By Nikki Bayley
The French may have got rid of their monarchy, but they very sensibly kept their châteaux and the best place to go and see them is in the Loire region, where you can find more than 300. Interestingly, some châteaux are now hotels or chambres d'hotes (up-market B&Bs), which means you can stay over and experience a night or two in the lap of luxury. Here are our favourites.
Copyright Nikki Bayley
The family château
Just a ten-minute drive from Chinon, set in dazzling countryside, the Château de Chargé's history can be traced back to the 1400s with various additions made over the years to the building. This is the perfect château for families, there are play spaces and toys aplenty, cots, family suites and even the chance to collect eggs each morning from the hen house.
Best of all, just because it's an old-fashioned stone building doesn't mean it's uncomfortable. The Château de Chargé is packed with boutique hotel touches from iPod docks and huge shower-heads to Nespresso machines in each room and eco-friendly bedding. The French-English owners are hugely knowledgeable about Loire wine, and you can share a four-course dinner meal with them, cooked by their chef, with local wines to match.
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Your own personal château
Live out your fantasy of the ultra-loaded lifestyle and hire a whole chateau for you and your 27 closest friends. Just ten minutes away from gorgeous Blois, one of the gems of the Loire, is this superb château that towers over the town. Blois is also home to one of the most fun museums, the Magic Museum.
And you can pretend the modern world doesn't exist at Chateau du Guerinet, set in 40 acres of woodland and garden and surrounded by 4,000 acres of woods. All you'll hear is birdsong and maybe the occasional pop of a cork...
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The château in the city
Saumur is a charming town, famous for its UNESCO National School of Horsemanship and its delicious sparkling wine - truly as good as champagne, but at a fraction of the price. The Château de Verrières is a short stroll from the main street and just around the corner from the Cadre Noir school. You're guaranteed a real wow moment when the locked gates swing open to reveal the Château, which was built in the 1800s. Step inside and you feel like you're back in a more gentle age; painted ceilings, fabric walls, antique furniture and huge claw-foot baths.
Relax in the garden under a shady lime tree, or curl up with a good book in the ornate drawing room. There's a pool outside in the large garden, and breakfast is served in an atmospheric stone-walled room.
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The modern château
A few minutes from Le Mans, the city famous for its 24-hour motor race (stick to the speed limit!), you'll find the thoroughly modern Château de la Ragotterie, an 18th century château that has been given a 21st century make-over and turned into the Le Mans Country Club. An imposing parkland driveway takes you to the château, with its fairytale turrets and stone walls; so far, so traditional you think, But once inside, there's an up-to-date restaurant serving French classics with a modern twist. Go upstairs and the bedrooms boast all the modern luxuries you could wish for, from over-sized beds to super-fast wifi.
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The traditional château
The area between Montrichard and Chennounceaux has some of the most breathtaking châteaux in the whole of the Loire, and you can stay in the fortified château of Chissay, to get a taste of what life as an ultra-wealthy member of the nobility must have been like. Built in the 1400s, a long line of French royalty from Charles VII to Louis XI stayed at the castle. In the 1940s, the French prime minister made his HQ there and met with General de Gaulle and the British ambassador to create a strategy to defend the area from the Nazis. History seeps from the walls. Get a room in one of the towers, with a stone staircase winding its way up, and luxurious decor within. Admittedly, the lavish bathrooms and the heated swimming pool are rather more modern additions, but they certainly help you feel pampered.
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