Queen of the Loire châteaux, lovely Château de Chenonceau above the River Cher trailing its two-storey bridge behind it like a wedding train. Its feminine grace is testament to four centuries of female influence from Catherine de Bri√笵connet, who oversaw the initial transformation of the site from riverside mill to country retreat for her financier husband Thomas Bohier between 1513 and 1521, to Madame Pelouse who undertook the 19thC restoration.

When Henri II presented the château to his favourite Diane de Poitiers in 1547, she hired architect Philippe de I’Orme to build the bridge and a formal garden. On the king’s death, his queen Catherine de’ Medici appropriated Chenonceau, sent Diane packing to dreary Chaumont, and rehired de I’Orme to cover the bridge, now the famous Grande Gallerie. (During the Second World War, when the Cher marked the border between occupied and Vichy France, the gallery was frequently used as a secret conduit between the two.)

Tours of Chenonceau are self-guided and the rooms decorated with appropriate furnishings, tapestries and paintings. There are painted ceilings, Delft-tiled floors, a wonderful small van Dyck in the Study, and a soothing view of the Cher from the Library windows. Look out for Primataccio’s portrait of Diane de Poitiers in Fran√笵cois I’s room: it seems a trifle thoughtless that Catherine de’ Medici hangs above Diane de Poitiers’ fireplace. Don’t miss the kitchens hidden away in the feet of the bridge with an effective waste disposal system.

 Downstream from Chenonceaux, there are two diversions for the château-weary. A favourite Loire apéritif is sparkling Saumur wine with a dash of framboise (raspberry liqueur). Framboise and a score more liqueurs are produced by the old-fashioned Fraise-d’Or distillery (3 km E via the D176).

The ZooParc de Beauval, near Saint-Aignan (25 km SE via the N76/D17), boasts monkeys, big cats, exotic birds and a petting corner in eight hectares of woodland and gardens.