Chinon: a weekend trip from Paris by train

Train: 2 h 05 by train
Arrival station: Chinon

See it on the map, with this weekend’s prices and weather

A royal fortress, tuffeau-cellar wines and the Vienne-Loire confluence.

The fortress where Joan of Arc recognised Charles VII overlooks the Vienne and Rabelais' old town. Tuffeau cellars of red chinon, cycling along the Vienne to Candes-Saint-Martin and Montsoreau at the confluence — two of France's loveliest villages. Direct TER from Tours.

Who is it for

Couples : Romantique : forteresse royale, vignobles et villages de caractère à deux.
Friends : Entre potes : dégustations de Chinon et vélo jusqu’à Montsoreau.
Solo : Solo vin et vélo : forteresse, caves de tuffeau et confluence Vienne-Loire.

Things to do

Candes-Saint-Martin & Montsoreau by bike
~15 km along the Vienne to the Loire confluence — collegiate church and château-museum.
Rabelais Museum — La Devinière
Rabelais's birthplace farm at Seuilly, 5 km from Chinon among the vines. A museum devoted to the writer.
Royal fortress of Chinon
500 m of ramparts on the spur, royal lodgings and the memory of Joan of Arc.
Chinon old town
Half-timbered Rue Voltaire, medieval lanes and the Vienne quays below the fortress.
Tuffeau cellars & red chinon
Tastings beneath the town, in galleries dug at the foot of the fortress.
Richelieu, the cardinal’s town
A 17th-century planned town laid out on a grid inside its ramparts, 20 km south of Chinon. No train service: reachable from Chinon by bike or car.