Loire Valley
Your stay in the Centre Region: from the valley of the kings to gastronomic dining
Once revered by kings, and bright and sparkling during the “Spring of Bourges” music festival, the Centre-Val-de-Loire Region is certainly able to take advantage of its assets.
The Centre Region, a royal land!
Your stay in the Centre Region will lead you in the footsteps of Francis I, who orchestrated the Renaissance in true French style on the banks of the Loire by having Chambord Castle built as a hunting lodge. Maybe you will be curious enough to travel upstream to visit Amboise or, further up, Chenonceau.
While your stay in the Centre Region will be an opportunity to admire those elegant royal residences, you can also chance here and there upon sturdy little medieval forts, like Sarzay or Saint-Chartier, which George Sand used to praise. This heart of France, blessed by the Gods as shown by Chartres Cathedral, has always been appreciated by the powerful. Grateful for the near-maternal welcome he experienced in the region, Jacques Cœur, builder of Bourges Palace, gave the Centre Region an exceptional architectural heritage.
The Centre Region, a kaleidoscope of colours
One has to have lived in the Sologne, the Cher or the Touraine to fully appreciate the silence of the land pervading the Centre Region, to sense within its woody fragrance the promise of a heart-warming fireplace, of a strain of mushrooms or an armful of lilac. Yonder, the horizon takes on “that lovely blue colour that becomes purple and then turns black on stormy days.”
Your stay in the Centre Region might be a chance for you to follow in the steps of Balzac through the Touraine countryside. You could also fly over its villages, its castles and deep forests in a hot-air balloon, or sail its rivers large and small amidst the birds in the Brenne Natural Park, unless like Don Quixote, you try storming its windmills.
Celebrate the spring, as Bourges gets fired up. And lastly, enjoy the gourmet pleasures you will anticipate at the sight of all those orchards and forests, those rivers replete with fish and those meadows alive with prancing goats.
The Centre Region, the promised land for gourmets
In the Centre Region, they know all about eating. Delicately turning their terroir to good account, the natives are adept at sharing good food whatever the season. To wit, rillettes pâté and pork bites, asparagus, game pâté, trout and salmon, shad and whitebait caught in the Loire, Sologne venison and mushrooms, Chavignol, Valençay or Sainte-Maure goat cheese. Not to forget inspired desserts: Tatin Sisters tart, Pithiviers almond cake, Montargis pralines, Berry pear cake, Chartres Mentchikoff candies and more.
All this is to be enjoyed served with the best of vintages, learning to appreciate the harmonious vitality of a Sancerre, the sunny highlights of a Chinon, the structured refinement of a Bourgueil... All this indeed, if only to admire, with no less esurience, the sleepy hills beneath the vineyards, delighting in that mildness that makes one want to stay, for a few days, or forever.
Book your stay in the Centre Region at a Logis hotel restaurant and let yourself relish the wealthy heritage and gastronomy that the region will offer you.
Wouldn’t you like to surprise your better half by offering her or him a thematic stay at a Logis hotel restaurant? So head for our store and find an original, romantic gift idea. Looking to organising a meeting with your colleagues? How about a Séminaire au Vert to recharge your batteries in the peace and quiet of the French countryside?