Chateaux of La Loire

Whilst the sun kept shining, we made the most of our exploring, beginning the day underground in the Cathelineau wine càve. This winery was created at the beginning of the 18th century and is now being managed by the 10th generation of the family who are still hollowing out more tuffeau limestone from the hill behind their homes. Whilst the wines were not overly impressive, a bit too minerally for my taste buds, the story of the vineyard was fascinating and the collection of fossils, discovered quite amazing.

Lunch was pending so we headed towards a recommended picnic spot on the river Cher. We were the only people there and enjoyed a very typical French pique-nique complete with appropriate beverages, before making our way to Chenonceau en bateaux.

Chateau Chenonceau is probably the most recognisable of La Loire chateaux as it straddles La Cher river and features in alot of promotional material, but there are some things we just don't have control over, and whilst La Loire was in flood back in January/February, after 2 months of drought, there was not much water in the river, so we were unable to actually travel through the arches of the Chateau to view it from the more picturesque side. It was still quite spectacular but not as imposing and grand as I had imagined.

In fact neither of the Chateaux we had visited thus far, had the WOW factor, so I felt a little short changed. We retreated to Vouvray for drinks and dinner - a delicious salad nicoise, whilst planning our May day activities, since word has it, most shops and businesses would be closed.

This in fact turned out to be not quite true. Our local Vouvray market was open, with a few necessary stalls, the boulangerie was also doing a roaring trade and on our way out of town we discovered the wine shops were open. Surprisingly, it seems, the French bureacracy is recognising the people's need for their daily baguette and bottle of wine. We opted to head out of town to the Domain of Chaumont-Sur-Loire Chateau. Sitting high above La Loire, we'd finally found the storybook Chateau, imposing, grand, and set in very stunning grounds. The Chateau interior had been restored to reflect, its past life, whilst integrating several modern art pieces and digital displays that were interpretative and often quite provocative.

The large gardens were equally spectacular, with converted stables, a greenhouse and The International Garden Centre for Arts and Nature Art fair, in a designated setting. This program has been running for 15 years and in 2026, was titled 'the Garden, the star of the show' celebrating the impact of gardens on film sets, cinema and movies. We decided, we had arrived a little early as the exhibition had only been 'bedded down' 3 weeks previously, so it was still in it's 'growing stage' and not as established as it probably should have been. Never the less, there were some clever displays reflecting modern movies such as Jurassic Park and Festival de Cannes, represented by a fabulous collections of 'old canes'.

A bottle of wine was required, by the boys of course and so we stopped at a very bizzare càve du vin by La Loire on the way home. Guy Durand was an eccentric wine maker who probably lived with his wine bottles in his càve du vin. He was surrounded by miscellaneous rubbish, containers of receipts, bottles trinkets and some wine, all covered in thick cobwebs - even the window photo doesnt do it justice. Wine was purchased, and drunk reluctantly.

We well and truly reached our step count for the day and even climbing to our attic room on the top floor was an effort.Læs mere