Location & Local Info

Nearest airport: Nantes-Atlantique (40km).

Nearest train station: Nantes (30km).

Nearest town: Ancenis (15km).

Nearest port: Nantes (30km).

Chateau Pommeray is an easy 3.5 hour drive from Paris, or can be reached in 2 hours by TGV train or even more quickly with a regional flight to Nantes.

The Loire, known as The Royal River, is rich with delights for the discerning traveller: there is a myriad of medieval and Renaissance chateaux of unbelievable splendour which once housed the warring mistresses and wives of kings, about which every guidebook and tourist office will gladly tell you. It is said ‘The Loire is a Queen, and Kings have loved her’. So have writers and artists – appropriately it was on the Loire, inspired by one of the smaller chateaux, that Charles Perrault wrote ‘The Sleeping Beauty’. If you choose to explore on foot or by bike along its level banks, you will be able to take in the pleasurable detail of the unspoiled French villages – among which are a good handful of ‘the most beautiful villages in France’ - en route, where you can stop for a reviving drink and observe the old men playing boules. You can wander the fabulous gardens, try the restaurants, or taste the wines produced at one of the many famous local vineyards.

Nantes itself is a beautiful and undervalued city for all seasons and all times. There are some impressive medieval buildings in the old quarter, notably St Pierre cathedral. There are free open-air films on summer nights, a host of musical events and the riverside by twilight has the perennial glamour of lights shimmering in water. There is, of course, a host of chic shopping possibilities to pass the daylight hours. Nearby are monasteries and Abbeys where the illustrious dead lie buried, beetling fortresses, and even underground dwellings, now converted to more contemporary uses as mushroom farms, wine cellars and restaurants.

Just 40 minutes from the chateau are the breathtaking white sand Atlantic beaches, exhilarating at any time, but perhaps at their spectacular best out of season. Here you will find the glamour, the seaside resorts with every kind of amusement including water sports, and the freshest of gourmet seafood.