Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Cost and Hours:
€9, daily July-Aug 9:00-19:00, April-June and Sept-mid-Nov
9:30-18:30, mid-Nov-March 10:00-17:00, last entry one hour before closing, tel. 02 47 96
72 60,
www.chateau-de-langeais.com
.
Getting There:
Nine trains a day link Langeais and
Tours
(20 minutes), with about
five connections a day from there to
Chinon
(2 hours total, faster by bike). The A-85
autoroute provides convenient vehicle access if coming from points east or west. Drivers
shouldturnrightatthefootofthecastle andfollowtheroadleft(aroundthecastle) tofind
the parking lot (on the right).
Background:
Langeais occupies a key site on the Loire River, 15 miles downstream
on the road to Tours (which for a time was the French capital), and about halfway from
Paris along the trading route to Brittany and the Atlantic. This location made Langeais
a player in historic events, though the only remaining part of the original castle is the
thousand-year-old tower standing across from the castle's garden. (That castle, an English
stronghold, was destroyed by the French king in the Hundred Years' War.)
The “new” castle, built in the 15th century, dates from the age of cannons, which
wouldhavemadequickworkofitstough-lookingfacade.Infact,theimposingwallswere
mostlyforshow.Thisisatransitionalpieceofarchitecture:partmedievalandpartRenais-
sance. The mullioned windows overlooking the courtyard indicate this was a fancy resid-
