Blois
Built by the Jesuits in the mid-1600s, this elegantly proportioned church has features typical of the Counter-Reformation. The classical façade is adorned…
Must-see attractions in The Loire Valley
Tours
This cloister, built from 1442 to 1524 – that's why it's partly Flamboyant Gothic and party Renaissance – is located on the north side of the Cathédrale…
Touraine
Built into a cave above and 500m east of town, this half-ruined Romanesque chapel – constructed around the tomb of a 6th-century hermit – is noteworthy…
Anjou
Founded in 1885, this winery specialises in Crémant de Loire (sparkling wine made using the Champagne-style méthode traditionelle) as well as non-bubbly…
The Loire Valley
About 50 Le Mans Prototype (LMP) cars are the star attraction at this automobile museum, whose oldest vehicles include a De Dion-Bouton (1885) and a…
Blois
Although Gothic in style, most of this cathedral (including the nave) was rebuilt after a terrible storm in 1678. The stained glass, bearing enigmatic…
Anjou
Domaine Filliatreau offers wine tasting inside the cliff face. Bottles of organic Saumur Chamipgny wines, some grown atop the nearby cliff, cost €8.60 to …
Anjou
Action-packed oil paintings, colourful but impractical uniforms, plumed helmets and old photos trace the history of France's cavalerie (cavalry) from 1445…
Anjou
Tufa-stone sculptures of 20 of the Loire Valley's most famous monuments, from Tours' cathedral to the château at Amboise, are displayed in a former tufa…
Anjou
Restored, cleaned and stabilised in 2016, this mostly 12th- and 13th-century church brings together Aquitaine-style Romanesque and Plantagenet (Anjou…
The Loire Valley
At this Merovingian-era mine, stone coffins were produced from the 5th to the 9th centuries and exported all over western France. Tours, in French with…
Blois
The façade of Maison des Acrobates, one of the few surviving 15th-century houses in Blois, is decorated with wooden sculptures of figures from medieval…
Touraine
This impressive, 17th-century town house has a double-horseshoe staircase you can see from the street through a carved gateway.
Orléans
Depicting St Joan atop a prancing steed, this huge bronze statue (1855) by Denis Foyatier is in the centre of place du Martroi.
Tours
Built from 1896 to 1904, Tours' monumental city hall was designed to project both republican values and municipal prestige.
Tours
One of the last vestiges of Tours' 13th-century, Romanesque Basilique St-Martin.
Touraine
The Gothic Palais du Bailliage was once the residence of Chinon’s bailiwick. Now houses a seasonal hotel.
Touraine
This wine estate has a wine museum and offers tastings; the ridge-top château is not open to the public.
Tours
Built in the 1840s, Tours' neoclassical courthouse has an imposing colonnade facing place Jean Jaurès.
Tours
Most of this Gothic church, once part of a Benedictine abbey, dates from the mid-1200s.
