I’m away on holiday at the moment, so this week’s posts are about previous un-blogged holidays from 2019, 2021, 2022 and 2023. Yesterday was our 2022 holiday to Brittany, and today it’s our 2023 holiday to the Loire Valley in France.
Though I did go into some detail about our 2023 holiday in my 2023 review, here’s a bit more about what we did and where we went. Our holiday followed its usual format – an overnight ferry from Portsmouth to St Malo, and then we drove down to stay in a static caravan at a campsite. This year we stayed near St Catherine de Fierbois, to the south of the Loire valley and between Tours and Poitiers.
Here’s what we got up to:
Parc des Mini-Châteaux
One thing the Loire Valley is known for are its many castles, or ‘châteaux’ in French. We limited ourselves to three this year, but we got to see miniature models of almost all of them at the Parc des Mini Châteaux. Here, there are models of Chambord, Chenonceau and many others that we had previously been to in person. It’s a fun way of seeing lots of places without having to travel to them all in person, and probably better for kids too.
Château du Clos Lucé
The first real château that we visited was Château du Clos Lucé, in which Leonardo da Vinci spent some time. Consequently it’s a museum containing recreations of some of his inventions, and a print of that painting. What we enjoyed more were the gardens, which also contained several of da Vinci’s inventions, but on a much larger scale. Some, like an Archimedes screw, were interactive, and exploring the gardens was fun.
Zooparc de Beauval
Zooparc Beauval is probably my favourite zoo that I’ve ever been to. We went there for the first time in 2018, and made a return visit last year. Since then, it’s expanded, and as was already too much to see in one day before, we focussed on the new bits and then our favourite bits from last time.
Its star attraction is probably the giant pandas, and we were lucky enough to see them. Unlike those that went to Edinburgh Zoo, those at Beauval have had more success at breeding and so there were four pandas there when we went. There had been a cub that we saw in 2018, but I believe it’s moved elsewhere to carry on the breeding programme.
The other thing that you should make time to see is Les Maitres des Airs, which is a fantastic daily bird flying show. Though there were fewer birds taking part compared to 2018, it’s still a great spectacle. Get there early to get a good view.
Other animals that I haven’t seen much elsewhere include hippos, dugongs and white tigers.
Grand Aquarium de Touraine
We bought a joint ticket for both the Grand Aquarium de Touraine and the Parc des Mini-Châteaux, so when a wet day rolled around we had something to do. It’s interesting enough to spend half a day at; a particular highlight for our (then) seven-year-old was being able to draw a fish and have it scanned by a camera, to then appear in a virtual aquarium on a projector screen with others creations.
Château d’Ussé
The second Loire château that we visited was Château d’Ussé, which allegedly was the inspiration for the story of Sleeping Beauty. This is something that the owners have capitalised on, and so as well as being able to go inside some of the interior of the château, there’s also a walk around the top floor where the rooms have been decorated to tell the story. There’s also some nice gardens to walk around, but part of the building is off limits as its owners still live there.
Château du Riveau
One château that wasn’t at the Parc des Mini-Châteaux was Château du Riveau, as it hasn’t been open to the public for very long. Again, its owners live here and so only a few rooms inside are open.
The gardens are really good – and we got a discount for being RHS members. There’s lots of sculptures, and a few pet birds around, and it’s very whimsically French. The whimsy continues inside – there’s lots of taxidermy on the walls wearing glasses or mounted backwards. We really enjoyed our visit here and it stands out compared to the other châteaux of the Loire. You can see the rest of my photos on Flickr.
Futuroscope
Futuroscope is a theme park based around film. It opened in the 1980s, and I went twice with my parents in the 1990s. This time I introduced it to my wife and our (then) seven-year-old, and it was a lot of fun.
Each of the pavilions is a different kind of cinema. Some have massive Imax screens, others are in 3D or the seats move with the film. In some, you may find yourself sprayed with water or blasted with air. The architecture is also futuristic, in a way that (for the most part) still feels modern even after over 30 years.
And yes, it’s very French. The food is much better than your average British theme park, and there’s some really whimsical evening entertainment. We would have liked to have stayed around for the evening sound and light show, but being July it was quite late at night. Again, there’s more photos on Flickr since I actually got around to uploading them.
