Shirley's birthday weekend in the Loire Valley

Paris to Tours

We just returned from a wonderful two-day visit to the Loire Valley, famous for its chateaux, to celebrate Shirley's birthday.  I have never been much good at organizing these kinds of things, so this time I tried to make an uncharacteristic effort to do something special.

We drove the 2.5 hours from Paris to the centre of the Loire after Jemma's Saturday morning cross country meet (yes... Jemma is doing cross country!).  Unfortunately, the weather was not cooperative to my plans and it rained the whole day.  Nonetheless we took the scenic tour down through Orleans, Chambord, Blois and Tours, arriving at our chateau hotel in the late afternoon.

Le Domaine de la Tortinière Hotel

The tower bedroom in our suite

The Domaine De La Tortinière is an 19th century chateau that looks across the Indre river valley and the lovely town of Montbazon, just south of Tours. We had a suite in one of the corner towers looking out over the valley and river.  The whole experience was a cross between Disney castle and Downton Abbey, and we were all excited to be in "our own" chateau.


After a brief bit of lounging and exploring at the hotel, we went to dinner in nearby Tours at La Maison des Halles. With an unforgettable combination of delicious food, menu variety and creativity and ridiculously reasonable prices, this might have been one of the best meals I have ever had. We all had a wonderful time enjoying each others' dishes of foie gras, scallops, duck, and steak. They even had a child menu for Pips!  We rolled out of there very happy and several pounds heavier.

Walking in the hotel woods

Wild cyclamen in bloom

With no cat-cockerel to wake us at 6 am, the girls slept in and I managed rally for a little dawn run down by the river in Montbazon. After a grand hotel breakfast, we packed up and headed out for a day of chateaux viewing, but not before a walk through the quiet woods around the hotel.  The wild cyclamen were in full bloom made the whole experience rather magical.

Chenonceau over the Cher River

The queen surveying her minions

By the time we finally got going it was already around 11am and so we decided to only do one chateau, and so chose to go to Chenonceau, famous for its beautifully restored interior.  We spent a lovely couple of hours touring the 16th century chateau that housed Catherine de Medici among others.  We took the excellent audio tour and learned about all the skulduggery that went on throughout the chateau's history.  The chateau's most notable feature is the 2 storey hall that spans the Cher river.  The gardens were also beautifully maintained and manicured and there was also a maze for the girls to play around in.

After that we were pretty exhausted and jumped back in the car to head back to Paris and our lovely modern home - such a contrast of glass and steel to the richness of the Chenonceau's silks and gilded furniture.

After we got home, I showed the girls a picture of the last time I was at Chenonceau - July 1989. Plus ça change!

Mark at Chenonceau in 1989

Jemma in the maze

You can see a few more photos here.  Thanks for reading.