LOIRE VALLEY SUMMER TOUR

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THIS TOUR WILL BE REPEATED IN AUGUST 2011 AND FULL DETAILS WILL APPEAR ON THIS WEBSITE AT THE END OF SEPTEMBER 2010

Here is what some of our clients thought about our 2010 tour:

"We had a really great time thanks to your arrangements and hospitality.Fantastic week, lots of great people and great location. We will look forward to seeing you on another tour".

Simon and Elizabeth, Bentley 3 Litre

"Rosemary and I would like to thank you for a superb holiday. Everything was wonderful,
it was a pleasure to be in such delightful company and it was really no hardship being with so many
foreign cars. The brief interludes at your property were especially enjoyable and made the whole event
quite unique.Thank you for all your care and attention to detail and your consequent hard work.We trust we behaved well enough to be allowed to attend on a future occasion."

John and Rosemary, Jaguar XK150S

"Many thanks for a lovely time and for your efforts in organising a memorable tour."

Raad and Nada, Mercedes SL55 AMG

"Gillian and I had a really great time, thanks to your excellent organisation, enthusiasm, and general bonhomie. The 'drinks at home' were an added bonus, and supplemented the outstanding facilities at Rochecotte. This was a really good tour for us to choose as an introduction, and we are sure we the shall repeat the idea some time in the future. The balance of chateaux, fabulous gardens, some great drives (particularly the one on Saturday to the coffee break at La Chartre sur Le Loir), and interesting landmarks was just perfect.We enjoyed everyone's company, and look forward to seeing you all on another venture some time."

Peter and Gillian, Jaguar XK8

"Gladys and I had a great time due to your excellent planning of the tour, the enjoyable company of all participants, the generously offered "drinks at your home" and, last but not least, the facilities at Chateau de Rochecotte. For sure you can count us in for some future Classic Car Tour and we look forward to meeting some of the participants once again."

Peter and Gladys, Mercedes SL 350

"I won't repeat that which everyone else has written, but I would certainly like to second their enthusiasm for the holiday. It was great to have the itinerary so well organised, enabling us to relax and enjoy, rather than worry and plan. We also really appreciated the effort behind the final product, such as the general literature/brochures, the pace notes nicely bound in a file and the commemorative plaque that now sits in front of me in my study. Many thanks Brian and I am confident that we shall meet again on another tour."

Roger and Janine, Mercedes SL 350 (Luxembourg)

"After this superb week in Loire with such a pleasant party and under a friendly but always on the ball organization you have assured to us all, we will not add
but confirm all the good marks the participants have unanimously expressed. We hope to meet up again soon with you on the Italian lakes tour and we hope to participate to some other event you will organize, sure to find friends we had the pleasure to make in this Loire Tour."

Giancarlo and Sandy, Porsche 911 Carrera (Switzerland)

"Fabulous trip"

Alec and Sonia, Porsche 996 C4S

"Thank you once again for a lovely tour we both enjoyed it immensely.Looking forward to the next tour !"

Gavin and Sally, JBA Falcon

"Maurice and I would like to thank you for such a well organised Tour, we really did enjoy it.The Hotel was lovely, food was excellent, and all the lovely places we vistited were beautiful.
A holiday is not a holiday without the lovely company and people you share it with, everybody was so friendly and fun to be with, also it was so nice of you to invite us all to your lovely home we had such good evenings there.Thanks once again and we hope to meet up again on another Tour in the future."

Maurice and Sheila MG TF

To see photos from our previous Loire Valley Summer Tours please click the links below
2010 Photos
2009 Photos

 

 

Dates:	August 15th-21st 2010 7 days/6 nights
Cost:	£1,495 per person based on £1 =1.10€ 1,645€ per person fixed

7-day tour of the beautiful Loire Valley with accommodation throughout in a sumptuous 4 star Chateau hotel.We start with an overnight ferry crossing to St. Malo and travel down to the Loire Valley via Vitre a charming medieval town and the Le Mans motor museum which is next to the Le Mans 24 hours race circuit.We then continue south to the Loire valley where our hotel for the next 6 nights, a stunning four star chateau hotel, formerly the home of Prince Talleyrand, is based, less than a mile from the river Loire itself.Over the next 6 days we visit impressive chateaux, fascinating museums,beautiful gardens, atmospheric wine caves and other places of interest driving on scenic backroads in this beautiful region.Our return afternoon ferry is via Caen to Portsmouth.

Itinerary

Saturday, August 14th overnight ferry from Portsmouth to St. Malo, leaves Portsmouth at 8.30pm

Day 1 - Sunday August 15th,(approx 220 miles)

Arrive in St Malo at 8.35am on overnight ferry from Portsmouth. Our route takes the pretty coastal road around Pointe du Grouin to Port Mer an idyllic, secluded bay just north of Cancale where we enjoy breakfast, ( see photos immediately below).

 

 

 

 

Our scenic route continues eastwards along the bay of Mont St Michel to Pontorson where we turn south and head down to Vitre a charming medieval town and our lunch stop.In the afternoon we head east to Le Mans for coffee and a visit to the famous Auto Museum next to the main entrance of the Le Mans 24 hours circuit.We then leave Le Mans and head south on scenic backroads and a great driving road to our sumptuous 4* chateau hotel, Chateau de Rochecotte ( click on words for link to their website), in St. Patrice in the Loire valley which will be our base for the next six nights, ( see photos middle and right below).

Day 2 - Monday, (approx 60 miles)

Our tour of the Loire valley commences with a drive west along the banks of the Loire which we then cross over onto a charming minor road to one of France's prettiest villages, Candes St Martin( see photo below left).Here we walk along the narrow streets to visit the wonderful 13th century church and then we drive up to the amazing panoramic viewpoint on a hill overlooking the village and the confluence of the rivers Loire and Indre.We then leave Candes and head to nearby Fontevraud,( see photo below right),where we can visit the largest and most remarkably intact medieval abbey in France Founded in the 12th century by a visionary itinerant preacher who established a community of Benedictine monks,nuns,nobles, lepers,repentant prostitutes and vagabonds the eclectic mix of residents must have worked, as under the rule of an abbess, female aristocrats came to live in Fontevraud to escape or to reject a life of materialism.Eleanour de Aquitaine,queen of Henry 11 of England, was one famous female who sought sanctuary here and her remains and those of her son, Richard the Lionheart, rest here, (see middle photo above).We then drive to Montreuil Bellay where, after coffee we visit the amazing rennaisance chateau.After Montreuil we drive to nearby Breze where we stop to visit the fascinating troglodyte/cave chateau built underneath the conventional chateau with the deepest dry moat in Europe at 40 metres.Continuing on scenic backroads we drive back to the river Loire via the picturesque," fairy tale" Chateau of Usse,( see photos with red MGF and MGB on bridge below),overlooking water meadows and the river Indre. Its romantic white turrets, pointed towers and chimneys were the inspiration for Charles Perrault's story the Sleeping Beauty. We then continue along the banks of the Indre on a wonderful winding quiet river road to Langeais where we cross the Loire,( see Langeais bridge above left) and drive 5 miles back to our hotel Chateau de Rochecotte in St.Patrice, ( see photos above right and middle).

Day 3 - Tuesday, (approx 60 miles)

In the morning we drive to nearby Bourgueil where there is a traditional country market.We then visit Saumur our lunch stop, see middle photo above, where we can enjoy a stroll around the medieval streets.After lunch we visit the wine caves of Bouvet Ladubay a sparkling wine producer followed by a visit to a fascinating "tank museum" housing the world's greatest collection of military tanks. After leaving Saumur we stop to visit Turquant, a Troglodyte village where we visit an unusual cave housing a museum "des pommes tapees" where "dried apple slices " are still made in the old fashioned way.After this we return to our hotel in St. Patrice in time to relax by the pool

Day 4-Wednesday, (approx 120 miles)

 

Today we visit the world famous Chateau Chenonceau, approximately 50 miles to the east .Our route takes us via Azay le Rideau, ( see Chateau above left),along quiet country roads to Chenonceaux where we visit the amazing chateau which is constructed over the river,( see photo above right).After our visit we then drive a few miles north to Amboise where we visit the "royal" Chateau of Amboise and also the nearby Chateau du Clos Luce where Leonardo de Vinci spent the last three years of his life as the king of France's engineer and friend.The chateau houses a museum dedicated to the great man's life and you can also stroll around the peaceful gardens which contain examples of his work.We then cross over the river Loire to the north bank and stop off at the Chateau de Valmer to visit their beautiful gardens.We then drive back to our hotel along the north bank of the river Loire through Vouvray and Tours.

Chateau Usse,the inspiration for the "Sleeping beauty" and featured in the film,"Rich man poor man"	Rochecotte Hotel: click to visit their site

Day 5 - Thursday, (approx 80 miles)

We drive a few miles west to Allonnes where we visit Parc Maupassant a wonderful garden belonging to the private Chateau de la Thibaudiere.From here we cross thr river Loire to Chinon our lunch stop.After lunch we can stroll around the charming streets of this medieval town and visit a nearby "Chinon " wine cave.In the afternoon we stop off to visit the beautiful gardens of the romantic Chateau Chatonniere, a private chateau nestling in a secretive valley, ( see photo below right).We then return to our hotel.

Day 6 - Friday, (approx 60 miles)

We drive to nearby Langeais our morning coffee stop where we can visit the chateau with its authentic contents and furniture and world class collection of tapestries.We then cross the river at Langeais and continue to the nearby Maurice Dufresne museum which has an amazing collection of mechanical exhibits including tractors, cars, tools, implements, guns and miscellaneous vehicles.We then head to Azay le Rideau where we visit the pretty chateau and enjoy a leisurely lunch in this charming town.After lunch we drive a few miles east on quiet roads to the Chateau of Villandry, the last great Rennaissance chateau built in the Loire Valley.Here we visit the world famous and magnificent gardens.Upon leaving Villandry we return to St.Patrice where at Chateau de Rochecotte we can relax by the swimming pool on the final day of our tour.

Day 7 - Saturday, (approx 200 miles)

We say 'au revoir' to the Loire Valley and head back to Caen for the afternoon ferry via scenic minor roads to La Chartre sur-le-Loir where we stop off at the Hotel de France the headquarters of the Aston Martin, Le Mans racing team in the 1950s and 60s. Over coffee you can browse through the nostalgic pictures of Le Mans legends that line the walls of this famous hotel. After coffee we head north to Alencon and on to Sees our lunch stop where we can visit the twin towered cathedral.. After lunch we continue north to Caen and the port of Ouistreham for our 4.30pm ferry to Portsmouth, (arrives Portsmouth 9.15 pm).

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