Pays de la Loire Travel Guide

location for the 24hour race - which Dane Tom Christensen has participated to winning now 8 times!

A university city at the western end of the Loire Valley, Angers makes for a decent base to explore this part of the country if you want city convenience. Most hotels are clustered around the SNCF train station, although there are some scattered around the city - the Hotel du Mail in particular is a nice break from your standard cookie-cutter rooms in a quiet part of town.

There's a bunch of stuff to see within the city, but the two I spent most time at was the Chateau d'Angers and Cathedrale St-Maurice. The 12th century chateau is still big and imposing - the self-guided tour takes you up on the ramparts and up various towers with decent views over Angers. The real draw here, however, is the 14th century Apocalypse Tapestry. At around 100m long (40m of it has been lost to history), the tapestry chronicles St. John's vision of the Apocalypse from the Book of Revelations. Suffice to say, a keen interest in biblical studies will make this visit a lot more worthwhile, but even an atheist will likely recognize the panels with the four horsemen of the Apocalypse or the breaking of the Seven Seals. It'll cost €7.5 to get in, but you can purchase your Clefs des Temps Pass here to save you some coin (more on that later).

Cathedrale St-Maurice is just that - a very large church in the city. It makes for a nice photo or rest stop during your ambling, but that's about it.

If you've got a car with you, I highly recommend making your way out to Chateau de Serrant, about a 15 minute drive southwest out of the city (€9.5 admission). Guided tours are mandatory in order to get in, it's in French only, and no picture-taking inside the chateau is allowed--but it is sumptuously decorated and really worth seeing in person. The library in particular is the centerpiece--bibliophiles are going to drool over the unbelievable furnishings and the massive collection of volumes it houses, some first editions dating back to the late 1490's.

Money saving tip: The Clefs des Temps Pass offers admission into 10 chateaux/monuments scattered around the Loire Valley for one price. Whether this pass makes sense for you or not depends on if you can hit at least 3 of the most expensive attractions within a span of 2 weeks. At €25 per person (as of Oct 2007), you'll have to do some math and research to see if it's worthwhile. The nice part about this pass is that it covers a lot of your "must-see's" in the Loire, including Chateau de Chambord, Chateau Azay-le-Rideau and Abbaye royale de Fontevraud, plus other decent sightseeing at Chateau de Chaumont-sur-Loire, Chateau d'Angers and Chateau de Fougères-sur-Bièvre. The pass can be purchased at any of the participating locations and visits can be redeemed right away.

A university city at the western end of the Loire Valley, Angers makes for a decent base to explore this part of the country if you want city convenience. Most hotels are clustered around the SNCF train station, although there are some scattered around the city - the Hotel du Mail in particular is a nice break from your standard cookie-cutter rooms in a quiet part of town.

There's a bunch of stuff to see within the city, but the two I spent most time at was the Chateau d'Angers and Cathedrale St-Maurice. The 12th century chateau is still big and imposing - the self-guided tour takes you up on the ramparts and up various towers with decent views over Angers. The real draw here, however, is the 14th century Apocalypse Tapestry. At around 100m long (40m of it has been lost to history), the tapestry chronicles St. John's vision of the Apocalypse from the Book of Revelations. Suffice to say, a keen interest in biblical studies will make this visit a lot more worthwhile, but even an atheist will likely recognize the panels with the four horsemen of the Apocalypse or the breaking of the Seven Seals. It'll cost €7.5 to get in, but you can purchase your Clefs des Temps Pass here to save you some coin (more on that later).

Cathedrale St-Maurice is just that - a very large church in the city. It makes for a nice photo or rest stop during your ambling, but that's about it.

If you've got a car with you, I highly recommend making your way out to Chateau de Serrant, about a 15 minute drive southwest out of the city (€9.5 admission). Guided tours are mandatory in order to get in, it's in French only, and no picture-taking inside the chateau is allowed--but it is sumptuously decorated and really worth seeing in person. The library in particular is the centerpiece--bibliophiles are going to drool over the unbelievable furnishings and the massive collection of volumes it houses, some first editions dating back to the late 1490's.

Money saving tip: The Clefs des Temps Pass offers admission into 10 chateaux/monuments scattered around the Loire Valley for one price. Whether this pass makes sense for you or not depends on if you can hit at least 3 of the most expensive attractions within a span of 2 weeks. At €25 per person (as of Oct 2007), you'll have to do some math and research to see if it's worthwhile. The nice part about this pass is that it covers a lot of your "must-see's" in the Loire, including Chateau de Chambord, Chateau Azay-le-Rideau and Abbaye royale de Fontevraud, plus other decent sightseeing at Chateau de Chaumont-sur-Loire, Chateau d'Angers and Chateau de Fougères-sur-Bièvre. The pass can be purchased at any of the participating locations and visits can be redeemed right away.