The Loire Valley & Surroundings

And what a rich and stunning valley it is! The Loire Valley is listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site due to the quality of its noble and royal architecture (the numerous chateaux), its historic towns (Blois, Chinon, Orléans, Blois, Tours, Chinon, Saumur, Angers) and the “harmonious development of interactions between human beings and their environment [e.g. vineyards, gardens] over two millennia.” The Loire as explored here flows through two administration regions, Center-Loire Valley and Western Loire (Pays de la Loire). There’s much else to discover in these two regions: the cathedral towns of Chartres to the north and Bourges to the south, Le Mans in the rural department of Sarthe, the upbeat city of Nantes, and a portion of France’s Atlantic coast with the resort towns of La Baule and Les Sables-d’Olonne (Vendée) and the islands of Noirmoutier and Yeu.

Chartres by night (c) GLKraut

Chartres Lights Up as an Overnight Destination (Video)

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Long considered a day trip destination, Chartres has also become an overnight destination thanks to the vibrant and animated illuminations of the cathedral and other historic sights and monuments that make for an enchanting evening walk-about.
The Clos Lucé © GLKraut

The Clos Lucé Enhances Its Connection with Da Vinci in Amboise (Loire Valley)

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With three paintings in his luggage—Mona Lisa, St. Anne and John the Baptist—Leonardo da Vinci made the long and arduous journey across the Alps to Amboise via mule-train and riverboat in 1516 at the well-paid request of King François I, his last noble patron.
Angers Galerie David d'Angers - GLKraut

Travel Beyond the Clichés While Looking Back In Angers

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There I was in the local newspaper in a picture borrowed from the web and a paragraph hailing me as “a globetrotting American writer with a new book out entitled Travel Beyond the Clichés.”
Mayors Olivier Carré of Orléans and Mitch Landrieu of New Orleans in Orléans Nov. 28, 2017.

Orléans and New Orleans, Sisters at Last

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Orléans and New Orleans have been bound by name ever since the latter’s founding as a French colony in 1718. But it wasn’t until January 5, 2018 that the French city on the northern tip of the Loire and the American city on a southern bend of the Mississippi formerly declared themselves related. Sisters, in fact.

Blond Girl in Saumur: When Our Eyes Met for the Second Time

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A photo/video-log from the Saumur area of the Loire Valley in which Gary Lee Kraut remembers when travel was less about fooding and more about flirting, less about getting reservations and more about losing inhibitions, less about looking for recommendations and more about following your own nose.

Elsewhere along the Loire: Val d’Aubois

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You’d be the rare traveler, French or foreign, to have heard of the Val d’Aubois, the Aubois Valley, a largely bypassed portion of Loire...

Chambord, the Loire Valley’s XXL Château, Gets a Tourist Makeover

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When you can't get any bigger, you just have to get better. Chambord, the massive chateau in the Loire Valley, 9 miles east of Blois, is in the midst of a major development plan (€4.5 million invested in 2014) to make the castle more user-friendly and, ultimately, self-financing.

Equitation in the French Tradition Joins List of Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity

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UNESCO’s Intergovernmental Committee for the Safeguarding of Intangible Heritage has inscribed equitation in the French tradition, with specific reference to the Cadre Noir of Saumur (Loire Valley), on the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.

Château de Beauregard: A Castle Road Less Taken

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Tourists in the Loire Valley generally head only for the A-list castles. But for sightseers who dislike crowds and relish the possibility of running into a congenial chateau owner, quieter slices of 16th-century splendor are a few minutes away at the Chateau de Beauregard, 3 miles southeast of Blois.

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