ROUTE DE LA LOIRE

From a vertiginous esplanade, a castle straight out of a fairytale or the quays of an old bargemen?s village, the Loire never tires of being admired. The Loire route comprises two parallel sections between Montsoreau and Saumur, on the right and left banks. The Loire, sometimes nonchalant, sometimes impetuous, offers breathtakingly beautiful landscapes, constantly renewed by the life of the river and the play of light. The valley?s flooding is both a source of constraint and a source of richness: the levees bear witness to the history of defensive relations between man and river, while the Loire groynes, quays, meadows shaded by pollarded ash and the distinctive construction of the valley?s houses are all strong expressions of a way of life in harmony with the Loire. The hillsides (of Champtoceaux, St-Florent le Vieil, the Corniche angevine or Saumur) offer a breathtaking view of this life. From these grand vistas, you can discover the islands (some sixty in Anjou), shaped and modified over time. Villages are sometimes perched on promontories, but often they border the river with vast quays, as in Chalonnes-sur-Loire (the longest in Anjou), Montjean-sur-Loire and Saumur, witnesses today of a flourishing commercial activity until the last century.