Tuesday 8 February 2011

Why we don't collect you in Paris

There are some tours which will collect you from your hotel in Paris, take you to the chateaux of the Loire Valley, and return you to Paris. We are not one of them.

It takes at least 2½ hours to drive from Paris to Tours by motorway. Using Célestine it might take three, or even four hours, depending on traffic. Usually our clients are with us for ten or eleven hours, which allows time for visiting a couple of chateau (and having time to explore), a decent lunch break, and a visit to a winery. Adding at least six hours to that would make a very long (and tiring) day.

We recommend to our visitors that they come to us using the French train system, more particularly the very fast train (TGV). This train travels from Paris Montparnasse to St Pierre des Corps (the main station for Tours) at 300km/h (186mph) and takes about an hour to do the trip. We can't book your rail tickets for you, but we will give you a handy guide to make the process easy. If you book early enough, the tickets can cost less than €20 per person each way.

If you would like to mix a 1950's car travel with a futuristic train trip, contact us.