Travel Beyond the Clichés While Looking Back In Angers
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.”
A Little Loop in the Loire Valley: A 2-day Cycling Route from Blois
There are those big biking trips that you spend months preparing. Then there are those short trips that begin with “Hey, it’s going to be nice out this weekend—let’s go biking… in the Loire Valley!” This little Loire loop—three days, two nights, including two days of biking—is of the latter kind. Beginning and ending in Blois...
Auberge des Templiers: Where the Relais & Châteaux Dream Began
Today’s Relais & Châteaux spans the globe from A(rgentina) to Z(ambia), with 544 resort/restaurant “members.” Of course, all this glamor had to start somewhere and “somewhere” turns out to be roughly 80 miles south of Paris, between Burgundy and the Loire Valley, at a quiet, family-run inn called the Auberge des Templiers.
Europ’Amazones: Side-saddling Horsewomen Bring Pageantry, Sport and Elegance to Lion d’Angers
Versailles’s got its royal stables, Chantilly’s got its noble horse museum and Saumur’s got its Cadre Noir, but for me as a horse-lover watching the horsewomen at the National Stud Farm at Le Lion d'Angers is paradise. By Justyna Gawąd
Loire Valley: Where There’s a Château There’s a Garden Waiting to Be Discovered
The chateaux of the Loire Valley each tell a story, many stories in fact, mostly told in limestone and slate. But not all of its stories are written in stone. Some are also told in vegetation (gardens, parks, woods and forests) and water (rivers, streams, canals and basins).
Equitation in the French Tradition Joins List of Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity
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.
Chambord, the Loire Valley’s XXL Château, Gets a Tourist Makeover
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.
Orléans and New Orleans, Sisters at Last
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.
The Marquis, the Hounds and Château de Cheverny
The elegant Château de Cheverny is "chez moi" for Charles-Antoine de Vibraye and his family. Call him "marquis" if you like. His ancestors have resided on the premises for the better part of 600 years. Cheverny was one of the first private French estates to open its gates to the public, and de Vibraye welcomes on average 350,000 guests per year to his castle-sweet-castle.