Top 10 best chateaux to visit in the Loire Valley of France | Loire Valley Castles
The Loire Valley in France has an amazing concentration of some of the most beautiful castles in the world. There are more than 2,000 chateaux in the Loire Valley, but we have selected our favorite 10 Loire Valley chateaux to visit. Each of the castles is distinct and has something unique to offer. Whether you want to prepare for an upcoming trip in the Loire Valley in France and are wondering what are the things to see in the Loire Valley or what are the tings to do in the Loire Valley or you just want to learn more about the Loire Valley chateaux, this video includes lots of tips and anecdotes about the chateaux of the Loire Valley. Most castles of the Loire Valley have a renaissance style. But the Loire Valley also has some medieval castles and medieval fortresses with moats and keeps.
It features the Chateau of Chambord, the chateau of Chenonceau, the chateau and gardens of Villandry, the chateau of Cheverny, he chateau of Azay-Le-Rideau, the Royal chateau of Blois, the chateau of Amboise with a cameo of Leonardo Da Vinci's chateau of Clos-Lucé, Sleeping Beauty's chateau of Ussé, the chateau of Valançay, and the medieval castle of Sully sur Loire. We didn't have enough room for the chateau of Chaumont or the castle of Chinon, but these are also great castles to visit in the Loire Valley.
Music in the order of appearance:
Chateau of Chambord: Baroque Coffee House by Doug Maxwell, Media Right Productions
Chateau of Chenonceau: Gymnopedie N°1 by Erik Satie
Chateau of Villandry: English Country Garden
Marxist Arrow by Twin Musicom is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution license (creativecommons.org/licenses/...)
Artist: www.twinmusicom.org/
Chateau of Cheverny:
Carol Of The Bells by Audionautix is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution license (creativecommons.org/licenses/...)
Artist: audionautix.com/
Chateau of Azay-Le-Rideau: Waltz of the flowers by Piotr Ilitch Tchaïkovski
Royal Chateau of Blois:
Renaissance by Audionautix is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution license (creativecommons.org/licenses/...)
Artist: audionautix.com/
Chateau of Amboise: Nemesis by Albis
Chateau of Ussé: Invitation to the Castle Ball
Chateau of Valençay: Midsummer Night's Dream by Félix Mendelssohn
Medieval castle of Sully sur Loire: Renaissance Castle by Doug Maxwell, Media Right Productions
Thumbnail picture:
Par It is a derivative work of Ra-smit's photo. - Image:Chateau_de_Chenonceau_2008.jpg, GFDL, commons.wikimedia.org/w/index...
We also have individual videos for 6 of the 10 chateaux on this list, make sure you check them out: Villandry: kzhead.info/sun/asqckrCdml-DiZE/bejne.html Cheverny: kzhead.info/sun/gJxmfMiSaoSfq3A/bejne.html Blois: kzhead.info/sun/n9Gbe9qIloljoIE/bejne.html Ussé: kzhead.info/sun/iNuyk96SrJOIoHk/bejne.html Valençay: kzhead.info/sun/eJylitatrKOMqnA/bejne.html Sully: kzhead.info/sun/qauMiKefm4J7ank/bejne.html
I drove the beautiful valley 50 years ago . Great to see this
Glad you enjoyed it. We hope you get the chance to go back.
💞💞💞 for Loire Valley France .
💞 indeed.
Thank you for this, it's very helpful!
You're very welcome. Enjoy your trip!
Thank you for this wonderful video. We are traveling to the Loire and found this video so helpful!
Glad it was helpful! We hope you enjoy your trip.
Thanks very much. Trying to decide how many we can see in 5 days - this has helped! Merci beaucoup!
Glad it was helpful! If you're up for it, two a day is feasible, although you may want to take a break at some point.
You two are adorable! I enjoyed watching this video..
Thank you so much! We hope you get a chance to enjoy seeing these chateaux in person some day.
Very informative, and such beautiful places! Thanks for sharing.
Our pleasure! We hope you get a chance to go there in person some day.
Your videos show the perfect balance of the important historical facts and the amazing decorative element which are the main reasons we visit these unbelievable castles! Thanks a million for your efforts and the amazing results!!
Wow, thank you!
Perfect for my French II class in preparation for a project on one of the castles. Merci beaucoup!
You're very welcome. By the way, we have a French version of this exact same video on our French channel, if that helps. We also have stand-alone videos on six of the ten chateaux on the list: Blois, Cheverny, Sully, Ussé, Valençay, and Villandry. If your class project is on one of these six, you might want to check it out :).
Thanks, fantastic information and beautifully shot! You have helped with our planning.
Glad we could help. We hope you enjoy your trip. If you want to learn more, we made stand-alone videos about 6 of the 10 chateaux in this video.
Lovely! I so much would love to visit it!❤
We hope you get a chance.
wow didn`t expect so many chateaux in the Loire Valley . And this is just the top ten. so great architecturea nd every single one is unique. great selection . ncie video cheers
Hopefully, you'll get a chance to go someday 😊.
Such an amazing job at capturing all of this! ❤
Thanks 😉
Great video, you guys. I had never heard of half of these places but I really want to go there now.
Haha, each of them was very unique and had something different to offer 😋.
Great tips, thanks!!!
You are so welcome! We hope you enjoy your trip :).
Absolutely beautiful. Thank you for the tours 👍👍
Thanks for the thanks. As you may imagine, a lot of work goes into making these videos and it means the world to us when people watch them and enjoy them. All of these castles were our favorites, each for a different reason.
Visti 6 dei 10 . Sicuramente cercherò di vedere gli altri. Grazie comunque per le immagini meravigliose e i racconti molto interessanti. Complimenti.
6 out of 10 is great. We hope you get the chance to see the other 4 as well.
Epically beautiful vlog. Love watching you both.
We always say it's easier to make beautiful videos when you are visiting beautiful places and 90% of the work is already done before you even start filming 😉.
Fantastic! Great job. Thanks for sharing!
Your very welcome. It was one of our most fun videos to make.
Thank you for this. Beautiful and inspiring. Great help for planning our roadtrip 🥰
We're glad it was helpful. That's what we were going for 😁. But as we always say, it's easier to make beautiful videos when you're filming beautiful places. All we had to do was turn on our camera 🎥. We hope you enjoy your trip in the Loire Valley 🏰🏰🏰.
Thank you very much for the well structured and informative top 10 list. Not only did it help plan my visit to the Loire valley but was also fun to watch. Keep up the good and cool work!
Glad it was helpful! We hope you have a great time there 😍.
You guys have done an Awesome work in capturing the museums so wonderfully.. number 6 is my favourite.. looking forward to visiting there someday😀
We hope you get the chance to visit the Loire Valley, such a beautiful region and so many amazing castles.
Wow this castles is amazing!
Yes, all of them were in their own way :)
wow love the garden in Château de Villandry
So did we :).
Very nicely done. This video is really helpful for those who wants to visit France in coming days. Thanks for sharing .
Thanks :)
Very well done!!! I've visited all those castles many years ago and you really get the best of them!! Regards from Spain!
Thank you very much! As you might imagine, a lot of work goes into making these videos. We're glad people enjoy watching them :)
Super interesting and makes us want to travel even more if that's possible! Thanks guys, great job.
Glad you enjoyed it! Have you ever been to the Loire Valley?
@@JamesandLaurent yes, briefly and we're hoping to get over to do a tour with a stop at Chateau de lalande ( Chateau Diaries) but we have a few other trips planned first. A lazy tour through France is most certainly going to be booked right away.
Great!
Lovely video 📹 love these Châteaux s ❤️
Thanks for the compliment. As you might imagine, a lot of work goes into making these videos. We are always grateful when strangers somewhere in the world, find them, watch them, and enjoy them. We hope you get the chance to visit these chateaux some day.
No. 6 is the most interesting one. A mixture of different styles Gothic, Flamboyant style of King Louis the 12th, Classic etc. Watching your previous video and this one, i can fairly say the French have been very conscious about the Interior designing. Simply beautiful. Thanks for sharing.
The Loire Valley is a beautiful region and each castle was interesting in its own individual way :).
Wow! So beautiful 😍 It’s has to be a lot of wealth in France 🇫🇷 Those gardens are just amazing c/t
Yes, the Loire Valley is a beautiful part of France and all these castles are unique in their own individual way :)
Outstanding
Thanks. As you can imagine, a lot of work went into making this video. We greatly appreciate your comment 😍.
France is so beautiful :) great video !
France is beautiful indeed. Every time we go, we are in awe. Thanks for the compliments. A lot of hard work went into this one :).
Wow! This is great because I was actually planning a trip to the Loire Valley sometime soon so thanks for the information. I really think that the Chateaux de Villandry garden is just stunning. On my bucketlist! - Triple P c/t
We have a full video of Villandry coming up on Wednesday. Check it out :).
Beautifully photographed. I loved the conciseness of this video. I visited the Loire valley in August 1977 and saw four of the ten castles you commented on, including the first two on your list. I noticed that in comparison to 1977, the interior furnishings have been improved and the gardens seem more extensive. Regards for Adelaide, Australia.
Yes, most of these castles have put a lot of emphasis on furnishing, the way it was before the revolution. On a separate note, we spent a lot of time in SA: Adelaide, Port Lincoln, Kangaroo Island, and even Whyalla and Andamooka. Go Port :)
Hi George - I've seen your comment here and thought you might be interested in my Loire Valley vid just released yesterday. I give an insider guide to visiting if you're thinking of going again as my family have had a house there for last 10 years. hope you enjoy kzhead.info/sun/iZ2QktpxoGdnjIk/bejne.html
Wow, you don't see architecture and the details like that in modern construction, so amazing. c/t
Yes, the Loire Valley is a beautiful part of France and all these castles are unique in their own individual way :)
Great views from the roof of that first one. Such a beautiful double staircase! Did you guys race through the maze??? My kids totally would. Woah, those gardens on #3.....No words. The dog feeding would be fun...I loved the lego sculptures, but they seemed a bit out of place there. Strange partnership. The outside of #8 is gorgeous! My girls would love the Sleeping Beauty theme throughout. Oh yeah, my husband would love #10...moats, towers, knights...great recap of these. Also good job on the pronunciations ;p
We hope you guys get a chance to visit some of them. There will be something interesting for he whole family 🙂.
Pretty nice to do the chateau tours with you because we would not see that many ever haha! For sure a history buff activity to do, you guys must have been in paradise! Didn't know about LDV's grave!
Haha, it was intense 😊.
This seems to be a very charming place, I hope I can visit sometime in the future. Seeing and sharing places like this is why I love traveling and make videos so much! And please keep up the great job! Subscribed!!
We hope you get the chance to go to the Loire Valley too :)
Awesome
Thanks. We hope you get a chance to go there :)
Nice video.. God bless always.. From the 🇵🇭🇵🇭🇵🇭
Thanks for watching!
i love france!
We love France too and the Loire Valley is one of our favorite parts of the country :)
Trés bien 😍
Thanks
The chateaux all look like they are straight out of a disney movie 😊 wish I could visit them all some day
Yes, the Loire Valley is a beautiful part of France and all these chateaux are unique in their own individual way. One of them actually inspired Walt Disney's castle.
Merci!
De rien. BTW, we have the exact same video in French on our French channel.
@@JamesandLaurent Enjoyed your positive and informative travelogue. Hope to be there in a few weeks from our home in Lake Tahoe, California!
Haha. We hope to be in Tahoe for the ski season. Small world!
@@JamesandLaurent And I hope you enjoy the slopes, drive carefully!
Whoa…these are all so amazing! I’m pretty sure the next time we visit France, we will include the Loire Valley…so this video is great! Chambord is just amazing 😍 Love the gardens at Villandry! The dog feed at Cheverny is hilarious! All of the chateaus are so great…thanks for sharing!
You guys absolutely should. We have an awesome time there!
Nice videos keep it up RK Dua New Delhi India
Thanks a lot
I've been to three of these Chambord but it was really rainy and cold Villandry(got attacked by a swan lol) There's also a really cool dungeon in Ussé, it has scratch marks where somebody carved out their time!
We hope you get the chance to see the other seven, as well as the many more that are not on this list.
I visited some of these chateaux in the Loire Valley during Easter of 1976.
For the most part, they probably haven't changed that much 😍.
@@JamesandLaurent A lot of your pictures looked very familiar, even after 46 years. I have some pictures I took with my then 2 year old Polaroid SX-70 camera. They'd be in some box or suitcase in the attic. Loire Valley, Normandie, Mont St. Michel, Chartes Cathedral, St. Malo, and of course Paris. I'll never forget the Rose Windows of Notre Dame. I was sick when I saw the fire burning the roof.
We hope you get a chance to go back once it's rebuilt (supposedly identical).
@@JamesandLaurent I did return to France in April 1983 when my mom, dad, oldest sister, and I did a three week tour or Europe. Came up from Italy to Nice and on up to Paris where we saw and went into Notre Dame. Sadly, the Eiffel Tower was closed for some renovations. If I want to revisit Paris in my mind, all I have to do is listen to ABBA's Our Last Summer. And I still have my empty Orangina bottle I brought home in 1976. I've found it over here. I live in Canada - southern Alberta to be exact.
Awesome video!! I’ve limited myself to 3 to see in our visit and coincidentally it was your first 3. I did a lot of research. I assume they are the best 3 to see?
We hope you enjoy your trip. Chambord and Chenonceau are a must. Between Villandry, Cheverny, and Azay-le-Rideau, it kind of depends what you are looking for when visiting a chateau.
@@JamesandLaurent yep I hear what you are saying. I think it’s the gardens of Villandry that win over those choices for me. Thanks for your amazing info :)
Yes, the gardens are something unique. We have a stand-alone video about that chateau if you want.
@@JamesandLaurent excellent! I shall check that out
The attention to detail that these places have truly are breathtaking. I liked the one on the water that had the boats going underneath it. The outdoor gardens are so preserved just like you said. I can barely maintain my small backyard lol. They make it look like a piece of cake. What was your favorite?
It's hard to tell. The order we used was based on our order of preference, but all of them are unique in their on special way.
Hi guys, thanks for the wonderful information. I knew about Loire valley and castles over there but I don't know which want I have to choose to visit because all the castles there is so pretty. I could literally spend my whole day visiting just one castle. If you guys want to choose one castle which one would you guys choose?
It's a hard question because, as you said, they're all pretty. But to us, Chenonceau is the most unique.
1 Chambord - the greatest and largest 2 Chenonceau - the most distinctive 3 Villandry - the best gardens 4 Cheverny - the best preserved 5 Azay Lê Rideau - the best interior 6 Blois - the best architecture 7 D'Amboise - the most historic 8 Ussé - best for kids 9 Valençay - the most peaceful 10 Sully Sur Loire - the most medieval
😍.
I am Australian but have a home in the Loir et Cher sadly due to the corona virus I won’t be able to visit it any time soon. Angela Boulnois.
Most of these castles have been around for 500+ years. We're sure they'll still be around next year. Enjoy Australia in the meantime. We both used to live there (separately) and have been back many times. We have quite a few videos about Australia on our channel :).
I visited the Loire Valley, but didn’t see some of those castles
We hope you get a chance to go back :)
Interesting fact about Ambroise Castle. Charles VIII died there because he hit with his head a door lintel. (Internal cerebral hemorrhage)
Being somewhat tall, we can relate to him.
Joli documentaire . Gîtes de Charme et logements insolites vous accueil toute l'année pour fêter le déconfinement ! entre amis ou en famille. Cours séjours ou semaines en visite des Châteaux de la Loire, et du Zoo de beauval. Retouver- nous sur facebook :) .ozoosurcher.
:)
Québécois?
Nope. French from France :). French and Quebec accent are quite different, whether speaking French or English :)