Chateaux & Gardens

Price: €12.50 (public price: €13) A castle facade (drawbridge, towers, machicolations...), but on the garden side, a residence marked by the Renaissance style! In this castle located 200 metres from the Loire, the marriage between Charles VIII and Anne of Brittany sealed the attachment of Brittany to the kingdom of France. Richly furnished, this monument belongs to the Institut de France.

Price: €13 (public price: €14) The Château de Villandry is a unique example of Renaissance architecture and gardens. Six sumptuous gardens await you: the vegetable garden, the ornamental garden, the water garden, the medicinal plant garden, the labyrinth and the sun garden. The château boasts 18th century interiors and a collection of antique Spanish paintings.

Price: €6.50 (public price: €7.50) In a preserved setting, 20 minutes from Tours, the Domaine de Candé takes you on a tour of a unique château in Touraine. The place of the wedding of the century, residence of great fortunes from the 1930s to the 1970s, it presents a tour of 20 fully furnished rooms, decorations in Cordoba leather or Touraine silks, bathrooms in glass mosaics, a Skinner organ on 3 floors, 1,000 m² of wine storehouses equipped with the latest presses, a Bell telephone exchange, a fitness room with equipment equivalent to that on the Titanic... The 230-hectare park with its century-old trees offers 2 hiking trails, contemporary artworks and atypical games. Don't hesitate to take a picnic with you!

Price: €18 (public price: €19) Its arches gracefully span the Cher. Cherished by Diane de Poitiers and Catherine de Médicis, Chenonceau remains the most visited château in France after Versailles. Wonderfully furnished (ah, its kitchens!), this 16th century château can be visited with an iPod. You'll fall under the spell of the gardens planted on either side of the keep... and the delightful village, whose name is spelt with an ‘x’!