The Loire Valley, France - With Kids

Welcome back to another episode! This week we are heading to the Loire Valley in France. We LOVED this area of France, so much to see and do, cheap to self-cater and family friendly!
We take the Eurotunnel across and drive to Bernay for the night. Next it's on to the Loire Valley where we visit several Chateaus and towns. 
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Transcript

Welcome back to Shire Travels. This week we are heading back overseas to the stunning Loire valley in France. This is an area very popular for its châteaux, wine, and picturesque French towns. Apologies in advance for pronouncing all these names wrong. French was not my best subject in school. So we decided to drive over from the UK with my sister and her family. We thought it'd be far easier than flying as we had little kids with us and they had so many accessories. It was just far easier to load them all up in the car and take them with us. We did this trip in the first week of September when the weather was still pretty good. It was also the first week, which was outside of school holidays, so accommodation was far cheaper. We decided to head to the Loire Valley over other destinations in Europe. As I said before, we could drive there so we could take as much stuff as we wanted. The other thing was that there's lots to see and do there. You can kind of do as much or as little as you want to. Just staying in the holiday house, hanging out by the pool kind of would have been good enough. But there were so many attractions and things to do. It wasn't too bad, mighty-wise either in terms of buying groceries and accommodation prices and getting around driving everywhere was really easy. So to head over, we took the Euroternel, or the shuttle, as it's known. This was really easy to book online. You simply choose an hour window when you would like to get on the shuttle and then you'd turn up and you hop up on any train that's available. It's all very orderly. It's easy to navigate. There are plenty of people there and clear signs as to where you need to go. You get your passport checked and stamped on the UK side of the tunnel, which I thought was quite interesting. And when you actually get off the tunnel on the other side, there isn't any form of passport control. You simply drive off and you're on your way. The cost was about 94 pounds. We only bookeded one way because we wanted to get a ferry on the way back instead. The fairs change depending on the time of day you go and also the day of the week. Not by too much. It might be only 10 or 20 pounds, but if you want to to go during the week and you go kind of last thing at the night or first thing in the morning, you could save yourself a bit of money. We found the train that we wanted to get on, drove down, someone pointed us where we needed to go. You drive onto the train and drive it through it, which is quite cool. We then parked up and they give you instructions as to what you need to do with your car, put your handbrake on, switch the engine off, etc. It was about a 30 minute ride to get through the tunnel to get to Calais in France. And during this time, you're allowed to get out of your car, have a walk around. When the train is outside of the tunnel, you can see out the windows. There's not really much of a view, but still something to do. The only thing to know is that with the train moving around and it was quite hot and stuffy in there, I did find that I had motion sickness, so just something to bear in mind. As I said, when you get to the other side, they make an announcement to get back in your car and you simply drive off the train and you are on your way into France. We found a petrol station, which was right next to the train terminal, and the price of petrol there was four euros a lit, which is around about $7.50 Australia, which just goes to show. We don't know how good we've got it here. Once we're off the train, we drove as far as we could basically, until the kids cracked it. We We headed to the town of Bernay, which is around about four hours from Calais. When we arrived, we checked in and they had a pool there, so we hopped in the pool and had a swim, which was fantastic. The accommodation was a B&b style. It was actually a really cool place with quite quirky furnishings. The only thing that was a slight negative with the stairs to get up to the rooms were really steep and twisting, which was not ideal when you're carrying kids and all their stuff. That night we just got takeaway and relaxed at the B&B and then in the morning, it had breakfast there, which if you're to France and had breakfast for, you'll know it's quite the affair with all the different delicious pastries they have. Next day we drove to the Loire Valley itself, which was about three and a half hours away. We stared in Airbnb called La Refuge in the town of Cinais, which was quickly central to the sites in the Loire Valley. While we had to wait for check-in time to roll around, we decided to head to the city or town of Samur. We went to see the castle, but rather than heading inside, we actually took a picnic with us, and we sat in the grounds, which were near the entrance to the castle and it looks out over the city and it was a fantastic view. Then it was time to check in into our accommodation and it was great. It was a small two-bed, two- bath guest house that we had to ourselves and it was next to our host's main house. They had a huge pool with sunounges, umbrellas. They always had donkeys and chickens that we could play with and a really nice area outside to sit and have dinner. Inside had a small kitchen and a lounge area. The lounge was down at the smallest gradient ramp you have ever seen, but all three children we had with us, toddlers just learning to walk and they'd fall down it multiple times a day. Despite that, it was a lovely place to say. We saw the host a couple of times and she was great. They always had Wi-Fi there too, and all the amenities. That afternoon, we drove to the local supermarket to stock up for our stay. Now, self-catering in places like France or a lot of places in Europe, actually, is really easy. It's so convenient and it is cheap. You can get the most amazing breads, wine, and cheese at the supermarket or for a few euros. On our first full day, we went ahead a look at a few of the small towns in the area. We wanted to have a look at one of the shadows there. can't quite remember the name it, but is the one that has Rapunzel's that tower in it. Unfortunately, it was shut. It was open, I think, 365 days a year, but we just managed to pick the one day it was shut, which was pretty disappointing. So instead we decided to go and have lunch and then after lunch, we went and had a look at the town of Chinon and we walked down by the river and it was absolutely beautiful. One thing we noticed walking along the river in Chinon and also at a lot of other tourist sites, was that there's heaps of camping places. It's a really camping friendly area. Even Chateau Chambord, which would be one of the biggest tourist tourist attractions in the area, had a huge camping area. It was really good to see, and if that's something you're considering, van life Europe, it could be a very cost effective way to get around and see you the sides. The next day was a big one as we headed all the way out to Chatteau Chambord. This was nearly two hours to get there. Now, like most castles in France, this one was paid entry. However, I'm pretty sure parking was free. Now, it was okay there, but there were a few things which kind of compounded and it just didn't meet for the best day out. The first one being the weather, it was pretty bad, sometimes warm, sometimes a little bit sunny, but in the afternoon, it rained torrentially. The other thing was that a lot of the castle was covered in scaffold, and so unfortunately, the beautiful view of it, when when we got the photo along the long driveway, it just didn't look great. Overall, we were just a little underwhelmed, but I think in saying that it's because there were a lot of different things which were a little bit negative We also had prams with us and we understood that for most part, most castles or chattea would not be pram friendly given that they are very old. But what we found was that we had to leave our prams at the front door when we went into places, which was a little bit inconvenient. It just meant that we had to take all our valuables and bags out as we were essentially leaving them unattended. What we did get to see inside, though we really liked, if you have been there before, you'll know there's a really interesting double staircase inside. It's one which you can get on on either side at different points. Walk in the same direction, but you won't actually see each other. It's very confusing. If you see it, you probably know what I mean. We also had a look at places like the carriage rooms they had, which was so over the top French impressive. The grounds there were quite nice, but compared to some of the other cheaux we went to, it wasn't anything that special. I think it's also a place where you can do lots of additional paid activities. I think they have a whole area where you can see them do kind of mediaeval games, maybe like jousting and things like that. We just paid the kind of standard ticket. I think it's somewhere that we might have to go back to in the future, try and get a day with a little bit better weather and maybe going with older kids and no preams. We might have a better overall experience. Next day, we went to one of our favourite spots, which was Câteau de Villandry. This was about 30 minutes from Sine where we were staying. The gardens here were beautiful. They have the option when you get there, you can either pay to go into the castle and gardens or one or the other.. We chose to only go into the gardens because we thought, given our experience at Château Chambord, getting with is going to be impossible, and let's face it, toddlers and castles, probably not a good mix. When we paid for our tickets, the people there were super helpful. They gave us a map and they showed us a route to walk through the gardens, which was pram friendly. We walked in a big loop and then we found the fanciest playground I have ever seen. It was lined with beautifully manicured hedges and flowers, the most amazing perfect green lawn you can imagine. It was fantastic, and we thought it was a really nice touch that they had tried to cater to families, people with little kids. If you like gardens or even if you don't like gardens, I would definitely recommend Chateau de Villandry. If you have a book on Google Maps, Maps, you'll be able to see just how impressive the gardens are. Incredibly symmetrical, very vibrant colours. There's lots of different vantage points throughout the gardens where you can go up and look at it a different levels. I can't talk to what the castle looks like inside, but I imagine it's probably equally as impressive. We decided to have lunch at the cafe or restaurant, which is right outside the castle. And it was nice enough, but because we were in an absolute tourist hotspot, it was very expensive. That afternoon, we decided to head back to accommodation and just to hang out at the pool. The next day, we said goodbye to my sister and her family as they were driving back to get the tunnel back to the UK. However, we decided to stay an extra night and then get the ferry back. This was because we were staying at my parents' house in the UK and getting the ferry back was just a little bit closer than the tunnel. We then went and visited Câteau de Chenonceau. I'm definitely saying that wrong, on our way to the ferry. We didn't have much time there and again we chose to just see the gardens rather than go inside the castle. This castle is very famous. It is a huge white castle and it has archways that go over a river. It's probably one of the most famous ones in the Loa Valley. It is a fantastic place to get some pictures. We went to the gardens, took a few pictures in front of the castle and then went on our way. Again, it was paid entry and it was a little bit of a walk to get to the car park at the front, but not too bad. We ended a big drive up to the town of Cherbourg, which was where we were going to be getting the ferry the next morning. We would have liked to have seen some more of the war history that's in this area. We actually drove by the American Cmetery in Normandy. If you've seen Saving Private Ryan, it's the one that's at the start there. I' been there before and it was incredibly moving. Unfortunately, we just didn't have time, but I think it's an area to come back to. Given we often go to the UK, it's not too far to hop on either the ferry or the train and head back over and have a look at the World War I and World War II history there as well. We stayed in Airbnb, not too far from the ferry terminal. It was pretty much just a small unit in someone's backyard. The town there was okay, but it was very much catered to British people. If you put me up and dropped me there, my eyes closed and asked me where I was, I'd say I was in England. It was a little bit, I don't know. Take it as you will. Let's just say it just did not feel like we were in France. We quickly had some dinner and then we headed back to our accommodation. The next morning, we hopped on our ferry and it was a a short trip across the channel to get back to the UK. I think all up was around about 120 pounds with a car and also a cabin. We knew our little one would have to have naps on the way and we thought it would just be fart easier than trying to get her to sleep in the pram. Now, while we had been in France, the Queen had sadly died, R.I.P. But for some reason, that meant that a lot of stuff on the ferry wasn''t open, for example, live music they had had been cancelled and it was just a little bit strange. Now, I get, it's obviously a very significant event, but I don't know why it meant that we couldn't listen to a bit of live music on a ferry on the English Channel. Anyway, we enjoyed the boat ride. There was plenty of places to eat, walk around the boat, and they also had a fantastic kids playroom at which was well utilised. Now, that was the end of our road trip in France, just a couple of things that we packed or had to bring with us. There are a few things that you had to know when you're going to France from places like the UK One was that we had to have a breakdown kit, which included a small orange reflective triangle that we could put on the road in case we broke down. And then the other one was a little hanging sign in the back of our window saying, baby on board. Outside of that, driving and getting around France in a car was absolutely fine. We didn't have any issues. There's also very clear signs around if there are any tolls or or things like that, how to pay them or you can pay them in cash. So just remember to have a few euros in your car, if you are heading on toll roads. Now, my sister took her own car, but we actually took our higher car across. We did make them aware that we were going to be taking it to France, just double check with your higher car company if that is okay and also check if they have any surcharges as well. In terms of things that we packed for the kids, we we took travel-sized prs, so smaller ones that we could fold up in the car. We took travel cots as well. Fortunately, all the kids were off at bottles then, so we didn't have to worry about sterilisers or things like that. The only thing we had to remember was to bring adaptors for white noise machines or cameras, monitors, those sorts of things. Everywhere we went was very child friendly. Not a lot of places had high chairs, but the staff were always really welcoming and made sure that there was something for the kids to eat. Overall, we loved the trip. I think we barely scratched the surface of that area and we'll definitely have to go. back. It was also a fairly cheap trip to do. As I mentioned, it is a really easy place to self-cater, which saved us a heap of money. And if you're into your camping or you're doing van life, you are spoiled for choice. That's a wrap on this week's episode, a bit shorter than usual, but next week I have quite a long episode on lots of interesting places to visit in the UK. If you want to see any footage of the places that I've mentioned, you can check us out on YouTube Shire Travels and you can also find us on Instagram as well at Shire.travels - See you in the next one.