Loir-et-Cher: what to see and do
23 sites listed in the département. In the heart of the Loire Valley, the Loir-et-Cher is home to the most emblematic of French châteaux, Chambord, surrounded by an exceptional game-rich forest. Blois and Cheverny complete this UNESCO-listed royal heritage, the historic garden of France.
Château de Chambord
Chambord, which measures 156 m by 117 m and has 440 rooms, is the largest of the Loire castles.
Blois
Prefecture of Loir-et-Cher tiered on the hillsides overlooking the Loire, whose royal castle sums up several centuries of French architecture on its own.
Château de Cheverny
The Cheverny estate is a lordly property that has belonged to the same family for more than six centuries.
Château de Beauregard
The castle's history goes back to the sixteenth century. The château de Beauregard hides behind the foliage of the Russy forest.
Château de Blois
The castle was built on a promontory overlooking the Loire and the Arrou. This place has been fortified since very ancient times.
Château de Chaumont-sur-Loire
The château de Chaumont-sur-Loire, which overlooks the Loire Valley classified as UNESCO World Heritage, illustrates both the defensive architecture of the Gothic period and the pleasure architecture of the Renaissance.
Château de Fougères-sur-Bièvre
Built in the second half of the fifteenth century and finished in the early sixteenth by three generations of ennobled Blois notables, the château de Fougères-sur-Bièvre offers the almost ideal image of a small late-medieval fortress: curtain wall, keep, gun-loop arrow slits, wall-walks and…
Château de Menars
The château de Ménars is a superb residence designed in the classical and symmetrical style very fashionable at that time. It is surrounded by a magnificent estate overlooking the river.
Château de Talcy
10 km north of Mer and 26 km from Blois, Talcy was in the thirteenth century a lordship and a rich farming estate.
Château de Villesavin
Château du Moulin
Built in 1492 by Jacques de Persigny, architect of the Court, for Philippe du Moulin, youthful companion and captain of King Charles VIII, the château du Moulin reflects its towers in the water of its moats.
Espace Automobiles Matra
The Espace Automobiles Matra offers a brilliant presentation of the competition cars of the Matra collection as well as prototypes and an engine room on a 3,000 m² site.
La Cave des Roches Le Champignon
The mushroom cave: 50 metres underground, discovery of the only cave in the world that entirely grows, in their natural atmosphere, the various gourmet mushrooms such as the blue-foot, shiitake, oyster mushroom, etc. More than 100 tonnes of mushrooms are produced each…
La Fondation du doute
A place presenting the important works of that very active period of the 1960s–1970s: more than 40 artists over two floors, some 300 works, documents, archives...
Lavardin
Buried in greenery on the banks of the Loir, Lavardin nestles at the foot of the impressive ruins of its castle.
Le jardin d'Orchaise
The Botanical Park of the Prieuré d'Orchaise is a 3-ha park overlooking the Cisse valley, backed against a Romanesque bell tower built as early as 1060 by the monks of Marmoutier.
Maison de la Magie Robert Houdin
Parc de loisirs Center Parcs Sologne
Opt for the comfort and conviviality of Center Parcs Sologne in an exceptional environment and accommodation.
Promenade en train touristique du Blanc-Argent
The railway line operated by the Blanc-Argent (French secondary metre-gauge network) lets you discover, in an original way, over 67 kilometres, the landscapes of Sologne and Berry.
Troglo Degusto
Come and live an unexpected experience in the heart of a unique troglodyte site!
Village troglodytique de Troo
Troo is probably the most picturesque troglodyte village in the Loir Valley. This village was built on a cliff whose almost vertical face descends to the Loir.
ZooParc de Beauval
4,000 animals over 22 hectares, one of the most extraordinary zoos in Europe! Exceptional animals: okapis, koalas, white lions and tigers, manatees... and more surprises for 2006.
