We made our way south to the Loire Valley for our first ever family cycling trip. We approached this part of our adventure with cautious optimism. While our kids enjoy cycling, we had never done any extended trips over consecutive days. We deliberately chose a company to facilitate our trip by planning our routes so that we could return to the same place every night. We knew that we would always be able to cut a day trip short if needed, as we didn’t have to worry about making it to the next auberge!
We arrived at our gîte (bed and breakfast) and were pleasantly surprised at the quality of the accommodation, as well as the family friendly gear (trampoline, ping pong table, scooters, pétanque) and the 10 year old boy who was thrilled to have some additional (albeit temporary) playmates. After getting oriented, we met with our cycling hosts to fit our bikes and learn about our week’s itinerary.
A typical day included a generous homemade breakfast with cakes, compotes, jams and yogurt. Some days we started cycling right from the gîte. Other days we were driven (with bikes) to a predetermined drop off spot. We were provided with all the gear we needed, including comprehensive maps, repair kits, etc. We brought our own lunches and supplemented by picking up fresh baguettes or cheese and fruit from the markets as we cycled along.
The routes often took us through vineyards and along side the Loire River. We were impressed with the very developed Loire à Vélo cycling routes (most of which are well signposted and well maintained). Our hosts had also signposted tricky parts of the routes to ensure we didn’t get lost. We were usually back by 5:30 pm and our cycling hosts would either drive us to the supermarket or to a restaurant. It was a treat for A. to find two restaurants where she could eat a meal off the menu!
Our highlights for the week:
Chateaux (Villandry, Chennonceau and Clos Luce)
While there are hundreds of chateau in the Loire Valley, we were able to visit a pre-curated selection that didn’t leave us feeling overwhelmed and were different enough to keep us interested.
Villandry had the most spectacular geometric gardens (à la française) as well as very well maintained interiors.
Chennonceau (the famous chateau over the water) was both beautiful and impressive, as well as full of tourists! The gardens, while smaller scale than Villandry, were just as geometric. The interiors were more impressive with period furniture and details.
Clos Luce (Leonardo da Vinci’s final home) was impressive for the scale models of his inventions that have been built. Smaller models are in the basement with larger models dispersed throughout the garden. These larger models are available for visitors to test and interact with, which brought the ideas to life for our kids. It was also cool for the kids to see the studio where da Vinci worked on the Mona Lisa (and to compare the sketches there with the final product they saw at the Louvre).
Les Troglodytes
Troglodytes are what the French call cave dwellers. Over the years, wealthy members of the French court needed more and more of the local light-coloured Truffeau stone to construct their chateaux in the Loire Valley. Members of the poorer classes quarried this stone and then were given the excavated caverns as shelters in which to live. We visited a small Troglodyte settlement that was discovered 50 years ago when its current property owner was a young boy. The actual settlement dates back several hundreds of years, but was inhabited up to approximately 100 years ago. We had never seen anything like that before! One of the oldest caves was created several hundreds of years ago and included an ambush corridor and a ‘ panic room’ for the women, children and small livestock. This protected the vulnerable from invaders while the younger men were away from the settlement at their worksite during the daytime.
Integrating with our host family.
Our stay in the Loire Valley was unique and special in an unexpected way for A & T. Our gîte host family had a 10 year old son who was a welcome playmate and distraction after 2 months of mostly only having each other for company ( besides our Airbnb in Brussels). As our kids built their friendship with A., the son, we too had a number of very enjoyable conversations with our host family.
We were extremely happy to be able to build these friendships because we shared a common language. Our hosts planned an Easter egg hunt among the grapevines in their vineyard Easter morning and included our children. On T’s birthday, they baked him a cake and offered him some gifts ( a Loire Valley/ Clos-Luce Leonardo da Vinci theme). They invited us down to their ‘cave’ (wine cellar) and shared a recent local vintage with us one evening, and then, our last night, we shared a couple of bottles of wine with our gîte hosts, and our cycling facilitator hosts on the terrass overlooking the vineyard, while our children played with their children on the trampoline and at pétanque. Getting to know our hosts really enriched our stay at Secrets de la Loire.
Next stop: pre-historic cave paintings!