Our next stop after the chateau in Vollore was to head to Saumur. We visited here when we cycled through the Loire Valley 18 years ago. Saumur is a fairly large town and has lots of shopping, hotels, cafes and such. We didn’t have much time in the town as the car trip from Vollore to Saumur was about 5 hours but our main purpose for coming to the Saumur area was to visit a chateau along the way and the mushroom museum and a second chateau the next day. I would have loved more time in Saumur. The clothing store selections looked amazing and much less hectic than shopping in Paris.
The Loire River is the longest river in France and the 170th longest river in the world. It measures 1,012 kilometers or 629 miles long and eventually drains into the Atlantic Ocean. It is quite lush all along it as it winds through towns and farm land and many chateaus can be found along its path. We got many glimpses of the river around Saumur and from the Chateau du Saumur which is a beautiful castle that sits atop the town.
The Loire Valley has been coined the Garden of France and is home to over 1,000 chateaux ranging in architectural character from medieval to late renaissance periods. The chateaux were originally built as strongholds in the divide between southern and northern France. Today many of them are privately owned and many are owned by the french government and opened as museums.
Croissants and Cafe au Lait 