Our Blog - Loire Valley Trip, 2022

Another month, another vacation :-) Well, not really, we don't take a vacation EVERY month. But we did take a little over a week and head up to the Loire Valley. It was a combination trip of wine, châteaus, and smaller villages. We had seen some of the more famous chateaus, like Amboise, Chenenceau, and Chambord, so those we skipped this time.

As we tend to do, we break the longer drives up into a couple days with a stop in the middle somewhere. This time, we stopped at the town of Figeac before staying overnight near Limoges. We had toured Limoge before, so this was just an overnight stop.

Next day, we stopped by an interesting Oratory, the Oratoire de Germigny de Pres before settling in for a few days in the city of Orléans, made famous by Joan of Arc. The little villages nearby that we visited included Meung-Sur-Loire (only a couple pictures so included with the Chateau de Meun-sur-Loire below) and Beaugency.

I've tried to put the chateaus all together in one section here, even though we visited them on different days.

Here is something you don't see everyday. We were walking around some woods for our morning walk and ran across this, which seemed odd and somewhat new in the middle of the forest. This is a monument honoring the memory of two women who were members of the First Aid Nursing Yeomanry-Corps of field nurses who were the first female agents to parachute into France under the British Secret Service in 1942, and they landed here.

Our next big stop was in the city of Blois where we stayed a few days. Similar to Meung-sur-Loire, I have separated the blog for the city (this one) from the chateau (under the chateau section). The little villages nearby that we visited included Vendôme, Lavardin, and Amboise (just the town, not the chateau).

One last longer stay (3 nights) in the city of Tours along with visits to the smaller town of Saché and the Chateau de Villandry (above in the chateau section).

Some wine tasting was on the agenda next. We visited the town of Chinon, the town of Saumur, and Saint-Nicholas de Bourgueil to see the sights and do some wine tasting.

Then it was time to head towards home. We visited the Royal Abbey of Fontevrad and tried the local "Pommes Tapées in the "Petite cité de charactère" of Turquant. We made a quick stop at the village of Richelieu after it was recommended by a couple who was staying at our last B&B, before our last stop in at Angoulême.