| Tip | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Type | Name | Description | Service Provider | Cost | Notes | ||
| General Info | Blois Old Town | Blois | $0.00 | ||||
| General Info | Chartres Cathedral (side trip) | $0.00 | Time permitting, do we want to split the return to Paris over two days and stop in Chartres? I'd love to see it again, and it has an amazing cathedral. There's a train, but not direct - there's one change. Length of trip looks like 3-4 hours. Continuing on to Paris we can go to Montparnasse and transfer onto RER B, or to Versailles (about 1 hour). | ||||
| General Info | Circuit 1 | $0.00 | Partly using the great Loire à Vélo cycle route, this cycling circuit of 2 to 3 days takes you to the delights of the Sud Saumurois area, notably its startling caves hidden across the plain here. The village of Rochemenier conceals a museum on the subject, in subterranean farms. The cycling circuit guides you through countryside peppered with distinctive quarries, cellars, old farms and hamlets. From Saumur to Gennes, take in typically glorious Loire-side villages. | ||||
| General Info | Circuit 2 | $0.00 | Taking you from the Loire to the Thouet Valley, this circuit passes by amazing subterranean sights in the Sud Saumurois area. Visit the Troglodytes de la Sablière, its caves concealing elaborate carvings in the rock, or the Bioparc de Doué la Fontaine, the world’s only subterranean zoo! Continue through fine vineyards to sleepy Le Puy-Notre-Dame, with a grand church. The Thouet Valley, its limestone villages and the fortified town of Montreuil Bellay crowned by a medieval castle count among other sights to relish on this 2 to 3 day trip. | ||||
| General Info | Giant Guitar | 30km south of Nantes at Clisson | Hellfest | $0.00 | |||
| General Info | Goussainville | Ghost town near CDG | $0.00 | ||||
| General Info | Maison de la Magie | Blois | $0.00 | This museum of magic occupies the one-time home of watchmaker, inventor and conjurer Jean Eugène Robert-Houdin (1805–71), after whom the American magician Harry Houdini named himself. Dragons emerge roaring from the windows every half-hour, while inside the museum has exhibits on Robert-Houdin and the history of magic, displays of optical trickery, and several daily magic shows. | |||
| General Info | Musée des Beaux-Arts | Orléans | $0.00 | Orléans’ five-level fine-arts museum is a treat, with an excellent collection of Italian, Flemish and Dutch paintings (including works by Correggio, Velázquez and Bruegel) as well as a huge collection of work by French artists such as Léon Cogniet (1794–1880), Orléans-born Alexandre Antigna (1817–78) and Paul Gauguin (1848–1903), who spent some of his youth here. Other rare treasures include a set of 18th-century pastels by Maurice Quentin de la Tour and a self-portrait by Jean-Baptiste Chardin. | |||
| General Info | Musée du Compagnonnage | Tours | $0.00 | This extraordinary museum – an absolute gem! – spotlights France's renowned compagnonnages, guild organisations of skilled craftspeople who have created everything from medieval cathedrals to the Statue of Liberty. Dozens of professions – from carpentry to saddle-making to locksmithing – are celebrated here with items handcrafted from wood, wrought iron, bronze, stone, brick, clay and leather; standouts include exquisite wooden architectural models of elaborate towers and a miniature wrought-iron gate that took 14 years to make. | |||
| General Info | Place du Martroi | Orleans | $0.00 | Just love this Place!! | |||
| General Info | Souzay-Champigny | Between Tours and Angers | $0.00 | Medieval village, cave town | |||
| General Info | Van Gogh, La nuit étoilée | $0.00 | |||||
| General Info | Versailles | $0.00 | Train options to Versailles: either from Orleans, or from CDG. | ||||
