Visiting a Wine Boutique in the Loire Valley

Sometimes visiting a winery isn't possible on a tour for reasons of time or availability. But we can nearly always take you to a wine boutique, where you can learn about a variety of local wines, taste them and buy them. 

The Neapolitan Nativity Scene at the Chateau Royal d'Amboise

At Christmas time every year the Chateau Royal d'Amboise sets up its impressive Neapolitan  nativity scene.

Neapolitan churches have featured nativity scenes at Christmas time since at least the 11th century. At first the figures were made of polychrome painted and carved wood and were life size, stood in front of a painted background. After the 16th century the size had begun to reduce and the background began to be increasingly three dimensional panoramas of the City of Naples. With the 18th century Enlightenment and the Baroque style, the figures were put into secular locations, in wealthy private homes, and an attention to detail and hyper realism became a hallmark.

Ask Me Anything in the Loire Valley!

The chapel at the Chateau de Chenonceau is decorated in the most spectacular style at Christmas time. In December 2021 it was a large hanging wreath, suspended from chains coming through a neat hole in the ceiling. My clients wanted to know if the hole was original, or had been drilled in modern times just for the Christmas decorations. I was pleased to be able to tell them that the hole is entirely original, and would once have been how the rope for the bell was fed through so it could be rung. If you like to know small details like that, contact us and book a tour.

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.

A Top Tip for Getting the Best Out of a Guided Tour

If your tour includes a meal organised by the guide do make sure you mention if you have dietary requirements and be specific about them before you settle on an itinerary and book. The guide will take these into consideration when booking or recommending restaurants. 

Valencay cheese, one of the famous Loire Valley goats cheese.

 
In rural France particularly, restaurants often do not offer extensive a la carte menus, but daily changing seasonal limited choice set menus. Don't wait until you are seated in the restaurant to tell your guide that you are vegan, coeliac or lactose intolerant. That will be too late and the restaurant, no matter how sympathetic, may not be able to meet your dietary requirements in a way that you find satisfactory.

The ingredients in the kitchen on a daily basis will be limited and seasonal. Restaurants operate in this way because it is illegal, uneconomical, and disrespectful to waste food in France.  Most French diners in traditional French restaurants have grown up trusting the chefs in these places to produce a delicious meal. Almost everyone will choose the dish of the day. No one will request anything not on the menu, or that a dish is changed to suit them, unless they have diagnosed food allergies.

See the Sunflowers in the Loire Valley

This year will be a great year to come and see sunflowers in the Loire Valley. In April, many farmers responded to the shortage of sunflower oil we are currently experiencing by sowing extra hectares of sunflower seed. It is going to be glorious in July!

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.

The Lives of Medieval Women Tour in Loches

This one and a half hour introductory tour focuses on the lives of three significant women -- Joan of Arc, Anne of Brittany and Agnes Sorel. Anne and Agnes were typical in many ways, but also extraordinary, through circumstance and personality. And there is no question that Joan was extraordinary through and through. All died young, despite their many privileges. The tour takes place on the Royal Citadel of Loches, where both Anne and Agnes lived for a time, and Joan visited, in the 15C. 
 

Thanks to Gaynor for taking this nice picture of Lisa and I in Loches, during my Lives of Medieval Women Tour.

Learn what they ate, how they kept clean, what they wore, their role in society, their education and status.

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.

Shopping in the Loire Valley

The City of Tours, and smaller towns like Amboise, Azay le Rideau, Chinon, Blois and Loches have a nice selection of independent boutiques selling fashion (new and second-hand), lingerie, fashion accessories, leather goods, household linen, kitchenware, jewellery, cosmetics, wine, cheese, baked goods, art, antiques and flowers. If you would like to spend a half day shopping for unique gifts and souvenirs just let us know and we can plan an itinerary for you.

Creamery, selling cheese, ice cream and other dairy products, in Loches.

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.

Unexpected Juxtapositions in the Loire Valley

You never know what you are going to see in the Loire Valley. Turning up one day for a tour of the Chateau of Chambord with an American couple on a dull and drizzly day at the end of October, I came round the corner of the Chateau to discover the team from the Equestrian and Raptors Show in full costume and exercising their horses. Patrolling amongst them was a team of modern day soldiers. It was quite a startling sight. Chambord is owned by the State and is home to a troop of the Republican Guard, so it is very common to encounter mounted police in the grounds too. Everyone is super friendly though and I guess there is no need to worry about security in the grounds.

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.