Blois → Saumur

01 Castle

Château of Blois

Château de Blois

From the courtyard, take in centuries of architecture at a single glance, from the Gothic Middle Ages to classical façades. The François I wing displays its openwork spiral staircase, while the great hall dates back to the 13th century. A favourite royal residence during the Renaissance, the château saw Joan of Arc blessed before Orléans and the assassination of the Duke of Guise.

02 Castle

Château de Chambord

Francis I began this château in 1519 at the heart of an enclosed forest park of some 50 square kilometres, perhaps from ideas by Leonardo da Vinci. Above the keep, flanked by four towers, rises a forest of chimneys and lanterns. Climb the double-helix staircase, where two people can go up at the same time without ever meeting.

03 Castle

Château de Cheverny

Rigorously classical, built in the 17th century, Cheverny is still lived in by descendants of the Hurault family. You may recognise Marlinspike Hall, which Hergé drew from its façade, leaving out the two end pavilions. This pale stone façade stands out above a vast lawn, in the heart of the Sologne.

04 Castle

Château de Chaumont

Château de Chaumont-sur-Loire

From the bank of the Loire, look up at this hilltop château with its stout round towers crowned with machicolations. Catherine de' Medici bought it in 1550, then handed it to Diane de Poitiers in exchange for Chenonceau. Since 1992, its grounds have hosted an international garden festival every year.

05 Castle

Château d'Amboise

Standing on its spur above the Loire, the château became a palace under Charles VIII, born within its walls, who transformed it from 1492. The king died here in 1498 after striking the lintel of a low door, and the Chapelle Saint-Hubert holds the presumed tomb of Leonardo da Vinci. Look up at its two great horsemen's towers.

06 Castle

Clos Lucé

Château du Clos Lucé

In this manor of pink brick and tufa, Leonardo da Vinci, invited by Francis I, spent his last three years and died on 2 May 1519. Here he prepared the court festivities and plans for an ideal city at Romorantin. Carry on into the park, where his reconstructed machines stand among the trees.

07 Castle

Château de Chenonceau

Set across the Cher, the two-storey gallery commissioned by Catherine de' Medici extends the bridge that Diane de Poitiers had thrown towards the far bank. Built by Katherine Briçonnet and saved during the Revolution by Louise Dupin, the château owes its nickname, the Ladies' Château, to these women. Watch its arches reflected in the river.

08 Castle

Château de Villandry

Climb to the upper terraces to take in at a glance the gardens of Villandry, recreated from 1906 by Joachim Carvallo after drawings by Du Cerceau. Ornamental kitchen garden, clipped box and water mirror rise over four levels. The last of the great châteaux built on the Loire during the Renaissance, the house closes the vista.

09 Castle

Château d'Azay-le-Rideau

Built from 1518 to 1524 on piles driven into the Indre, the château seems to rest on the river. Watch its Renaissance façade reflected in the water that surrounds it. Philippe Lesbahy oversaw the building work for her husband, the treasurer Gilles Berthelot, before François I confiscated the unfinished residence in 1528.

10 Castle

Château d'Ussé

At the edge of the Chinon forest, near the Indre, this château, whose foundations the Bueil family laid in the 15th century, overlooks gardens laid out after Le Nôtre. Charles Perrault was received here several times by the Marquis de Valentinay. From the road, admire its white towers and its Renaissance chapel, consecrated in 1538.

11 Castle

Château de Chinon

Forteresse royale de Chinon

On its spur above the Vienne, the fortress lines up three castles over three hundred metres, separated by dry moats dug under Philippe Auguste. Cross from one enclosure to the next by the bridges that replaced the drawbridges. It was here in 1429 that Joan of Arc came to find the Dauphin Charles, before relieving Orléans.

12 Village

Candes-Saint-Martin

Saint Martin died at Candes in 397, and the collegiate church built on this place of pilgrimage still impresses with the richness of its sculpture. Climb the path up the steep hillside to see the Vienne merge into the Loire. In the mid-19th century, artists came to paint these confluence landscapes.

13 Abbey

Fontevraud Abbey

Abbaye de Fontevraud

Take the time to pause in the abbey church before the effigies of Eleanor of Aquitaine, Henry II and Richard the Lionheart. Born in 1101 of the preaching of Robert of Arbrissel, the abbey placed monks and nuns under the authority of an abbess. A prison until 1963, it has regained the calm of its cloister and its Romanesque kitchen bristling with chimneys.

14 Castle

Château de Montsoreau

See its white tufa façades rise right at the edge of the Loire just downstream of where the Vienne joins it. Alexandre Dumas made it the setting of La Dame de Monsoreau, and Turner painted it in watercolour. Since 2016, its Gothic and Renaissance walls have housed a museum of contemporary art.

15 Museum

Château de Saumur

From the Loire, pick out this white château rising above the confluence with the Thouet, just as the Très Riches Heures depict it. From 1368, Louis I of Anjou turned the fortress into a palace-château with octagonal towers. Once a prison and then an arms depot, it has housed a museum since 1912.