Gears, Grapes & Grandeur in the Loire Valley
- Anna and Aaron
- Jun 3
- 6 min read
Updated: Aug 20
Last summer, Aaron and I took the train from Paris down to Orléans with our bikes, then jumped on the Loire à Vélo path to start our picturesque tour filled with Châteaux, wine, old French towns, and the lush green French countryside. If you're particularly interested in wine touring by bike in France, make sure to checkout our trip to Sancerre as well!
We decided to try traveling in France in the middle of August, which we normally don't do because it's high tourist season. However, last summer was the year of the Paris Olympics, so all bets were off. It seemed like no one was following the normal vacation time frames and YOLO, as they say. When we arrived at the Paris Austerlitz train station, the first thing we noticed was other passengers with bikes. That's to be expected of course, the Loire Valley is famous for bike paths. However, it's worth mentioning that the officials were diligently checking for bike tickets. Thankfully, Aaron booked ours and we had ours printed out and attached to our bikes (this was overkill), but the train official didn't question us and waved us through without issue.
On the train, we hung our bikes on the designated bike racks and had a comfortable ride from there. The train ride took just over an hour to arrive at Orléans. When we arrived, we immediately got on our bikes and biked ~21 km to a small town called Meung-sur-Loire. We had an early lunch at a boulangerie and sat outside on the terrace, watching the life around us and listening to the church bells. It was one of those little iconic French moments we collect while living here.
We were surrounded by French countryside as we continued pedaling; passing the occasional cyclists and pedestrians. At one point, we rode by a nuclear power plant, which was super interesting for me to see in real life. Strangely, I don't recall ever seeing one in real life. It was like I was re-living my childhood fantasy of being in a Simpson's episode while also living my adult fear of Chernobyl. It was exhilarating in numerous ways. We rode the rest of the way to our hotel, La Clef des Châteaux, where we were greeted by a welcoming pool. It ended up being a full sunny day, so we were happy to be able to cool off and take a dip after the ride. The Vélo trail to get here was awesome. Especially for someone like me who prefers designated paths and isn't as comfortable as Aaron on roads.
The hotel we stayed in was cute and peaceful. Not a lot going on around it, but it's situated near Château de Chambord and also a Chambord biscuiterie + wine shop. It was perfect for what we were looking for. The hotel itself has a restaurant where we had breakfast and dinner. It's a very nice option if you're looking for a stop in Loire and want to see the Chambord castle—which I highly recommend. When we went to the castle, it felt crowded, and I think that's where we felt the summer vacation crowd the most during our trip. But the good news is the Château is so big and it has a huge parking lot specifically for bikes, so the crowds didn't bother us. We stood in line for maybe 15 minutes to get into the castle; it wasn't much of a nuisance.
*Note my fashionable bike short tan
After two nights, we set out on our bikes again but quickly got caught up in the rain. So we decided to only bike the 16 km to Blois and then take the train to Amboise. Had it been another sunny day out, we would have biked another 50 ish km to Amboise. When we arrived in Blois, we stopped at the riverside to recalibrate and figure out where the train station. And by "we" I mean Aaron. While he was fiddling with his GPS, I noted that the scenery looked like a brooding London fog. It was mystical in its own way.
The train to Amboise was easy enough, but we did have to take into account bike tickets on this one as well. Especially after seeing how much they were checking bike tickets in Paris, we wanted to be cautious. We ended up booking a slightly later train than we wanted, specifically because the earlier train had no more bike spots available! When we boarded the train, we immediately noted that all the bike spots were taken, indicating that perhaps not everyone had indeed booked their own bike spots. So we made do and sat with our bikes leaned up against the doors in one of the cars. It was fine, and it worked. When we arrived in Amboise, we biked into the city center, walked around for a while, trying to decide where we should grab some lunch and which place had the best bathroom to change out of some wet clothes.
After lunch, we started on the still rainy bike ride to our final Airbnb near Chenonceau. It was a very wet ride, but we made it. When we arrived, the owner let us in, and we were able to dry off. We stayed in a cute guest house and got to know the owner of the estate a little bit. The most interesting part of his story is that he bought and loves a Harley Davidson motorcycle, all because of the old movie Easy Rider with Peter Fonda. He happily showed it to me when I asked him more about it. This isn't the first time we've discussed the movie Easy Rider with an older French person. They seem to love the movie. I've been told it represents the ultimate freedom to have an open road surrounded by all the open space. Anyway, since it was raining and we had tickets to have dinner at the Orangerie at Château de Chenonceau that evening, the propriétaire offered to drop us off and pick us up from dinner. It was so unexpectedly nice of him, I had to make sure I understood his French a few times just to make sure I had it right that he was really offering to do that! It was a nice reminder that French people (especially outside of Paris) can be so kind and welcoming.
The Château de Chenonceau dinner was very fun—we enjoyed our food and wine. But what really blew me away was the magical nighttime garden walk we did after we finished dinner. They lit up the gardens with all their lights and put on music, specifically so all the after-dinner guests could explore in the wonderful evening ambiance. I highly recommend doing the Orangerie dinner + nighttime garden walk. We got tickets off their website just on a whim. Actually, I think Aaron found and planned that one, and I'll remember it as fondly as our summer evening at Château de Vaux-le-Vicomte.
The next day we packed up our stuff and biked back to Amboise. We had an evening train so we found some lunch and then a cute little place to taste some wines while we waited. The place was called Caveau des Vignerons d'Amboise - and it was built into a cave! They let us taste a few of the different wines (they're all local) and then we chose our favorite one to drink in their cave next to the tasting counter. They seemed to only speak French, but honestly, even if you don't speak French, it's worth it. The wines were delicious, and the ambiance was special. After we finished, we rode back to the Amboise train station, again found that all the bike space was taken, and rode the TER train back to Paris, with the bikes sitting next to us.
It was a wonderful trip; we could have easily made it longer, but part of the scheduling we did also let us not take any vacation from work. Even though we live in France and work on French contracts that include 5+ weeks of vacation, we still try to save vacation days for when it's truly necessary.
If you're looking for a nighttime Château experience closer to Paris, I recommend checking out our Château de Vaux-le-Vicomte post. This one can easily be a day trip from Paris, and in the summer, they offer evening tickets that include magical lit-up gardens. Highly recommended!
If you're looking for different French travel ideas, check out our bike trip and experience in Rouen during Christmas market season.
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