Wild Plant Foraging in the Loire Valley

Man has lived in the Loire Valley for tens of thousands of years, and one of the reasons is that the natural landscape provides so much -- abundant fresh water, forests full of game, and a wide variety of plants and fungi which are edible or medicinal. The climate then and now is temperate, and there are the raw materials for making everything you need in life -- flint and clay in prehistoric times; wool, hemp, limestone and iron in medieval times. Recently there has been an upsurge in interest in wild foraging for edible plants, and based on our own knowledge, and working with partners, we are able to offer special opportunities for workshops and experiences in wild foraging in the Loire Valley. Places are limited, dependent on seasonal conditions and tours which include this element are highly customised.

 

Wild Strawberries, foraged by us in the Loire Valley.

 

Let us know if you would be interested in foraging for pungent wild garlic, delicate wild strawberries or other wild delicacies according to season, and we will see what we can arrange.

 

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For details of our private guided tours of chateaux, gardens, wineries, markets and more please visit the Loire Valley Time Travel website. We would be delighted to design a tour for you.

We are also on Instagram, so check us out to see a regularly updated selection of our very best photos. You may also like to check out our YouTube channel. 

A Review From Ted

Ted and Maura, clients from Boston celebrating their wedding anniversary, were not feeling on top form when Olivier and I picked them up last July. But with some last minute adustments to their tour we still managed to show them what they wanted to see. Ted very kindly left us a review:

"Susan is a fantastic tour guide! Plus we toured in her 50s era Citroen. How fun."

Maura, Ted, Claudette and Olivier outside the restaurant in Cour Cheverny.

 

And the next day they were off to attend the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games in Paris. They certainly were packing in the highlights! 

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For details of our private guided tours of chateaux, gardens, wineries, markets and more please visit the Loire Valley Time Travel website. We would be delighted to design a tour for you.

We are also on Instagram, so check us out to see a regularly updated selection of our very best photos. You may also like to check out our YouTube channel. 

Servicing Our Classic Cars in the Loire Valley

When our specialist mechanic Dominique discovered that some nuts on the front transmission drive universal joint on Claudette had worn and were allowing some movement we immediately asked him to replace them with new bronze nuts. It is important to keep on top of maintenance like this in old cars and often quite simple actions like this make a big difference to how the cars drive. And of course it is imperative to keep the cars safe! If you love old cars, we'd love you to book a tour with us.

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For details of our private guided tours of chateaux, gardens, wineries, markets and more please visit the Loire Valley Time Travel website. We would be delighted to design a tour for you.

We are also on Instagram, so check us out to see a regularly updated selection of our very best photos. You may also like to check out our YouTube channel. 

A New Science Exhibition at the Chateau of Chenonceau

The Chateau of Chenonceau has a new permanent exhibition. It has become the custodian of an extraordinary collection of over 40 scientific instruments and pieces of laboratory equipment that once belonged to Louis-Claude Dupin de Francueil.

It seems Dupin de Francueil had ambitions to be admitted to the French Academy of Sciences, but nothing seems to have come of it. He took chemistry lessons with Academician Guillaume-François Rouelle in Paris and commissioned his assistant Rousseau to write a book to popularise science, but it remained unfinished.

These activities were fashionable in France at the time and some important science came out of private laboratories such as the one at Chenonceau. But further than the science, the instruments in this collection are of a very high quality, and reflect the refined style of French objects from the time of Louis XV. Only the collection of the Conservatoire des Arts et Métiers in Paris rivals the one now at Chenonceau.

If you are interested in seeing this exhibition and hearing the remarkable story of the collection's creation and how it comes to be at Chenonceau, then book a tour with us.

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For details of our private guided tours of chateaux, gardens, wineries, markets and more please visit the Loire Valley Time Travel website. We would be delighted to design a tour for you.

We are also on Instagram, so check us out to see a regularly updated selection of our very best photos. You may also like to check out our YouTube channel. 

A Gothic Jewelbox in the Loire Valley

For three years up until June last year the Chapelle Saint Hubert was closed to the public while it underwent a complete conservation restoration. Originally built for Charles VIII and Anne of Brittany, it is a masterpiece of 15th century Flamboyant Gothic architecture and sculpture, created by Flemish stone masons and carvers. The quality of the carving is exquisite and it now forms a fitting resting place for none other than Leonardo da Vinci.

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For details of our private guided tours of chateaux, gardens, wineries, markets and more please visit the Loire Valley Time Travel website. We would be delighted to design a tour for you.

We are also on Instagram, so check us out to see a regularly updated selection of our very best photos. You may also like to check out our YouTube channel. 

Maritime Graffiti in the Touraine Loire Valley

Boats of several sorts appear in graffiti all over the Loire Valley. The reason is the importance of the Loire as a highway for goods and people from prehistoric times to the 19th century. These informal sketches are often not easy to see unless you know where to look -- and that's where we at Loire Valley Time Travel come in. We can make sure you don't miss out on some of the most interesting historical graffiti. Some are primitive, some are truly artistic. All tell a tale of the Loire that we will make sure to pass on.

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.

Where Can You See Medieval Frescoes in the Loire Valley?

There are some outstanding examples of medieval frescoes in the Loire Valley, and if you are interested in seeing some we can include a visit to a painted church or chapel in your itinerary, as well as seeing a couple of the chateaux the area is famous for. Despite their quality and historic interest, the frescoes of the Loire Valley are not well known and not on the major tourist routes. You will learn how to interpret the images, how they were created and what their purpose was.

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For details of our private guided tours of chateaux, gardens, wineries, markets and more please visit the Loire Valley Time Travel website. We would be delighted to design a tour for you.

We are also on Instagram, so check us out to see a regularly updated selection of our very best photos. You may also like to check out our YouTube channel. 

Learn About Stone Conservation in the Loire Valley

We always try to show clients how the heritage of the Loire Valley is maintained by professional conservators, curators, architects and artisans. Wherever possible we try to offer a behind the scenes look at how the famous chateaux are managed so they can continue to receive visitors. A good example is our encounter with a young stone conservator working on the repair of the iconic carved limestone stag from the frieze of the beautiful Chapel of Saint Hubert. She was very happy to tell our clients what she was doing, what had caused the damage in the first place and how she would repair it. In this photo she is showing us how the stag's head would go back together again.

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For details of our private guided tours of chateaux, gardens, wineries, markets and more please visit the Loire Valley Time Travel website. We would be delighted to design a tour for you.

We are also on Instagram, so check us out to see a regularly updated selection of our very best photos. You may also like to check out our YouTube channel. 

Learn About Medieval Manners in the Loire Valley

Jean Fouquet is without question the greatest French artist of his day. At the 15th century court of the French King Charles VII, based in the Touraine Loire Valley he painted stunning portraits of the Royal Family, and their close friends and associates. One such painting is of Etienne Chevalier, the King's right hand man. Although we only have a copy of the painting (the original is in Berlin) we can see something about Etienne that betrays something about his table manners. If you are intrigued and want to know what to look for in this painting, make sure you book a tour with us that includes the charming small town of Loches. It may be off the tourist trail but it is packed with history. (And Etienne's table etiquette isn't the only intriguing detail visible in this painting...)

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For details of our private guided tours of chateaux, gardens, wineries, markets and more please visit the Loire Valley Time Travel website. We would be delighted to design a tour for you.

We are also on Instagram, so check us out to see a regularly updated selection of our very best photos. You may also like to check out our YouTube channel. 

Traces of the Second World War in the Loire Valley

Although the Loire Valley was mostly not in the thick of the conflict during the Second World War, at both the end and the beginning of the War there was enough active combat to be really frightening for the local residents. Traces of this fighting are easy to see, but only if you know what you are looking for, and it is one of the things we will make sure we point out to you if you book a tour with us.

The house on the right has bullet ricochet marks on its gable end.

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For details of our private guided tours of chateaux, gardens, wineries, markets and more please visit the Loire Valley Time Travel website. We would be delighted to design a tour for you.

We are also on Instagram, so check us out to see a regularly updated selection of our very best photos. You may also like to check out our YouTube channel. 

What to Buy as Souvenirs and Gifts From France

Because food is such a big part of French life this is always a good choice for gifts and souvenirs. But you need to find something that will survive being packed in a suitcase and doesn't need refrigeration or protection (and will be allowed back in to your home country). We have a few suggestions that might surprise you. They are all icons of French cuisine, won't cost very much, and will travel well. 

Have you thought about mustard, vinegar or sardines? 

 

Mustard probably crossed your mind...Dijon style mustard is after all known throughout the western world. Try to get one from a small artisanal producer who uses French sourced ingredients and doesn't export.

Vinegar? What's so special about vinegar? Well you need to seek out the special vinaigre d'Orléans, now made by only one factory (Martin Pouret) but once the source of vast fortunes for certain 19th century businessmen. It is the French equivalent of the better known Italian balsalmic vinegar of Modena.

And sardines? Yes, you read that right. Sardines. The premium sardines come in colourful tins designed by contemporary artists and have a vintage, just like the finest wines. And they make a great souvenir because once you've eaten the contents, the tin makes charming decorative object and talking point.

If you take a tour with us we will be very happy to include a visit to an épicerie fine (high end grocers) who specialises in French regional products. Just let us know you'd like to buy some sardines for your friends back home...We and the staff in the shop can advise about the products on offer. 

 

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For details of our private guided tours of chateaux, gardens, wineries, markets and more please visit the Loire Valley Time Travel website. We would be delighted to design a tour for you.

We are also on Instagram, so check us out to see a regularly updated selection of our very best photos. You may also like to check out our YouTube channel. 

Fangirling it in the Loire Valley

This is our Franco-American client Sophie. She's an ardent and lifelong fan of the Rolling Stones, and this really is Mick Jagger's front gate. Normally we point it out, but we don't stop there, but Sophie insisted! 

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For details of our private guided tours of chateaux, gardens, wineries, markets and more please visit the Loire Valley Time Travel website. We would be delighted to design a tour for you.

We are also on Instagram, so check us out to see a regularly updated selection of our very best photos. You may also like to check out our YouTube channel. 

A Review From Peter

Peter and Carlos were terrific clients, and I greatly appreciate them taking the time to write one of the best  reviews I've ever had:

"Outstanding tour of the Château Royal d’Amboise, the town of Amboise and the Église Saint-Denis. Susan is a wonderful guide - knowledgeable, entertaining, charming and kind. She is the best!"

They were greatly taken by this beautiful blowsy rose in the grounds of the Chateau Royal d'Amboise. That's Peter in the background taking a photo of one of the other plants of it.

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For details of our private guided tours of chateaux, gardens, wineries, markets and more please visit the Loire Valley Time Travel website. We would be delighted to design a tour for you.

We are also on Instagram, so check us out to see a regularly updated selection of our very best photos. You may also like to check out our YouTube channel. 

Instagrammer Watching in the Loire Valley

Instagrammers are a strange young breed apart as far as most of our clients are concerned. They are mostly old enough to be the Instagrammer's grandparents, and find their behaviour a bit vulgar. Happily, the Loire Valley is not infested with extreme Instagrammers posing ludicrously and pushing ordinary visitors out of the way. So when we encounter one we can treat it as part of the entertainment and enjoy the show. Like others in the room we proceeded to take our own doubtless inadequate photos of the proceedings for later posting on social media. This young woman had sensibly timed her arrival at Chenonceau on a busy day in May for the very late afternoon, when most visitors have gone home. Despite having a team of photographer, director, and a bloke we dubbed 'The Handbag Wrangler', she did not cause a scene or any inconvenience to anyone else. She was also wearing a classier outfit than a lot of them that we've seen. Properly professional we'd say.

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For details of our private guided tours of chateaux, gardens, wineries, markets and more please visit the Loire Valley Time Travel website. We would be delighted to design a tour for you.

We are also on Instagram, so check us out to see a regularly updated selection of our very best photos. You may also like to check out our YouTube channel. 

Staying in a Chateau in the Loire Valley

Lots of people want to stay in a chateau when they visit the Loire Valley and one of the newest options and the most luxurious is Chateau Louise (de la Vallière), at Reugny, near Amboise. It has been restored and converted into a hotel with the utmost good taste and sympathy for the historic building. Hidden away (genuinely not straightforward to find) it provides the most tranquille and comfortable location for a break imaginable. You will need a car though, or to book a tour with us if you don't want to drive to explore the surrounding UNESCO World Heritage area.

Claudette, leaving Chateau Louise after a happy day touring with a Franco-American family.

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For details of our private guided tours of chateaux, gardens, wineries, markets and more please visit the Loire Valley Time Travel website. We would be delighted to design a tour for you.

We are also on Instagram, so check us out to see a regularly updated selection of our very best photos. You may also like to check out our YouTube channel. 

 

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Chateau Louise's website: https://www.chateaulouise.com/en/

 

Other chateau hotels in the Touraine Loire Valley -- Domaine de la Tortinière, Chateau des Arpentis, Chateau de Pray, Chateau de Perreux, Chateau d'Artigny, Chateau de Noizay.

Lunch with France of a Lifetime

We work with France of a Lifetime tours [link] to provide customised experiences for our mutual clients. Naturally every now and then it makes sense for us to get together to share ideas and nuture our relationship. Lunch in Loches is a good way to do that, and to familiarise Mallory and Ben with one of the restaurants we use with clients (in this case, Le George). 

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For details of our private guided tours of chateaux, gardens, wineries, markets and more please visit the Loire Valley Time Travel website. We would be delighted to design a tour for you.

We are also on Instagram, so check us out to see a regularly updated selection of our very best photos. You may also like to check out our YouTube channel.