Visiting Castles in the Loire Valley Without a Car

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While staying in Paris, France for the whole month of April, I am trying to take a handful of longer day trips or weekend trips outside the city. One “must” on my list of day trips from Paris was to visit the castles of the Loire Valley via public transportation and on a budget.

There are hundreds of châteaux in the Loire Valley, so it’s impossible to see them all unless you live here for a lifetime. To decide which castles I would include on my self-guided tour of the Loire Valley, I looked up “best of” lists online to help me narrow things down. Then I figured out which ones are accessible via public transportation. When I head to the countryside of France in May, I’ll be renting a car, but for the time being I am reliant on trains and buses.

I really liked this list of the 7 Best Castles to Visit in the Loire Valley. I wanted to see as many of them as possible, but ultimately settled on 4 that I could easily access from the town of Blois without a car: Château de Blois, Château de Chambord, Château d’Amboise, and Château du Clos Lucé. In the midst of my trip I learned about 3 additional bonus castles you could add to this car-less itinerary: Château de Cheverny, Château de Beauregard, and Château Chaumont. In addition to explaining how to get there, in this post I’ll also relay some of the coolest history I learned about the castles I visited and what my experience was like with crowds; hopefully this will help you choose which ones you want to prioritize.

I was recently on the Join Us in France Travel Podcast episode 432: Visiting the Loire Valley without a Car, if you prefer listening to podcasts over reading blog posts!

Getting to Loire Valley from Paris without a car

Train/Bus from Paris to Blois

To get to Blois from Paris you can take the TER (SNCF) train from Gare d’Austerlitz to Gare de Blois-Chambord, about a 1.5 hour ride. This direct train seems to always occur early in the morning around 7:20-7:30am.

If you miss that train, you’ll have to come up with a combination of transfers to reach Blois. For instance, you could take a train to Orléans (anything bound for Tours or Nantes should stop in Orléans) and then a bus from Orléans to Blois. You could also leave from Montparnasse instead of Austerlitz and get the TGV to Tours, then backtrack by taking the TER from Tours to Gare de Blois-Chambord. 

Transit Apps

I mostly use Google Maps set to the “transit” option to figure out the best routes, but this is not always updated when it comes to maintenance or holiday interruptions. Here are a few apps I also downloaded before my trip to France to help me figure out transit options for day trips outside of Paris:

• Trainline (check train and bus times throughout Europe and book tickets)
• Busradar (compare bus and train trips from Paris and throughout Europe)
• SNCF Connect (schedules and fares for France’s national state-owned railway company)
• BlaBlaCar (third party bus and carpooling company unrelated to SNCF, similar to FlixBus)

I was really glad I remembered about BlaBlaBus, because I bought a return ticket to Paris at the end of my Val de Loire excursion only to find out the trains were not running from Blois to Paris for multiple days due to scheduled maintenance (why the kiosk at the station let me purchase it, I have no idea). I would have been stranded in Blois if I hadn’t worked out that I could take the train to Orléans and then BlaBlaBus to Paris from there. 

I got these app suggestions from the Join us in France travel podcast. They also recommended GoEuro for buses throughout France (now called Omio), C’est La Grève to find reroute and interruption information due to local strikes, Rail Europe (formerly Loco2), RATP, and Citymapper. 

Types of Trains

If these train options are sounding confusing, you can read more about the different types of trains that service Île-de-France and surrounding regions here. OuiGo trains offer the cheapest deals, but there are more rules regarding extra cost for baggage, etc. Note that you’ll probably want to buy TGV high speed train tickets in advance, whereas TER local trains don’t sell out and can be bought last minute at the station. Also note that if at any point you’re asked whether you prefer to pay in USD or local currency (Euros), choose local currency so you don’t get gauged.

Pro-tip: when taking trains like TER or TGV, you need to validate (“composter”) your ticket before boarding in order to avoid a fine. You’ll spot a little machine that stamps your ticket, which will look either like this or like this.

Where to stay in the Loire Valley + local transit

I chose Blois as my base in the Loire Valley because it’s an adorable medieval village and all of the castles on my list are easily accessible from town. Château de Blois is right there in the town itself. The town of Amboise, where Château d’Amboise and Château de Clos Lucé are located, is a 20 minute train ride away.

Public Transportation from Blois to Loire Valley Castles

There is a shuttle bus that only costs 3 Euros that will drop you off at Château de Chambord and then pick you back up and return you to Blois for another 3 Euros. I was late to realize this, but the same shuttle will also take you to Château de Cheverny and Château de Beauregard, so you could fit extra castles into this trip if you don’t get castle fatigue! The bus is operated by Rémi. Here are the castle shuttle bus schedules.

There is also the Azalys shuttle that will bring you to Château Chaumont, but it picks up and drops off from the Onzain-Chaumont train station instead of in Blois. This is still easy peasy, because Onzain-Chaumont is the station in between Blois and Amboise on the TER.

Accommodation in Blois, Amboise, and Tours

Find hotels in Blois, hostels in Blois, and hotels in Amboise.

There are plenty of fancy hotels and B&Bs in Blois, but I was budget-minded and picked Le Pavillon for the cost. The reviews are pretty bad, but I was happily surprised. The room they gave me was massive and had a view overlooking the Loire River! It was walking distance from everything in Blois.

If you are budget-minded too, you might look at staying at the hostel in Tours. Tours is a good base to visit additional castles from the Best Of lists. On one of my days in the Loire Valley, I thought I would take a train from Blois to Tours and then try to visit Château d’Ussé, the one that inspired the Sleeping Beauty castle from Disney. However, for the life of me I could not figure out a public transit option to get to the castle from Tours. A taxi would be expensive, plus I’d have to work out how to get the driver to return for the trip back. I also couldn’t find a BlaBlaCar carpooling situation. I thought I might hitchhike, but four castles ended up being quite enough for one weekend trip from Paris anyway. 

If anyone has a tip about a public transit option from Tours to Château d’Ussé I’d love to hear it!

Pro-Tip: Before visiting any castles, pop into l’Office du Tourisme in Blois to check out the Castle Pass deals! If I had known about this I could have saved money on entry fees, but alas, I didn’t visit the tourist office until my last day. They have a combination entry pass that includes all four of the castles I visited. They have passes that include Beauregard and Cheverny too, or the Son et Lumière light show at Château de Blois.

Castles You Can Visit in the Loire Valley Without a Car

Seven French kings lived at Château de Blois, the earliest being Louis XII (1462-1515). Kings were far from the first to inhabit the grounds, though. The first construction on the site was a citadel dating back to the 6th century, before it was turned into a medieval fortress in the 9th century. Today you’ll see the most hints of Francis I, whose salamander motif adorns plenty of surfaces, or Henri III who is represented by the letter “H” on decorations throughout the castle.

My favorite facts about this castle are that Joan of Arc visited here in 1429 to be blessed (perhaps in the chapel shown in the gallery?) before she defeated the English at Orléans, and that King Henri III murdered the Duke of Guise in the royal bedroom before his ashes were thrown into the Loire River. The castle has at least four different architectural styles since each new resident added onto it over the centuries (Gothic, Flamboyant, Renaissance, and Classicism).

Did you know there’s an annual Joan of Arc Festival in Orléans each spring? The most recent festival, the 594th, was on April 29-May 8, 2023.

Every evening from April 9th to September 25, 2022 and during the All Saints Holidays (Oct 22-Nov 5), Château de Blois has a spectacular Son et Lumière immersive sound and light show! You can purchase a combination ticket for daytime entry to the castle as well as evening re-entry to the light show for €20, or some of the Castle Pass combinations described above also include entry to the light show. I thought it was magical and very worth it; it may be the best sound and light show I’ve seen.

This castle is the easiest to get to since it’s right there in the town of Blois. I walked to it immediately upon deboarding at the Gare de Blois-Chambord.

Be sure to grab the free “Histopad” tablet when you arrive! It’s an interactive informational tablet that tracks you via GPS as you walk through the various rooms in order to present you with additional information in your language. It even has a few virtual reality features; if you hold the tablet up and point it at items in the room, it will show you what they might have looked like in the 15th and 16th centuries.

This is the most crowded castle I visited in the Loire Valley, to the point that is was overwhelming. It was also the largest and most majestic, even though the ramparts were undergoing construction. Out of the castles I visited in the Loire Valley, this one felt the most like the castles you imagine from fairytale movies. The rooms were large and opulent, and the layout matched the drawings I did of castles as a kid. It’s best known for the double helix staircase designed by Leonardo da Vinci, but my favorite part was climbing up to the top floor where you can walk around on what’s essentially “the roof” and see the towers up close. I also enjoyed the horse drawn carriage exhibit.

There are extensive gardens for leisurely walking, or you can rent bikes or boats. There was a market set up the day I was there, plus a few very busy restaurants. Many visitors opted to grab some produce from the market and then sit out on the lawn to have a picnic, while others watched the horse riding or birds of prey demonstrations.

There is really only one way to get to Château de Chambord without a car, and that’s via the Rémi shuttle bus. Note that the schedule changes not only based on the season, but also the day in question. Make sure the day you want to go lines up with the bus schedule, and check the return times so you don’t miss your bus back when you’re done exploring the castle. This shuttle can also take you to Château Beauregard and Château Cheverny. A one-way ticket is €3, which you can pay via cash directly to the bus driver. The two shuttle bus stops in Blois are at Gare de Blois-Chambord and directly beneath l’Office du Tourisme, down the stairs on the street. Supposedly you can show your receipt from the shuttle bus to the ticket desk agent at the castles to get a discount on your castle entry, which I didn’t know in advance.

The Histopad was not free at Château de Chambord like it was at Blois and Amboise, so I didn’t get one this time. It was so crowded that I don’t think I would have enjoyed it as much anyway. Rather than ambling around reading from the tablet, I wanted to move quickly to get out of people’s way.

Château d’Amboise is where Leonardo da Vinci is entombed. When King Francis I lived here, he invited da Vinci to live nearby at Château du Clos Lucé in 1516, which is only walking distance from Château d’Amboise. He lived his final three years there and ultimately died at Clos Lucé, but was buried here in St Hubert’s chapel. Of course, the day I arrived they were doing a massive reconstruction of the chapel (last photo) so I didn’t get to see his resting place from the inside.

This castle is one of the most idyllic-looking structures on the list. I absolutely loved snapping photos of it from all angles, always noticing something new. It reminded me of that movie Ever After. She becomes friends with Leonardo da Vinci who she meets while he’s trying out an invention to help him walk on water. The movie takes places in early 1500s France, so I wonder if that was supposed to be the Loire River, or perhaps the private garden ponds you’ll see while walking at da Vinci’s home.

Once again the Histopad is free!

To get to Château d’Amboise you’ll take the train from Gare de Blois-Chambord to Amboise, about 30 minutes. From Gare d’Amboise to the château is a pleasant 20 minute walk that will take you over the Loire River past quaint boulangeries and cafés.

Amboise is the meetup point for this hot air balloon ride; they will also pick you up from a hotel within 9 miles of Amboise. Book a tour to see the Loire Valley châteaux from above!

The name Leonardo da Vinci probably strikes more wonder into the hearts and minds of people around the world than the name of any French monarch. Of course, sadly for the French, da Vinci was Italian. Still, they can lay claim to having housed him in his final three years here at Château du Clos Lucé. King Francis I seems to have felt that da Vinci played a fatherly role in his life. Supposedly he visited da Vinci often via the tunnels connecting Château d’Amboise and Château du Clos Lucé (check out a picture of the tunnel entrance in the gallery).

I was happy to find that Clos Lucé has a much cozier and warmer feel to it than any of the other castles on the list. I liked imagining da Vinci wandering these halls or warming himself by the fire. The best room for modern visitors to check out is obviously his workshop, where they’ve recreated his drawing, painting, and scientific work stations.

A lot of the furniture is taken from other locations, but it is at least of the same era and gives you an accurate depiction of what life may have been like here in the early 1500s. A few things are recreations. A couple items are original, for instance, the wall paneling detail recovered in the upper lefthand corner of da Vinci’s bedroom (see gallery) or a mathematical compass da Vinci designed.

When you’re through touring the main rooms of the house, join groups of children on school trips to check out the exhibition rooms where da Vinci’s inventions are modeled. Then take a walk through his beautiful gardens dotted with more of his creations. There’s also a separate museum building further explaining his accomplishments and perspective on life.

The walk to Clos Lucé is just a ten minute stroll from Château d’Amboise, straight down Rue Victor Hugo. When you’re done exploring both castles, have a seat at a café in Amboise and soak up the ambiance.

More Options for Visiting the Loire Valley from Paris

Loire Valley 3 Best Castles & Wine Tasting Small-Group Day Trip includes Chenonceau, Chambord, and Amboise (entrance tickets and round-trip transportation from Paris included)
Loire Valley Castles & Wine Tasting Day Trip includes Chambord, Chenonceau, and the town of Blois (skip-the-line entrance tickets and round-trip transportation from Paris included)
Loire Valley Castles Tour with hotel pick-up includes Chambord, Chenonceau and Cheverny (this one is the same company and is cheaper, presumably because it has a meetup point instead of hotel pick-up and you can choose between self-guided, audioguide, or guided. On Mondays and Saturdays in summer, you will visit Amboise castle instead of Chambord).

@thedetoureffect

Just back from the year 1500 #loirevalley #valdeloire #france #castles #chateaudeblois #chateau #chateaudechambord #chateaudamboise #castlesofeurope #frenchcastle #fairytales #blois #amboise

♬ Fairytale (From “Shrek”) – Geek Music

So far, I am finding that having a car in order to take fun day trips from Paris is not necessary. The public transportation system is pretty awesome, if a little confusing (I pretty much just take whatever’s available that matches my schedule and don’t worry too much about the differences between the various train lines).

While I was pleasantly surprised by all the castles I was able to reach without a car, I also learned on my Loire Valley excursion that there are definitely places where having a car is the only option. A few of the châteaux are not otherwise accessible. I also would have preferred not to be beholden to the transit schedules.

Have you ever traveled in France without a car? What sort of struggles did you run into, or did you find it to be simple?

✈️ Coming to France from further afield? Use an Airalo eSIM for affordable international cell data and don’t forget to protect your investment with travel insurance.

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