Rick Steves Snapshot Loire Valley

by Rick Steves, Steve Smith

Overview

With Rick Steves, the Loire Valley is yours to discover! This slim guide excerpted from Rick Steves France includes:

• Rick's firsthand, up-to-date advice on the Loire Valley's best sights, restaurants, hotels, and more, plus tips to beat the crowds, skip the lines, and avoid tourist traps
• Top sights and local experiences: Visit grandiose châteaus, such as Chenonceau, Blois, and Château d'Azay-le-Rideau. Tour the Leonardo da Vinci park, go wine-tasting in Vouvray, and wander the gardens of Villandry. Soak up stunning views from a hot air balloon tour, or take a bike ride through the rolling countryside
• Helpful maps and self-guided walking tours to keep you on track

With selective coverage and Rick's trusted insight into the best things to do and see, Rick Steves Snapshot Loire Valley is truly a tour guide in your pocket.

Exploring beyond the Loire Valley? Pick up Rick Steves France for comprehensive coverage, detailed itineraries, and essential information for planning a countrywide trip.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781641715065
Publisher:	Avalon Publishing
Publication date:	12/27/2022
Series:	Rick Steves Snapshot Series
Edition description:	6th ed.
Pages:	120
Product dimensions:	4.40(w) x 7.90(h) x 0.50(d)

About the Author

Since 1973, Rick Steves has spent about four months a year exploring Europe. His mission: to empower Americans to have European trips that are fun, affordable, and culturally broadening. Rick produces a best-selling guidebook series, a public television series, and a public radio show, and organizes small-group tours that take over 30,000 travelers to Europe annually. He does all of this with the help of more than 100 well-traveled staff members at Rick Steves' Europe in Edmonds, WA (near Seattle). When not on the road, Rick is active in his church and with advocacy groups focused on economic and social justice, drug policy reform, and ending hunger. To recharge, Rick plays piano, relaxes at his family cabin in the Cascade Mountains, and spends time with his son Andy and daughter Jackie. Find out more about Rick at www.ricksteves.com and on Facebook.

Connect with Rick:
facebook.com/RickSteves
twitter: @RickSteves
instagram: ricksteveseurope

Steve Smith has had one foot in France and one in the United States for 55 years. He drives a Deux Chevaux car and has restored a farmhouse on the Burgundy canal where he hangs his beret in the spring and summer. Steve managed tour guides for Rick Steves’ Europe for more than two decades but now spends his time researching guidebooks, teaching about France, and exploring every corner of his favorite country. When not in France, Steve loves finding dirt grown backstreets in his VW camper van.

Table of Contents

Introduction 1

The Loire 3

Amboise 13

Chenonceau 36

Blois 44

Chambord 53

Cheverny 58

Chaumont-sur-Loire 60

Chinon 64

Azay-le-Rideau 76

Langeais 80

Villandry 82

Abbaye Royale de Fontevraud 84

Practicalities 89

Language 89

Money 89

Staying Connected 90

Sleeping 91

Eating 92

Transportation 94

Helpful Hints 95

Resources from Rick Steves 97

Additional Resources 97

How Was Your Trip? 97

French Survival Phrases 99

Index 101

Editorial Reviews

"The country's foremost expert in European travel for Americans."—Forbes

"Steves is an absolute master at unlocking the hidden gems of the world's greatest cities, towns, and monuments."—USA Today

“Every country-specific travel guidebook from the Rick Steves publishing empire can be counted upon for clear organization, specificity and timeliness."—Society of American Travel Writers

"Pick the best accommodations and restaurants from Rick Steves…and a traveler searching for good values will seldom go wrong or be blindsided."—NBC News

"His guidebooks are approachable, silly, and even subtly provocative in their insistence that Americans show respect for the people and places they are visiting and not the other way around."—The New Yorker

"Travel, to Steves, is not some frivolous luxury—it is an engine for improving humankind, for connecting people and removing their prejudices, for knocking distant cultures together to make unlikely sparks of joy and insight. Given that millions of people have encountered the work of Steves over the last 40 years, on TV or online or in his guidebooks, and that they have carried those lessons to untold other millions of people, it is fair to say that his life’s work has had a real effect on the collective life of our planet."—The New York Times Magazine

"[Rick Steves] laces his guides with short and vivid histories and a scholar's appreciation for Renaissance art yet knows the best place to start an early tapas crawl in Madrid if you have kids. His clear, hand-drawn maps are Pentagon-worthy; his hints about how to go directly to the best stuff at the Uffizi, avoid the crowds at Versailles and save money everywhere are guilt-free."—TIME Magazine

"Steves is a walking, talking European encyclopedia who yearns to inspire Americans to venture 'beyond Orlando.'"—Forbes

“…he’s become the unofficial guide for entire generations of North American travelers, beloved for his earnest attitude and dad jeans."—Outside Magazine

"His books offer the equivalent of a bus tour without the bus, with boiled-down itineraries and step-by-step instructions on where to go and how to get there, but adding a dash of humor and an element of choice that his travelers find empowering."—The New York Times

"His penchant for creating meaningful experiences for travelers to Europe is as passionate as his inclination for making ethical choices his guiding light."
 —Forbes

"[Rick Steves'] neighborhood walks are always fun and informative. His museum guides, complete with commentary about historic sculpture and storied artworks are wonderful and add another dimension to sometimes stodgy, hard-to-comprehend museums."—NBC News

From the Publisher