loire or burgundy?

If you had four days/three nights to spend in the countryside of France (after four days in Paris) would you spend it in the Loire Valley or Burgundy?

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I love both of these places (particularly the wines of Burgundy), however, four days is about the perfect time to visit the Loire Valley. Its advantage? Most all of the important locations can be explored within easy driving distance from a central location. This is why for someone having this amount of time I recommend Tours as a base, staying in the Hotel du Manior (free parking).

As a general itinerary, I recommend one day visiting chateaux west (Azay le Rideau, Villandry), the second or third day visiting chateaux east (Chenonceau, Chambord, Blois, Le Clos Luce, Cheverny) perhaps visiting a troglodyte city, and maybe one day resting in town.

Tours is not a very large city (130,000 people) and everything (restaurants, museums, nightlife, architecture, music venues, shopping) are all available within easy walking distance from a good selection of hotels. Tours Office de Tourisme

http://www.ligeris.com/

Visits here are best done by car, I recommend:

http://www.autoeurope.com

As a general note, it is most advisable not to drive after drinking in France (blood alcohol limit .05). This is another reason I recommend staying where one may find a selection of excellent restaurants within easy walking distance of his hotel. Of course if you are not curious about the wines of the Touraine, this last word of caution may not apply.

For those of us who would not consider a meal in France complete without an appropriate and carefully chosen glass of wine on our dinner table, those great Burgundies are on every restaurants wine list, and favorably priced.

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You could easily take one day to explore the Loire Valley and then head for Burgundy, which has a much wider range of places to see: ancient abbeys, Gothic churches (especially Autun), the historic basilica of Vézelay, the Renaissance Château de Tanlay, beautifully scenic roads, the wine town of Beaune...and so much more. In the Loire Valley the attractions are essentially the châteaux, and the scenery, IMO, is far less varied.

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I cannot agree that one day is enough time to explore the Loire valley. Even if all you want to do is visit the more interesting chateaux - and I can count nine or ten in that category, plus perhaps a dozen less well-known ones - you would need at least a week. And that%26#39;s not even including Saumur, Angers or Fontevraud, to say nothing of several other places.

The Loire valley repays exploring along its byways off the major roads and well-marked tourist routes. There are many charming villages, lovely forest areas and quiet stretches of river to be explored in the valleys of the Loire, Cher, Indre and Vienne.

Like Sarastro I enjoy both areas enormously, and Burgundy does have beautiful scenery, picturesque villages, and fascinating churches - as well as the vineyards of course.

I actually think the Loire is a bit %26quot;easier%26quot; for someone not familiar with touring outside Paris. The major sights are better known, better sign-posted and more easily accessed, IMO.

I do agree with almost everything Sarastro says - except for his suggestion that Tours is the best base for exploring the Loire. (We%26#39;ve had this disagreement before.) I%26#39;m very fond of Tours - and in fact lived there for several months. But unless you really want to stay in a city (and Tours is a bigger city than Sarastro%26#39;s population numbers might suggest) I%26#39;d recommend that you stay close to, but not in Tours.

Depending on your budget, there are several places you might like.

Incidentally the food in both areas is superb, but again the culinary delights of the Loire are perhaps a bit %26quot;gentler%26quot; than the heartier fare of Burgundy.

I%26#39;d happily spend four days in either, and not think it had beeen nearly enough, but, unless you are REALLY big wine-lovers, I think I%26#39;d most likely recommend the Loire.

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But Burgundian cuisine is one of the great classics of French cooking--not so of the Loire dishes. We%26#39;ll just have to disagree about our preferences for these two regions.

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Burgundy by all means! Scenery, wines, food

and people! There%26#39;s no comparison foodwise and all those chateaux get tiresome...all that consumption!

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Thank you all for your input! But responses are about evenly divided between Loire and Burgundy! What am I to do?

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%26gt;%26gt;%26gt; all those chateaux get tiresome... %26lt;%26lt;%26lt;

All these chateaux are wonderful if you know any of the history surrounding them. They are key sites in the history of France - Joan of Arc, Charles VII, Charles VIII, Anne of Brittany, Louis XII, Mary Tudor, François I, Henri II, Catherine de Medici, Diane de Poitiers, François II, Mary Queen of Scots, Leonardo da Vinci - these are just some of the people who built and lived in or were involved in the rich hstory of the chateaux.

Of course if you know or care little of the historical background, you will probably find the chateaux rather uninteresting after a while.

I remember being in Langeais (a fascinating and often over-looked chateau) one rather warm day and overhearing a somewhat overweight and very flushed tourist on a package tour say to his wife: %26quot;Listen, Martha, when you%26#39;ve seen one chateau (pronounced chat-oh) you%26#39;ve seen %26#39;em all!%26quot; Couldn%26#39;t have been more wrong, but I do understand where the remark came from.

As to your dilemma, paella, the answer is to extend your trip a few days and see both areas....

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I too remember being in Langeais, but for a very different reason: my husband finally got violently sick there (in the English sense) after a week of having vitamin tablets ferment in his stomach. They turned out to have yeast as an ingredient. Needless to say, his memories of the town are not happy, although I liked it quite a lot.