| Departure Conference Center |
8:30 |
| Visit of Villandry Castle |
10:00 |
| Lunch |
12:45 |
| Visit of Chenonceau castle |
15:00 |
| Back to Conference center |
18:45 |
| Price (including lunch) |
88€ |
In the North of Poitiers, a visit of several castles of the Loire situated at a quarter past one of Poitiers is planned with for example the castle of Villandry and its gardens, the castle of Chenonceau.
Loire Valley (Vallée de la Loire) is known as the Garden of France and the Cradle of the French Language. It is also noteworthy for the quality of its architectural heritage, in its historic towns such as
Amboise, Angers, Blois, Chinon, Orléans, Saumur, and Tours, but in particular for its world-famous castles, such as the Châteaux d'Amboise, Château de Villandry and Chenonceau.
The landscape of the Loire Valley, and more particularly its many cultural monuments, illustrate to an exceptional degree the ideals of the Renaissance and the Age of the Enlightenment on western European thought and design. The Loire Valley is an outstanding cultural landscape of great beauty, containing historic towns and villages, great architectural monuments, its many châteaux, and fine wines.
Just south west of Tours, at the heart of the Loire Valley, Chinon was the birthplace of François Rabelais. The appellation of Chinon covers some 2000 hectares. It’s wines are produced by some 200 vignerons and its vineyards are planted on different terrors, most notably gravel beds on the plain (the source of wines that can be enjoyed from their first Easter, in the full freshness of their youth) and the limestone and sand-of-limestone slopes that produce long-Iived wines that improve with keeping
The castle of Chenonceau, has for the last thirty years been a strong representative of Art in all its forms, and as recently as this summer housed part of Unesco’s collections offering a contemporary testimony of its humanist commitment.
