My boyfriend and I are looking to spend a three day weekend away from London in March. We were thinking of eurostar to paris and then train to Loire Valley.
We can hire a car, but were wondering if it would be possible to see vineyards %26amp; sights from a central base over the weekend without doing so.
We were looking for a romantic%26#39;ish weekend with sights, wine and food %26amp; walking / bicycle riding.
Can anyone provide me with tips? Where to stay? Where to train to from Paris? Must see places?
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No reason why you couldn%26#39;t do this. If you take the Eurostar to Paris and then a TGV to St. Pierre des Corps (the TGV station just outside Tours) the travel time would probably be about 5.5-6 hours but you will lose an hour with the time change.
You might try looking for a Eurostar to Marne-la-Vallée and then a TGV from there. That would eliminate having to get across Paris from Gare du Nord to Gare Montparnasse. There are not many workable connections on this slightly peculiar route, and it might push the cost up quite a bit.
I really think you need a car to get around which is why I suggested St. P. des C. Most of the car rental outfits have agencies there. I suppose you *could* use Amboise as a base and get to other places by train (not easy and service is spotty at best) or bike. I%26#39;m not sure about bike rental places in Amboise but somebody else may see this and be able to help.
Major sights east of Tours are the châteaux at Chenonceau, Chambord, Amboise itself, possibly Cheverny and Chaumont among others. Also Leonardo da Vinci%26#39;s home in Amboise at Clos Lucé.
West of Tours you have Villandry, Azay-le-Rideau, Langeais and Chinon, among others.
Major wine-producing areas are Vouvray and Montlouis between Tours and Amboise (whites) and Chinon and Bourgeuil across the Loire from the Chinon region (mostly reds).
The Cheval Blanc is a little hotel I like a lot in the small village of Bléré, between Chenonceau and Tours. Bléré is much quieter and less touristy than Amboise. The downside is that, apart from the Michelin one-rosette hotel restaurant (which is excellent and very good value IMO) there aren%26#39;t a lot of places to eat in the village: www.lechevalblancblere.com
You might want to get your hands on a good guidebook and at least a Michelin 1:200 000 scale map of the region. If you are going to be doing some walking and/or cycling larger scale maps might be useful. There is a good map shop (I don%26#39;t recall the name but you probably know it) on Long Acre in Covent Garden who should have whatever you might need.
Thinking about it, with only a few days I really don%26#39;t think you should rely on trains to get about. You will really need a car IMO unless you are going to be confined to a fairly small area.
Good luck!
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It could be cheaper and faster to fly directly Stansted-Tours via RyanAir than to take the train.
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Darth makes a good point, though with an early departure from Waterloo you can make it to Tours earlier by train and you can leave later to get home. But Ryanair will certainly be quicker and probably cheaper.
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Just picking up the point about cycling from IrishRovr - there is a lot of promotion of cycling and cycling routes in the Loire valley. Useful websites with links to even more info are http://www.loire-a-velo.fr/index_en.htm and www.locationdevelos.com/en/services.php
If you%26#39;re looking for walking routes, then the local tourist information offices generally produce leaflets, which are sometimes online - it%26#39;s certainly worth checking. http://www.tourisme.fr/recherche/e_index.htm has links for all Tourist Offices.
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