The Loire Valley in the central parts of France, offers beautiful scenery and some amazing palaces set on the river banks.
The UNESCO World Heritage List includes more than a thousand properties with outstanding universal value. They are all part of the world’s cultural and natural heritage.
Official facts
- Official title: The Loire Valley between Sully-sur-Loire and Chalonnes
- Country: France
- Date of Inscription: 2000
- Category: Cultural site
UNESCO’s World Heritage Centre’s short description of site no. 933:
“The Loire Valley is an outstanding cultural landscape of great beauty, containing historic towns and villages, great architectural monuments (the chateaux), and cultivated lands formed by many centuries of interaction between their population and the physical environment, primarily the river Loire itself.”
My visit
We spent a couple of days here in the valley going west to east. From Blois we made excursions to two famous palaces. I took these notes in 1991:
“Chambord was huge, more like a fortress than a castle, even though the original and traditional square shape had been extended several times. Chambord was not as rich as Cheverny, but the size made us spend more time here. And the camera “rolled”.”