Happy New Year 2022

We would like to wish all our supporters and travellers a Happy New Year, full of good health, good company and good food.

The Hanging Signs of Loches in the Loire Valley

 One of the charming features of the old centre of the medieval town of Loches are artisan made painted metal hanging signs above many of the shops. Each of them is unique and a quirky take on the goods sold within. You could easily spend a couple of hours on the trail, photographing them all. When we take you to Loches we'll be sure to point out the really good ones to you.

 

To enquire about our private guided tours of chateaux, wineries, markets and more email us or use our contact form. More tour ideas can be found on the Loire Valley Time Travel website.

Christmas in the Loire Valley

Travellers often ask us what we do at Christmas time. Every few years we go to Australia to spend Christmas with our families, but more often than not we spend Christmas in France. We will do like the French and have some of the specially grown oysters from the Atlantic coastal salt marshes directly to our west; we will buy a fresh foie gras from a local producer and prepare it ourselves; Christmas lunch might be a guinea fowl or a haunch of venison; and dessert a traditional yule log from our village patisserie. After lunch we will meet friends and visit a chateau (several are open on Christmas day and it is an increasingly popular outing). Sparkling Vouvray wine will be consumed at several points during the day. Boxing Day is not a thing in France, so it's not officially a holiday, but many people take the whole period between Christmas Eve and New Year off work so there is a holiday atmosphere.

Mini yule logs in our local patisserie.

Merry Christmas everyone!  To enquire about our private guided tours of chateaux, wineries, markets and more email us or use our contact form. More tour ideas can be found on the Loire Valley Time Travel website.

Costume and Textile Tours of the Loire Valley

The Loire Valley is home to some unique embroidery styles, such as Broderie Richelieu and Jour d'Angle. I have a lifelong interest in textiles and costume and would be delighted to create a custom half day tour to visit sites that have good embroidery, tapestry or costume collections. We might even be able to visit a working artisan. Please contact me to ask what would be possible.

19C Tourangeau bonnet, collection of the museum in Preuilly sur Claise.

To enquire about our private guided tours of chateaux, wineries, markets and more email us or use our contact form. More tour ideas can be found on the Loire Valley Time Travel website. If you would like an idea of how your tour might look and sound, please check out our YouTube channel.

Domaine de Candé in the Loire Valley

A renaissance chateau with a fascinating 20C story.

 

Front entrance of the Chateau de Candé.

The Chateau of Cande is not well known, even amongst the locals, but I have come to know and love it better than most. Built by the same family as the world famous Chenonceau, it is nonetheless its 19th and 20th century owners who have proved the most interesting. I will reveal the story of a forgotten Franco-Irish-Cuban family, the Drake del Castillos, who spent their time in gentlemanly scientific pursuits, politics and the arts, tastefully doubling the size of the chateau. After them came an enigmatic French-American owner, Charles Bedaux, a gadget geek who modernised the chateau with running water and telephones. His role in the Second World War is deeply ambiguous and he certainly had some very dodgy business contacts. He and his American wife Fern Lombard made the chateau available for the wedding of the newly abdicated Edward VIII to the divorced American Wallis Simpson, so there is lots of controversy surrounding that which I will talk about. Lombard is now forgotten, but in her day was regularly voted one of the top 10 most glamorous women. 

The rare Skinner house organ in the library.

  

Itinerary
*meet at the visitor centre of the Domaine de Cande.
*visit the stables briefly.
*visit the interior of the chateau, to see the very rare authentic 16C rooms, rare 19C Tours silk wall coverings, very rare working house organ and Erard player piano, graffiti by Edward and Wallis, early 20C home gym, and bathrooms from between the Wars and a collection of Wallis Simpson's clothes.
*emerge from the chateau and take a turn around the exterior, checking out the sites used for the Windsor's wedding photos, and surveying the lawn for wild orchids (in May and June).
*the tour ends back at the visitor centre, after which you may choose to take a walk in the extensive estate independently.

 

View from the terrace.

This tour can be customised -- for example it can be extended to include lunch in a nearby workers restaurant and/or a chauffered tour where you are picked up and dropped off at your hotel in or near Tours in one of our classic Citroen cars. Just ask me what is possible. (The chauffeured tour is limited to 2 people. ) 

The grounds have some unique playground equipment, like these mechanical horses.

 

Duration: 2 hours.

Original early 16C dining room ceiling.

 

 This is a walking tour. The chateau is not accessible to wheelchair users, as there are several narrow spiral staircases.   

The drawing room, decorated by the Drake del Castillo family.

 

 Price: €150 for groups of up to 4 people. Admission tickets are not included.

The back of the Chateau de Candé.

 

Booking: email admin@tourtheloire.com at least one day before you wish to take the tour. Tours can be conducted Wednesday-Sunday, in April-June and August-October.

Fern Lombard Bedaux's bathroom.

 

About the Guide: I am Susan Walter. I specialise in story telling, the weaving together of this fact and that, this character and their relationship with another. It is a technique which brings alive the history of what is sometimes just stones to look at, but those stones may lead to something wonderfully evocative and provide a better understanding of the past. Much of the history of the Loire Valley is about important characters which you will have heard of, but there is a great deal of hidden history too -- characters who have been forgotten in modern times, motivations for deeds which seem inexplicable can become clear, how different life was then, but also how similar. If you want to know who would graffiti a royal chapel and why, and why it isn't who most guides will tell you it is, then take a tour with me. If you want to know about the history of bathing and personal hygiene, and how that isn't quite what you think it is, then take a tour with me. If you want to meet fascinating characters from history who really made a difference, often women, then take a tour with me.

The back of the Chateau of Candé.

 

English speaking, born and raised in Australia, I lived for 12 years in England, where I worked for the National Trust in their Historic Buildings Conservation Department, and now in the UNESCO World Heritage Listed Loire Valley for more than a decade. I am an active heritage and nature conservation professional with experience of working with conservators and curators to care for historic objects and buildings, and with ecologists caring for our natural environment. Deeply embedded in the local scene I speak quite good French and enjoy life in a small village near some fabulous chateaux and lovely countryside. I'm always happy to talk about life in France and am friends with many wine makers and local food producers.

Renaissance Rivals in the Loire Valley.

Catherine de Medici, Queen of France, and Diane de Poitiers, the King's Mistress.

Chateau de Chenonceau.

 
Gain an insight into the lives of these two extraordinary women, both attached to King Henri II, but completely different in personality. I find much to admire in both of them, and they were both certainly survivors in a court full of intrigue and danger. I will love revealing their secrets to you -- from what products they used in their hair, to how they got men executed. The two women were in fact second cousins, but there was no love lost between them. There has been a trend for history lovers to side with one or the other of them, but I will show you that both have qualities we can admire. The more I learn about both of them the more I respect them. No other guides go into so much detail about how they changed attitudes to women for generations to come and what they teach us about what it was like to be a woman in 16C France. I'll also talk about how they manipulated their own images to suit their aims in what seems a very modern way. They are just two of the women who owned the Chateau of Chenonceau.  

Portrait of Catherine de Medici, collection of the Chateau Royal de Blois.

 

Itinerary
*meet at the Sphinxes halfway down the driveway of the Chateau of Chenonceau.
*go out onto the terrace where I will show you how each of them developed the chateau.
*go inside the chateau where we will see Catherine de Medici's private office, and other rooms on the ground floor where I will talk about various objects in the collection that bring their stories to life.
*if there is time we will go upstairs to the museum gallery and bedrooms.
*when the tour is over you will have the opportunity to visit the chateau independently -- there is a lot to see!

The stableblock at the Chateau of Chenonceau, commissioned by Catherine de Medici.

This tour can be customised to suit specific interests -- for example it could be extended to include a full guided tour of the chateau. Just ask me what is possible. 

Diane de Poitiers' garden at the Chateau of Chenonceau.

 

Duration: 1 hour.

The Chateau of Chenonceau spans the Cher River.

 

The tour is one hour, but you may explore the chateau independently afterwards.

Anteroom in Catherine de Medici's private apartments, Chateau of Chenonceau.

This is a walking tour. The paths at the Chateau of Chenonceau are compacted hoggin. The ground floor is wheelchair accessible. 

Catherine de Medici's garden, Chateau de Chenonceau.

 

 
Price: €75 for groups of up to 4 people. Admission tickets are not included.

The cutting and kitchen garden, established by Diane de Poitiers.

 

Booking: email admin@tourtheloire.com at least one day before you wish to take the tour. Tours can be conducted on any day of the week, throughout the year, at a time to suit you.

Diane de Poitiers built the bridge over the Cher, Catherine de Medici built the gallery over the top.

 

About the Guide: I am Susan Walter. I specialise in story telling, the weaving together of this fact and that, this character and their relationship with another. It is a technique which brings alive the history of what is sometimes just stones to look at, but those stones may lead to something wonderfully evocative and provide a better understanding of the past. Much of the history of the Loire Valley is about important characters which you will have heard of, but there is a great deal of hidden history too -- characters who have been forgotten in modern times, motivations for deeds which seem inexplicable can become clear, how different life was then, but also how similar. If you want to know who would graffiti a royal chapel and why, and why it isn't who most guides will tell you it is, then take a tour with me. If you want to know about the history of bathing and personal hygiene, and how that isn't quite what you think it is, then take a tour with me. If you want to meet fascinating characters from history who really made a difference, often women, then take a tour with me.

Portrait of Diane de Poitiers by Francesco Primaticcio, collection of the Chateau de Chenonceau.

English speaking, born and raised in Australia, I lived for 12 years in England, where I worked for the National Trust in their Historic Buildings Conservation Department, and now in the UNESCO World Heritage Listed Loire Valley for more than a decade. I am an active heritage and nature conservation professional with experience of working with conservators and curators to care for historic objects and buildings, and with ecologists caring for our natural environment. Deeply embedded in the local scene I speak quite good French and enjoy life in a small village near some fabulous chateaux and lovely countryside. I'm always happy to talk about life in France and am friends with many wine makers and local food producers.

Renaissance Armour 101 in the Loire Valley

The pinnacle of the armourers art in the 16th century.

Etched close style helmet, collection of the Chateau of Cheverny.

You will learn about the different styles of armour in this period, how it was made and how it was worn. The 16th century was the high point of armour glamour and effectiveness, and after which its use declined. But importantly, it is one of the sectors which kick started the Industrial Revolution. Armourers (or as their modern equivalent are now known, arms manufacturers) are always at the cutting edge of technology. The tour is intended for beginners who are interested in gaining an appreciation of a fascinating subject. Because it is only an hour, it gives you a chance to explore the chateau more fully at your own pace afterwards, and with a bit more insight into what you might see.

Etched armour, collection of the Chateau Royal d'Amboise.

I love to explain how armour functioned (there will be quite a lot of arm waving) and to myth bust all those 'facts' you thought you knew. You will leave the tour being able to amaze your friends when you can tell them whether a knight came from Nuremburg or Milan just by looking at his armour. A skill everyone needs, surely! 

Detail of etched armour, collection of the Chateau Royal d'Amboise.

Itinerary
*meet inside the chateau grounds. (Outside the café/toilets at the Chateau Royal d'Amboise, or outside the front door of the Chateau of Cheverny.)
*go directly to the room displaying suits of armour.
*look at different suits of armour and learn how to distinguish the different styles.
*once your armour tour is over you can explore the chateau independently at your own pace.

Arms room, Chateau of Cheverny.

 

This tour can be customised to suit personal interests or other locations. Just ask me what is possible!

Late 17C comb morion style helmet.

 

At the Chateau of Cheverny the tour can be extended to include a full guided tour of the whole interior of this very original 17C family home.

White armour with a close helmet and besagews, collection of the Chateau of Cheverny.

 

At the Chateau Royal d'Amboise it can be extended to include a guided visit to the extraordinary chapel of Saint Hubert (reburial site of Leonardo da Vinci, and so much more). 

 Gothic armour with bellows visor, collection of the Chateau of Cheverny.

 

Duration: 1 hour.

Detail of etched armour, collection of the Chateau of Cheverny.

 

 
The tour is one hour, but you may explore the chateau independently afterwards.

Chateau de Cheverny.

 

This is a walking tour. The armour in the collection of the Chateau Royal d'Amboise is accessible by wheelchair. The armour in the collection of the Chateau Cheverny is not accessible for wheelchair users.  

Chateau Royal d'Amboise.

 

Price: €75 for groups of up to 4 people. Admission tickets are not included.

Maximilian style armour with sparrow beak helmet, Royal Apartments, Loches.

Booking: email admin@tourtheloire.com at least one day before you wish to take the tour. Tours can be conducted on any day of the week, throughout the year, at a time to suit you.

Etched armour (possibly French, second half 16C), collection of the Chateau of Cheverny.

 

About the Guide: I am Susan Walter. I specialise in story telling, the weaving together of this fact and that, this character and their relationship with another. It is a technique which brings alive the history of what is sometimes just stones to look at, but those stones may lead to something wonderfully evocative and provide a better understanding of the past. Much of the history of the Loire Valley is about important characters which you will have heard of, but there is a great deal of hidden history too -- characters who have been forgotten in modern times, motivations for deeds which seem inexplicable can become clear, how different life was then, but also how similar. If you want to know who would graffiti a royal chapel and why, and why it isn't who most guides will tell you it is, then take a tour with me. If you want to know about the history of bathing and personal hygiene, and how that isn't quite what you think it is, then take a tour with me. If you want to meet fascinating characters from history who really made a difference, often women, then take a tour with me.

Maximilian style armour, collection of the Chateau Royal d'Amboise.

 

English speaking, born and raised in Australia, I lived for 12 years in England, where I worked for the National Trust in their Historic Buildings Conservation Department, and now in the UNESCO World Heritage Listed Loire Valley for more than a decade. I am an active heritage and nature conservation professional with experience of working with conservators and curators to care for historic objects and buildings, and with ecologists caring for our natural environment. Deeply embedded in the local scene I speak quite good French and enjoy life in a small village near some fabulous chateaux and lovely countryside. I'm always happy to talk about life in France and am friends with many wine makers and local food producers.

The Chateau of Chenonceau in the 19th and 20th Centuries.

Patriotism, scandal and heritage business savvy.

Early 20C cast iron range in the kitchen.

 
I'll begin the tour with Marguerite Wilson Pelouze, a wealthy and cultured Franco-Scot who acquired the Chateau in 1864. She succeeded in her aim of saving the Chateau, but the personal cost was high. By 1888 she was broke and her family embroiled in multiple scandals. Luckily for us, in 1913, the Menier family acquired the Chateau, and they still own it today. Learn about their innovative approach to owning the chateau, converting it to a hospital during World War I, and how they were early adopters of the modern idea of opening privately owned heritage sites to the public. Find out how they fund the necessary conservation work, what your entry fee covers and how important an attraction like this is in a small community.

The Chateau reflected in the Cher River.

This period of history is more or less ignored by guides, but it is only just beyond living memory, and very relatable for modern visitors. I love to share these intimate details of the lives of people who served France in the not so distant past and honor those who have been forgotten.

Servants dining room.

 

Itinerary
*meet at the Sphinxes halfway down the driveway in front of the chateau.
*view the chateau from the terrace.
*visit the interior ground floor (entrance hall, guardroom, chapel and long gallery).
*visit the kitchens.
*visit the hospital (in the stables).
*you will then have the opportunity to explore the chateau and grounds further at your own pace.

The owners of the Chateau are animal lovers and all staff get to help out with the resident animals.

 

This tour as a whole or partially, can be customized to fit your preferences - please inquire! For example, lunch at a nearby restaurant could be included, or a full guided tour of the chateau, introducing you to many other fascinating historical characters and past owners (most of them women). The art and furniture collection in the chateau is outstanding, and there are many secrets which only a guide can reveal. 

The Chateau employs two fulltime florists who provide the flower arrangements.

 

Duration: 1 hour 30 min.

Early 20C cast iron range in the basement kitchens, installed for the hospital.

 

 
If the chateau interior is very crowded the tour may take place in a different sequence to try and avoid the crowds.

Mid-20C stained glass in the chapel, installed after the original glass was destroyed in WWII.

 

 
This is a walking tour. The paths are tamped clay and gravel, the ground floor of the chateau and stables are accessible. The kitchens are only accessible via a rather steep staircase, often crowded.  

A sign for Chocolat Menier.

 

 
Price: €100 for groups of up to 4 people. Admission tickets are not included.

View of the front of the chateau.

 

Booking: email admin@tourtheloire.com at least one day before you wish to take the tour. Tours can be conducted on any day of the week, throughout the year, at a time to suit you.

Furniture in the kitchens up on concrete blocks during a period of high flood risk.

 

About the Guide: I am Susan Walter. I specialise in story telling, the weaving together of this fact and that, this character and their relationship with another. It is a technique which brings alive the history of what is sometimes just stones to look at, but those stones may lead to something wonderfully evocative and provide a better understanding of the past. Much of the history of the Loire Valley is about important characters which you will have heard of, but there is a great deal of hidden history too -- characters who have been forgotten in modern times, motivations for deeds which seem inexplicable can become clear, how different life was then, but also how similar. If you want to know who would graffiti a royal chapel and why, and why it isn't who most guides will tell you it is, then take a tour with me. If you want to know about the history of bathing and personal hygiene, and how that isn't quite what you think it is, then take a tour with me. If you want to meet fascinating characters from history who really made a difference, often women, then take a tour with me.

The Chateau spans the River Cher.

 

English speaking, born and raised in Australia, I lived for 12 years in England, where I worked for the National Trust in their Historic Buildings Conservation Department, and now in the UNESCO World Heritage Listed Loire Valley for more than a decade. I am an active heritage and nature conservation professional with experience of working with conservators and curators to care for historic objects and buildings, and with ecologists caring for our natural environment. Deeply embedded in the local scene I speak quite good French and enjoy life in a small village near some fabulous chateaux and lovely countryside. I'm always happy to talk about life in France and am friends with many wine makers and local food producers.