literature stacks up like a bastion against oblivion. 'Our mission is to remain eclectic, curious and inclusive of all genres' —Madeline Progin, founder of Parenthèses bookshop "Our customers are demanding — they want the latest releases, whether from Gallimard, Grasset, Le Seuil, or Picquier for Chinese translations. Our mission is to remain eclectic, curious and open to all genres. Books take about two weeks to reach us. Inevitably they're a little more expensive, but that's the price of passion, independence and a book chain that crosses half the globe," explains Progin with the energy of a fanatic. A large, brown leather club chair, studded, worn and crackled, sits at the entrance of the bookshop. It's here, for the past 30 years, that some of France's greatest writers have come to sit down for a signature, a meeting, a photo. Like Michel Houellebecq, over 10 years ago: 'It was quite something,' says Progin with a smile. "The day before, he had given a reading of his poems at Macumba, Hong Kong's only African bar. It was a bilingual reading, together with translator Sonia Au. He read in French, Au in Cantonese. In the room were expats, curious passersby, poetry lovers and, of course, Houellebecq fans. All hanging onto the writer's every word. Publicité Changing reading habits On the walls of the bookshop, customers can see the faces of Pierre Assouline, Philippe Claudel, Susie Morgenstern, Camille Laurens, Jean-Philippe Toussaint, Dany Laferrière, David Foenkinos, Andreï Kourkov, Chantal Thomas, Marie Darrieussecq, or that of Boualem Sansal, with his eternal adolescent look. Kamel Daoud was due to come in June, but declined the invitation following an international arrest warrant issued against him by Algeria. Today, those blessed days when authors paraded around to meet their public seem to be over, and the future of Parenthèses may be in jeopardy. "Since COVID, habits have changed. People no longer want to leave their homes, which explains the drop in attendance. Add to that the declining number of interested expats, competition from online platforms and the rise in operating costs — rent, salaries, transport, everything has gone up. We can no longer cover our costs," laments the bookseller, who has given herself until the end of the year to make a final decision. In a swansong-like sentiment addressed to the French-speaking community, Madeline Progin urges literature lovers to get out and buy their books from Parenthèses. 'Reading habits have also changed,' concludes Madeline Progin. "These days, we're afraid to venture into literature. We open a book. We leaf through it, skim it, no longer pay attention to the style, the characters, the twists and turns. People don't have the energy to get involved anymore, and that's a shame.' It's hard to say whether Parenthèses will make it through the winter. 'Reading is a friendship,' wrote Marcel Proust. In Hong Kong, this friendship still exists in French — but for how long?