Loire Valley - France

[Shotochick]

So following on from Cuba @ Christmas, we are now doing Western France for Easter. Staying in a country house in Montguillon with old friends from Oz and London, as well as a few newer ones (9 of us at the house, plus 2 who are local).

It is about 30km from Angers, and looks nice and peaceful.

So the question - anyone know the area and have personal suggestions of things to do? I have some good ideas from googling, but would love personal input!

[veryfluffy]

Drink wine?

Personally I'm not a fan of sauvignon blanc (the main grape in the region), but Sancerre rose is wonderful!

[Snowy Owl]

The Loire is pretty famous for its castles.  If you research Loire Valley Chateaux you'll find a few.  My favourites are Chenonceau (gorgeous, used to belong to the mistress of one of the kings) and Villandry which has some amazing gardens

http://www.chateauvillandry.fr

http://www.chenonceau.com/en

Some of the others are nice too.

Tours is very pretty and a nice town to spend a day in as it's got a lot to see and do.  That's where I've stayed. 

In my view the Loire is somewhere that's rather nice to potter around slowly.  It's not the sort of place with a tick list of attractions that you can do in a very short space of time, it's the sort of place that's nice to linger in, spend leisurely days wandering around gardens and castles and poking in small towns with shops and sitting in cafes drinking chilled pastis on a warm day.