As a 100% Parisian family, and accustomed to the city’s great transportation system, neither my wife nor I have a car or a driving license, and we are also not very comfortable with bikes. Visiting some “remote” places (i.e., not really accessible via public transport) can be a challenge, as we have to synchronize our schedules with the few buses, trains, and opening hours when visiting different places.
Initial plans
We waited for public holidays (in April / May) to go to the Loire Valley, as it gave us a few more days, but some castles can be visited in a single day, or over a weekend without a problem. To avoid the weekend rush, we opted to start on a Monday for a 4 to 5 days trip, to end on a Thursday or Friday.
Choosing what to visit
We wanted to visit a mix of Loire castles and other places. Castle candidates were (yes, a lot):
The Blois Tourist Office offers a few Pass châteaux to get some discount if you plan on visiting several of them, like us. Most tickets are valid for the whole year, except for Chenonceau, where you have to schedule a time in advance.
Adding to that, we also wanted to spend some time in a few cities:
And for our daughter, a detour to the local Zoo de Beauval.
Transportation
Most of Centre-Val de Loire transportation is handled by Rémi. They offer some “all-inclusive” passes (Rémi Découverte) for 2 or 3 days on their network, some of them leaving from Ile-de-France (so Paris), via Rémi Découverte +. Be careful that it only works on transports (buses and trains) operated by Rémi, which means that other trains operated by Ouigo or Inoui are not included in this package.
For buses, Rémi has regular lines, as well as the Navette Chateaux leaving from Blois and going through a few castles.
Even if there are not a lot of buses, their schedule is aligned with train arrivals (usually from Paris), so it is quite convenient.
There are also some buses leaving from Paris to Blois, but with the Rémi pass and train schedules, it was less convenient.
Schedule
Based on the above, we settled on the following schedule (valid for end of April 2023):
- Monday: Chambord and Blois castles
- 7:37: departure from Gare d’Austerlitz, arrival in Blois at 9:00
- 9:15: bus to Chambord castle via the Navette Châteaux
- 13:10: back to Blois with the Rémi line 2. The bus stop is the same
- afternoon: visiting Blois castle
- stay in Blois for the night
- Tuesday: Beauval Zoo
- 9:15: bus from Blois train station to the Zoo, arrival at 10:15
- 17:20: back to Blois with the same bus, arrival at 18:20
- stay in Blois for the night
- Wednesday: Chenonceau castle and Tours
- 8:55: train leaving from Blois to Chenonceau (change at Saint-Pierre-des-Corps), arrival at 9:55, scheduled to enter the castle at 10:15
- 13:07: train to Tours to visit the city
- afternoon / evening: train to Angers, there are trains scheduled regularly
- stay in Angers for the night
- Thursday: Angers and its castle
- Leisurely (compared to the previous days) visit to Angers and its castle, including the famous Apocalypse Tapestry
- End of afternoon: back to Paris
The trip was a bit exhausting (better travel light), but we managed to pack everything into 4 days.
Resources
Summary of the resources I really used: