Visiting the Loire Valley

The Loire Valley with its age old castles, giant staircases and cobble stone villages might not be the first place that comes to mind when your mobility is reduced, but we are just back from a three day visit & were how well it was adapted to mobility scooters! The old town of Anger even had a specially designed 2km reduced mobility trail. We wanted to share the story of how it went. We look forward to read your experiences in the comments.

Day 1: Paris to Amboise, France

We began our visit with a casual 3-hour drive of 225 km/140 mi over excellent roads from Paris to Amboise to the lower Loire Valley, a productive agricultural area, home to over 300 chateaux (castles), and a rich history. Originally built as defensive castles to protect towns of the Loire Valley, following the end of the Hundred Years War between England and France (1337-1453), many of the chateaux were remodeled to become palaces of pleasure.

Day 2: Amboise

Our visit started in Amboise, home of the Château Royal d’Amboise, originally one of the fortresses of the Loire. The chateau was seized and extensively remodeled by King Charles VII in 1434 as a royal residence.

Clos de Lucé and Leonardo da Vinci
Leonardo spent the last 3 years of his life (1516-1519) at the invitation of French King Francois I as a scientific advisor to the Royal Court. He died at 67 in the Clos and is buried in the chapel of the Royal Chateau d’Amboise, but his final resting place remains a mystery. The ground floor the Clos hosts Leonardo’s art studio, writing desk, dining area and kitchen. ,The basement hosts a rich collection of reconstructed models of his engineering inventions, including his flying machines, hydraulic innovations and military proposals such as the turtle tank, his wind and humidity measuring instruments, and a fascinating model of his concept of a double-hulled ship now commonly used in ship building.

The Clos is easily accessible on the ground and basement floors but requires two flights of shallow steps to visit Leonardo’s bedroom on the first floor. The Clos is privately owned and charges a special admission fee for people with reduced mobility. Accessible toilets can be found next to the gift shop. Special parking spaces are provided about 150m/500ft from the Clos’s entrance–requiring a walk up a gentle 10% slope on a paved path. Plan on taking about two hours for a relaxed stroll through the house, exhibits, and grounds.

More information: Clos website

We ended the morning with a wonderful local lunch at La Fourchette, 9 rue Malebranche. It’s a small, friendly restaurant on the ground floor and is wheelchair accessible with a toilet also on the ground floor.

Day 3: The Apocalypse Tapestry and a Walk in Historic Angers

On our third day, we headed to Angers to visit the world’s largest surviving medieval tapestry. It was commissioned by Louis I, the Duke of Anjou, and woven in Paris between 1377–1382. The Apocalypse Tapestry is a medieval masterpiece, depicting the story of the Apocalypse from the Book of Revelation (the last chapter of the Bible) by Saint John the Divine in colorful imagery. The Tapestry is actually about 90 individual tapestries (a few missing) grouped around six themes that tell the story of the Apocalypse—the triumph of Good over Evil. The Tapestry is about 140m/460ft long!

The Tapestry is located inside the fortified Château d’Angers that is easily accessible from the parking area at the foot of the Château, located about 150m/500 ft, up a 20% slope paved sidewalk to the entrance. As a public museum, entrance is free for people with reduced mobility. Once inside, over a few cobblestones, most of the walkways in the courtyard of the Chateau are gravel. Once inside the Château, the Tapestry is located in a specially built gallery accessible down an outdoor paved ramp (about a 25% slope). An excellent audio-guide available in English provided an unforgettable voyage into medieval art. The audio-guide is essential if you want to understand the story of the tapestries.

We rounded off our visit to Angers with a pleasant walk through its historic centre along a 2km trail that is specially designed for persons with reduced mobility. Trails are marked on the pavement with a blue line and maps are available (in French) at the Office du Tourisme located across the parking at the foot of the Château.

Day 4: Le Mans and Home to Paris

Le Mans is known best for its 24-hours of Le Mans race course, the Circuit de la Sarthe, located about 10 km (6 miles) south of the city—and yes you can drive your car alongside the entire circuit. But Le Mans is more than auto racing.

On our last day in the Loire Valley we headed to the old historic town of the Plantagenet kings in Le Mans. The House of Plantagenet was a royal house that originated from the Duchy of Anjou, a province that straddled the lower part of the Loire Valley. Eight Plantagenet kings held the English throne from 1154 to 1485.

Le Mans was the capital of the Plantagenet Empire that stretched from Scotland and England, through Belgium and France, all the way to Spain. Some of the old half-timbered house remain as do parts of the Roman wall encircling the old town. Most of the streets of the old town are car-free. However, the streets are paved with cobblestones. Expect your bones to be rattled if you are in a scooter. Designated handicapped parking spaces are scattered around the old town. This is a great website for planning a visit to historic Les Mans.

Still shaking from the cobblestones and cold weather, we left Le Mans for a leisurely 3-hour drive home to Paris.

Where to Stay?

Hotel-Château Le Grand Lucé
While there are over 300 chateaux in the Loire Valley, only a few are available for overnight stays, and even fewer are equipped to accommodate people with limited mobility. We managed to stay in one, the Hotel-Château Le Grand Lucé, located in the village of Gran Lucé 28 km/17 mi southeast of Le Mans.

In 1718 an original fortified castle was purchased by Baron Pineau de Viennay II using his wife’s family fortune. In 1750 his son Jacques decided to replace the castle with a modern state-of-the-art palace. By 1764 the new Neoclassical château of 42,000 m2/45,000 ft2 was completed. In 2017 the chateau was purchased and reimagined as the current Hotel-Château. It sits within about 32 ha/80 ac of formal French gardens and flat gravel paths.

The chateau has 12 bedrooms located on the second floor, but all floors are accessible by a modern elevator located at the back of the château. The first floor consists of a grand salon, a tea salon, a formal dining room, and a petit salon—all available to hotel guests. We ate a gastronomic birthday dinner alone in the formal dining room—very nice! The large bedrooms are tastefully furnished and the ceilings are high. Our bathroom had both a bear-claw tub and an accessible walk-in shower. The young staff is extremely friendly, multi-lingual, and always ready to help.

More information: chateaugrandluce.com