4 Nights in the Loire Valley With Kids: What We Did & What We’d Change

When we planned our France road trip, the Loire Valley was our first proper stop. We booked four nights at the Eurocamp site; Le Parc des Allais near Trogues. This gave us a couple of days to explore and most importantly, some time to do absolutely nothing after the drive from England.

Our plan wasn’t to cram every chateau in the Loire Valley in three days, with three boys in tow, that sounded like a fairly reliable way of making everyone miserable. Instead, we picked two places we actually wanted to see – Chinon and Azay-le-Rideau, allowing us to have plenty of time in the afternoons to go swimming, eat baguettes and sit beside the pool.

And, accommodation aside, four nights turned out to be about right for us.

The Journey to France

Our alarm went off at the ridiculous time of 12.45am…holiday is probably the only time I will happily (I say that lightly) get up at that hour.

Thankfully, we had been pretty organised the night before, the boys had their clothes and travel bags ready and most things were already in the car. All that was left were the final bits we’d needed overnight, putting the bins out and doing one last check of the house.

By around 1.20am, everyone was in the car armed with pillows, apart from Liam who probably needed one more than any of us considering he was driving.

We were ready to go…or so we thought. Just as we were leaving, we realised we’d left a window open. This was made even better by the fact we’d specifically asked the boys before we left whether all their windows were closed.

Apparently asking children if they’ve done something and actually checking they’ve done it are two very different things. Back inside Liam went before we even made it away from the house.

Once we were finally on the road, the journey was actually really smooth (so I was told). Myself, Lewis and Theo slept for most of the way while Ryan stayed awake with Liam, asking plenty of questions, as normal.

We stopped at Clackett Lane Services before continuing towards LeShuttle, where we managed to get ourselves onto an earlier 7.06am crossing instead of our booked 7.50am. This was great as it saved us trying to entertain ratty and tired kids in the back of a car whilst waiting for the train.

This was Theo’s first time on LeShuttle, the rest of us had done it before, although this was the first time doing it together as a family. We all thought he’d find the whole driving a car onto a train under the sea thing pretty cool…he was somewhat less impressed.

We did manage to get a great video of us driving off of the train though… It was very long!

Once in France, Liam was straight back into driving on the other side of the road like a pro, and our Emovis tag made getting through tolls much easier, highly recommended if you’re ever driving through France yourself! Most of us continued to sleep on and off through France… with the obvious exceptions of Liam and Ryan (who were aiming not to sleep until bedtime!!).

We’d packed croissants for breakfast and later stopped for a big Burger King lunch. With it being Sunday, we’d realised that the supermarkets would be closed by the time we reached the campsite, so filling up seemed like the sensible option.

We finally pulled into Le Parc des Allais at around 3.30pm, roughly 14 hours after the 12.45am alarm. We were definitely ready to get out of the car.

Le Parc des Allais

Our base was Le Parc des Allais, booked through Eurocamp, where we had booked one of the more basic mobile homes.

And basic it was….

It was clean (a little too clean, they even removed all the grass…) and our location on the site was actually brilliant. We were close to reception, the pool and the entertainment area, so there was no trekking halfway across the campsite every time the boys wanted to do something.

It also meant that the boys could go off and explore the park without ever being particularly far away from us. As they got more confident around the site, they could head off to the park or have a wander while Liam and I stayed at the caravan.

This gave us the occasional bit of peace to get things sorted or simply recover from whichever sibling argument had happened five minutes earlier.

But the mobile home itself was much smaller than we’d expected. There was only really enough sofa space for three people, the kitchen was tiny and our veranda didn’t have a cover. Something we became increasingly jealous of when we realised most of the other accommodation seemed to have one.

Most importantly though, there was no air conditioning and no fan. France was hot!…Our caravan was hotter… It regularly got up to the high 30°C mark, and the caravan felt high 40°C, it was actually unbearable at times.

We also had broken fly screens in our bedroom, which we managed to temporarily fix ourselves (Liam did…). We resorted to filling some of the gaps with tin foil, like proper DIYers. But before we had time to think too much about our new home for the next four nights, we all wanted to head out and explore.

Our First Afternoon at Le Parc des Allais

At check-in, we were told that the pool was closed because it hadn’t passed its bacteria test that morning. Not exactly what you want to hear when you’ve just arrived at a campsite with three boys who have spent most of the journey looking forward to getting into the pool…

We unpacked the car, claimed bedrooms (always a drama with the kids!), sorted out the kitchen and decided to stretch our legs instead. We wandered down towards the river and had a little walk around the campsite to see what was there.

That’s when we noticed something confusing, people were in the pool. There were two pools, one fully outside and one covered. The covered pool was the one that was closed, which was fine because the outside pool was the one with the slides in it, and that’s all the kids cared about!

Back to the caravan we went, swimming stuff on and finally headed to the pool for around an hour and a half.

The main pool was definitely looking a little cloudy but after spending most of the day travelling in the heat, getting into the cold water was actually very welcome. The boys weren’t bothered in the slightest, they were straight in and loved the pool and slides. A quick little word beforehand to “try and avoid heads going in the water” was advised… but did that happen?… no!

Eventually we dragged ourselves away and headed back to the caravan. Then began what would become a familiar holiday routine:

Five people. One shower…

You’d think showering five people would be fairly straightforward. It was not. Every evening came with negotiations over who was going first, who was going second and who absolutely was NOT going after whoever had taken too long.

Then there were wet towels, towels being used by the wrong person, clothes left in random places and a bathroom floor that somehow seemed to end up completely soaked regardless of who had been in there.

By the time person number five had finally showered, it felt like we’d completed an evening activity in itself.

Once everyone was clean, we settled down for the evening with a snacky tea using the food we’d brought with us and a few games of cards.

We were exhausted, full and very ready for bed. Which is when I realised I’d left the shower-room window open…

Mosquito Warfare

By bedtime, our caravan was full of tiny mosquitoes. The joys of being next to a river and having a fishing lake in the middle of the campsite. We should have known better, considering the mosquitoes gave us a welcome on arrival too, being all over the floor as we walked to the caravan, but we didn’t…

We forgot to pack anything to deal with mosquitoes, not to kill them anyway, we had plenty of repellant to hand, but no means of getting rid of the things once they were in our space. So, armed with towels and a hair dryer, we got to work removing them and eventually managed to get rid of most of them. We left a light on in the living room to attract any remaining survivors, stuck mosquito patches to pyjamas and bedheads and covered ourselves in insect-repellant wipes.

Not quite the relaxing first night we’d imagined. Somehow though, everyone slept well. Thankfully, a trip to the supermarket the following morning would add some better mosquito repellant to our supplies, and the means of removing them should they get past that.

Tomorrow could only get better…

After the previous day’s 12.45am alarm, hours in the car and our unexpected evening of mosquito war, we’d deliberately planned absolutely nothing for our first full day in France.

And I’m very glad we did.

Everyone surfaced around 9am, and breakfast was simple, croissants for whoever wanted them. We had mini cereal boxes but as we had no “real” milk yet, just oat milk, no one fancied cereal.

The boys immediately wanted to know what we were doing. Apparently, “nothing” isn’t an acceptable holiday itinerary when you’re a child. We explained that after spending pretty much the whole of the previous day travelling, this was going to be a chilled day. No castles, no sightseeing and nowhere we needed to be at a particular time. Our only real job that morning was to find a supermarket and stock up properly.

Our First French Supermarket Trip

We headed to the local Intermarche and stocked up on enough food and drink to see us through the next few days….or so we thought! We bought baguettes, meats, snacks and drinks and all the usual bits you somehow need five minutes after arriving on holiday.

The boys actually really enjoyed wandering around a French supermarket and looking at all the different food on offer, although some of the fresh counters were met with considerably more “urghhh” than enthusiasm, although somehow, we still heard “Can we get this?” every 5 seconds… They were overly disgusted at the rabbit…

Back at the caravan we made a simple lunch of fresh baguettes and meat (not rabbit meat…) before getting changed and heading to the place the boys had really been waiting for: the pool.

An Afternoon by the Pool

The pool area was much quieter than it had been when we arrived the previous evening, and thankfully the water was looking less cloudy too.

Both pools were open now and we managed to grab two sun loungers underneath an umbrella, which felt like a small holiday victory. The boys pretty much disappeared straight into the water and made their own fun, while Liam and I settled ourselves in for the afternoon.

This was probably the first point of the trip where I properly felt like we were on holiday. There was no clock watching, nowhere else to be and nothing we needed to organise.

We read our books, had the occasional doze and dipped in and out of the water whenever the heat got too much. The boys happily entertained themselves between the pools and the slides while we did very little at all.

I had every intention of getting through plenty of my book whilst lying beside the pool. There was just one slight problem…my sunglasses vs the tablet I was reading my book from! My sunglasses are polarised and the screen protector on the tablet is also polarised, meaning that all I could see was a black screen.

It wasn’t until I said to Liam that the tablet wasn’t working, and he checked and it absolutely was…he clicked the connection. I then had to read the tablet on its side as this was the only way to see it with my sunglasses on still.

We left the pool around 5.30pm, when it weirdly started to get busier, we guessed this was people returning from days out and coming to cool off.

Once everyone was eventually clean, we made pizza for dinner and got the cards out. The boys actually know some pretty good games, so we played Rummy, Go Fish and Hearts as a post dinner wind-down.

An Unexpectedly Strong Mojito

Later that evening, the boys wanted to go and explore the campsite and headed off to the park by themselves. They came back to tell us there was entertainment happening, so we all wandered up towards the entertainment area to have a look.

There was a mini disco going on (what else could it possibly have been! There’s always a mini disco at any holiday resort!), but the boys weren’t remotely interested in staying for it, leaving Liam and me sitting there with our drinks. We’d ordered cocktails, Liam ordered a Pina Colada and mine was a mojito.

Now, I have had plenty of mojitos before, however, I had forgotten from last year that the French interpretation can be considerably stronger than the ones I am used to at home. It was very enthusiastic with the alcohol.

With the boys happily playing at the park and neither of us particularly invested in the mini disco, we admitted defeat and took our drinks back to the caravan instead.

After the chaos of the first night, we were ready for the end-of-day mosquito invasion, but we were better prepared, so whilst it wasn’t entirely mosquito free, it was at least mozzie-free-ish.

It wasn’t the most exciting day of the holiday, we didn’t visit anywhere spectacular or take hundreds of sightseeing photos but that is exactly why it worked. After all the travelling the day before, everyone needed a reset.

Sometimes the best thing you can put on a holiday itinerary is nothing at all.

After our much needed lazy day yesterday, it was time to actually leave the campsite and do some exploring. Our first proper day out was a trip to Chinon and we’d decided to visit the Forteresse Royale de Chinon.

We left the campsite at around 9.30am, with the drive taking roughly half an hour. It was a lovely journey through little French villages and countryside. We hadn’t pre booked any parking and were hoping to find somewhere free.

Thankfully we did, we managed to get a space in the car park at the end of the fortress driveway. It was already getting busy when we arrived at around 10am, so getting there reasonably early definitely worked in our favour.

Chinon at a Glance

Chinon sits on the River Vienne in the Loire Valley and is probably best known for its medieval fortress overlooking the town. There’s much more than just the fortress though, the old town below is full of narrow streets, cafes and restaurants, with the riverfront nearby if you want to turn the fortress visit into a longer day out.

We only scratched the surface because our priority was the fortress and naturally getting three hungry boys fed afterwards.

Exploring Chinon Fortress

The fortress wasn’t particularly busy when we first arrived, although it definitely got busier as the morning went on. And pretty quickly, we realised we had made a good choice.

Sometimes taking three boys (who are addicted to screens) around a historic building can go one of two ways. Either they’re genuinely interested or you’re approximately six minutes in when the first “how much longer are we going to be here?” appears.

Luckily, Chinon was a hit. The fortress itself has loads of history and some amazing views over Chinon and the surrounding countryside, but what really made the visit work for the boys was the Histopad (which the kids loved… it was a screen after all!).

Rather than just walking around reading information boards, we were given an interactive tablet that brought different areas of the fortress to life. At certain points you could hold it up and scan the room around you to see how the space would have once looked. There was information to discover and hidden treasures to collect as you went around.

Suddenly we weren’t just dragging three children around an old fortress. They actually had something to do. We took loads of photos and videos as we explored and stopped about halfway round at a little drinks truck for something cold before carrying on. It was warming up, so cold drinks were needed!

By the time we had finished exploring the fortress, everyone was ready for lunch. Which, as we have learnt, is quite an important moment when travelling with three boys.

The Search for Lunch

There were a few options around the fortress itself, but nothing really appealed to everyone, so we decided to head down into the centre of Chinon. This involved discovering one of the more random features of the day: a lift down into the town.

Not quite what we were expecting when leaving a medieval fortress, but very handy.

Once we reached the centre, we wandered around looking at the restaurants before eventually settling on a taco place. Unfortunately we had also managed to arrive at what appeared to be peak French lunchtime. It was busy, service was slow and there seemed to be only one man doing pretty much everything, he wasn’t very cheerful either!

This was not ideal when the boys had reached the dangerous stage of being hungry, or more accurately: hangry… Eventually, food arrived and peace was restored.

Briefly.

Because Liam managed to bite an ulcer inside his mouth and make it bleed. Thankfully there was a pharmacy nearby, because you can’t go 500 meters in a French town without a Pharmacy or a Tabac, so after lunch and a walk down towards the river we stopped to see if they had anything that might help.

After uselessly trying to explain what had happened and showing a picture of what we were looking for on Google, we came away with some ulcer gel that isn’t something we have been able to find easily in the UK. The trade off for it working brilliantly was that it stung like hell when applied and made Liam’s mouth numb, he sounded like Leonardo Dicaprio in Wolf Of Wall Street when off his head on quaaludes… still, it did the job.

Back to the Campsite

After Chinon we headed back towards the campsite, but first made another supermarket stop. This time we needed a couple of glamorous holiday essentials that had been forgotten: a belt for Liam and sunglasses for Lewis. We also picked up a ball for the boys to use in the pool, along with some more snacks!

Back at the caravan, everyone had around half an hour to reset before we headed out to the pool. By this point, we’d developed a fairly successful holiday rhythm: Explore somewhere in the morning and then pool in the afternoon… and maybe the shop…

We managed to get a couple of sun loungers again, Liam and I dipped in and out of the water and the boys disappeared with their new ball. After a morning walking around Chinon, it was a pretty good way to spend the rest of the afternoon.

Sausage Baguettes and Some Questionable French

Eventually we headed back to the caravan for the now standard shower operation, and of course there were still arguments over who was going in what order.

Dinner that night was sausage baguettes, followed by another evening where the boys decided they would rather go off to the park than sit playing cards with us. Fine by us, Liam and I got the cards out and enjoyed the relative peace.

Then the boys came back with a story…

While they had been playing, Ryan had wanted to tell a French girl to stop doing something, but he didn’t know the French word. Lewis, being the helpful older brother that he is, informed Ryan that the word he was looking for was:

“J’adore.”

Ryan believed him without question, which is surprising to be honest! So there he was repeatedly telling this French girl: “J’adore! J’adore!” For anyone whose French is as questionable as ours, j’adore very definitely does not mean stop. It means I love/adore.

The boys found the whole thing hilarious, however, not entirely sure what the poor girl thought.

As it started getting darker, they eventually came back to the caravan, we fitted in a couple more games of cards and a game of “I went to the supermarket and bought…” (or as Ryan calls it “I put in my supermarket trolley”) and called it a night.

Would we recommend it? Absolutely. Chinon was exactly the sort of family day out that works for us. There was enough history and scenery for the adults, but the histopad gave the boys something interactive to keep them interested too.

We didn’t spend the entire day sightseeing either, a few hours exploring Chinon followed by an afternoon back at the pool meant nobody got completely fed up.

After how well Chinon had gone the day before, we were ready for our second proper day of exploring the Loire Valley. This time we were heading to Azay-le-Rideau, around half an hour away from the campsite to visit the chateau.

We left around 10am and we found ourselves driving into another pretty little French village. Sadly, due to the hot weather France had been having, all the amazing sunflower fields were looking all sad and dead.

We’d hoped to find some free parking, but everyone else had the same idea, by the time we arrived the free spaces were already full. Rather than spending half the morning driving around looking for free spaces we gave in and parked in the car park next to the chateau. Sometimes it’s worth just paying for the easy option.

First Impressions of the Chateau

From the car park, we made our way towards the chateau along the lovely tree-lined driveway. And when we reached the grounds, it was immediately obvious why Chateau d’Azay-le-Rideau is so popular.

It was beautiful. We were lucky with the weather again and against the blue sky, the chateau looked amazing.

The building itself seemed quite busy when we arrived, so rather than heading straight inside, we decided to explore the grounds first. This turned out to be a good decision, the grounds were much quieter than the main building, and offered some amazing views of the lake that surrounds the Chateau.

We wandered around the gardens and followed a wooded path towards the back of the chateau, taking plenty of photos as we went. Or rather, Liam took plenty of photos.

Somewhere around this point in the holiday, Liam’s photography became increasingly enthusiastic and he earned himself a new nickname:

Liam Attenborough……

Nature. Trees. Buildings. Wildlife. Nothing was safe from the camera. To be fair to him, we got some amazing photos out of it.

You Can’t See a Bridge and Not Play Pooh Sticks

While exploring the grounds, we found a small bridge over a stream. With three boys there was obviously only one thing we could do.

Pooh sticks…it's a family favourite!

Everyone selected their sticks, lined up on the bridge and we managed to get a video of the race. It would have been a lovely little family holiday video, however, another couple decided to walk onto the bridge halfway through and accidentally gate-crashed it.

Still, that’s probably a more accurate representation of a family holiday anyway.

After finishing our walk around the grounds, we headed inside the chateau.

Beautiful for Us…Less Exciting for the Boys

Inside, there was plenty to look at and lots of information about the chateau and its history. Liam and I enjoyed wandering through it. The boys? Not quite as much.

They weren’t necessarily badly behaved or completely uninterested, but compared with Chinon the previous day there was a noticeable difference. At Chinon, the Histopad and treasure hunt had given them something to actually do as we explored.

Azay-le-Rideau was much more traditional, beautiful rooms with lots of history and information to read. But less for the boys to interact with, so whilst I was trying to read about the history, they were already in the next room.

And that’s when we started to realise that as lovely as Azay-leRideau was, Chinon was probably going to win our family vote.

We Went for a Drink and Accidentally Had Lunch

After exploring the chateau, we stopped at the cafe just intending to grab a drink, however, once we sat down we felt obliged to order lunch as well. Somehow a quick drink turned into lunch.

The boys all went for croque monsieur, while Liam chose a salmon quiche and I had quiche Lorraine. Our quiches were delicious, the croque monsieur situation was slightly less successful, or at least it was for Theo.

The first few bites everything was fine, then as usual after analysing the sandwich, it was suddenly too soggy and the cheese was too fluffy. Anyone who knows Theo will know that food causing some sort of drama isn’t something unique to travelling in France. It’s more of a recurring theme…

We eventually survived the soggy sandwich incident and finished lunch before heading back out to explore the village.

One thing we really liked about the cafe was that there was an option to scan a QR code and build a wish list to order, which when it came to ordering made it 100x easier to order.

The Real Highlight: Ice Cream

We had a wander around Azay-le-Rideau and also visited the Secret Garden, although there wasn’t a huge amount to walk around. Liam Attenborough did get some awesome shots of a purple bee collecting pollen though!

Then we found Volo. It was a great little ice shop which was reasonably priced and with loads of flavours to choose from. I went for a three scoop tub and chose pistachio, almond and vanilla. With the boys all choosing different mixes, and of course for them including a chocolate variety of some sort.

After spending the morning visiting one of the Loire Valley’s beautiful historic chateaux, you’d perhaps expect me to say the architecture or the history was the highlight of my day. But nope…it was the ice cream!

One Last Afternoon at the Pool

After Azay-le-Rideau we headed back towards the campsite. By this point, the weather had started to change. The wind was picking up and we knew there was a storm forecast, but we still had time to squeeze in one last afternoon at the pool.

Unfortunately, everyone else seemed to have the same idea. The pool area was much busier than it had been on previous afternoons and there wasn’t a sun lounger in sight.

So Liam and I employed the highly sophisticated holiday technique of getting into the pool and watching people. Not in a creepy way I must add, we were waiting for someone to leave.

Eventually I spotted a family who looked like they were packing up and gave Liam the signal. Off he went and secured the loungers…success!

The boys carried on playing while we finally got to lie down and relax. I was comfortable and warm, slowly starting to doze off. And then the weather decided that was enough relaxation for me.

Attacked by a Parasol

The wind suddenly picked up and caught the umbrella we had set ourselves up under. The umbrella went flying and straight towards me. It caught me on the leg before continuing on its adventure across the pool area.

Thankfully, I escaped with nothing worse than a bruised shin, but between the increasingly strong wind and the approaching storm we decided perhaps the universe was telling us it was time to leave.

We headed back to the caravan earlier than planned and started getting everything ready for the following morning.

Packing Up…in the Rain

After the usual shower operation, dinner that night was chicken pasta bake. We then managed to fit in a few games of boules, something the boys had discovered at the campsite the previous evening.

Most of our things needed to be ready because the next morning we’d be leaving the Loire Valley and heading to the second part of our road trip.

We barely got going when the heavens opened. Of course they did! So a good chunk of the packing ended up being done in the rain. We finally admitted defeat, left the remaining bits for the morning and retreated inside for snacks and card games.

And just like that, our final night in the Loire Valley was done.

Would we recommend Azay-le-Rideau? Yes, it’s a beautiful chateau, the grounds are lovely and we’re glad we visited. But if we were recommending somewhere specifically to another family with children around the same ages as ours, we’d choose the Chinon Fortress first.

The Histopad made Chinon much more interactive, whereas Azay-le-Rideau felt more like somewhere Liam and I appreciated than somewhere the boys were particularly excited about.

That said, we wouldn't change our decision to visit both. They gave us two completely different Loire Valley experiences and Azay-le-Rideau gave me pistachio, almond and vanilla ice cream… So it certainly wasn’t a wasted journey.

After four nights, two days out, plenty of time at the pool and considerably more experience with mosquitoes than we’d have liked, it was time to pack up and move onto the next part of our road trip.

So what did we actually think?

Would we stay at Le Parc des Allais again?

Probably not. That’s not to say we hated it, because we didn’t.

There were things about the site that worked really well for us. Our mobile home was in a brilliant location, close to reception, the pool and the entertainment area. The boys enjoyed the pools and slides, they were happy going off to explore the park by themselves in the evenings and it gave us a good base for visiting the places we’d planned to see.

The mobile home itself was also clean when we arrived. But there were enough little things that when added together we probably wouldn’t choose to return.

The biggest issue for us was the accommodation. We knew we had booked one of the more basic mobile homes, so we weren’t expecting luxury but it was smaller and more basic than we’d anticipated. With five of us, the limited living space was noticeable, particularly when everyone was inside at the same time.

The lack of air conditioning or even a fan was also difficult in the heat. The caravan got incredibly warm and having broken fly screens made opening the windows slightly more complicated than it should have been. Coupled with the abnormally high amount of mosquitoes too, it became a battle of trying to get ventilation through the caravan to cool it down, and let the shower steam out, and stop the mosquitoes from getting in! Whilst this might not be the campsites fault, it still detracted from the experience somewhat.

Then there was the veranda envy. Ours was uncovered, while what felt like almost every other mobile home around us had some sort of covered outdoor space. Having somewhere shaded to sit outside, particularly when it was hot would have made a massive difference… Maybe this is a “You get what you pay for moment”, but it literally was only ours that didn’t have one.

The ground immediately outside the mobile home was also really uneven, so Liam decided against parking the car there and parked to the side of the caravan instead. A decision that turned out to be rather lucky. Later in the stay, we spotted several huge rusty nails sticking out of the ground, talking about nine inches long. Not ideal next to a family mobile home where children are walking around in crocs!

The Pool & Facilities

The pool was probably the boys’ favourite part of the campsite. They loved the slides and would happily have spent every afternoon there, which made our routine of sightseeing in the morning and swimming later work really well.

As adults though, we weren’t quite as impressed. When we arrived, we were told that one of the pools had been closed after failing a cleanliness/bacteria test that morning, and the main pool was looking noticeably cloudy… Liam was pretty disgusted by the situation!

It did look better the following day and we continued to use it throughout our stay, but it wasn’t the best first impression.

There were also some differences between what we’d expected from the campsite before travelling and what we actually found when we arrived. We had been under the impression there would be activities available on the river, including things such as canoeing or inflatables, but there weren’t any during our stay. It’s frustrating when websites use one-off or seasonal event imagery to sell holidays and then they aren’t available when you actually get there.

We also thought bike hire was included, bikes were available but there was a charge to hire them.

None of those things ruined our holiday though, in reality we had plenty to do anyway but they’re things we’d check more carefully before booking somewhere similar again.

What Did Work Well

For all our complaints about the caravan, the actual location worked really well for the type of holiday we’d planned. We could easily get to both Chinon and Azay-le-Rideau, while still having enough time to get back to the campsite and spend the afternoon by the pool.

That balance was probably the biggest success of our Loire Valley stay. We weren’t getting up at the crack of dawn every morning, dragging the boys around attractions all day and arriving back exhausted.

It felt like a holiday rather than an itinerary we were desperately trying to complete. And four nights was enough for what we wanted from this part of the trip.

Chinon vs Azay-le-Rideau

If we had to choose our favourite day out, Chinon wins easily. The fortress itself was interesting, the views were brilliant and the Histopad made such a difference for the boys.

Azay-le-Rideau was probably the prettier of the two and we really enjoyed the grounds, but it didn’t hold the boys’ attention in quite the same way.

For adults? We’d recommend both. For a family with children and only enough time for one? We’d choose Chinon.

Although Azay-le-Rideau does have the advantage of excellent ice cream nearby!

Would We Visit the Loire Valley Again?

Absolutely! We barely scratched the surface. There are so many towns, chateaux and places we didn’t visit, and we deliberately planned it that way.

Trying to cram everything into four nights with three children would have taken away a lot of what we enjoyed about this part of the holiday. Instead, we chose a couple of places, gave ourselves downtime and accepted that we weren’t going to see everything.

If we came back, we’d happily explore a completely different part of the Loire Valley. We would just make one significant change. We would spend more on the accommodation, ensuring we had air conditioning, more living space and where possible…less mosquitoes.

After four nights at Le Parc des Allais, these no longer feel like luxuries, they feel like a shopping list!