The nearest airport is Tours and the nearest town is Chinon within walking distance. The nearest supermarket is 1 mile down the road. I can’t recommend enough the boucherie’s and boulangeries in Chinon, they are excellent, along with my favourite Chocolatier that sits alongside the river Vienne. Not forgetting to mention the amazing bread shop in the centre of Chinon, they always have samples of their different flavours on a tray. This is one of the main reasons we love it there so much the culture of food is excellent (note from owner).

The chateau is within sight of one of the best known small towns in France. Chinon, the town of Rabelais, symbolises all the douceur de vivre of the Loire valley. The forest contains thousands of trees, a glade of lily of the valley, a lot of mushrooms and a herd of wild deer. Before the park was fenced, the deer used to come down to drink at the swimming pool. There are paths through the forest to the old stone village of La Roche Clermault, on the far side of the ridge.

Villages around Chinon (such as Carvant les Coteaux) produce some of the finest wine on the Loire; the local markets sell fruit and vegetables grown on the rich silt of the valley, the 'garden of France'; the traiteurs, bouchers, boulangers and patisseries are Paris standard at half Paris prices; and there are six Michelin recommended restaurants, including the three-fork one-toque Au Plaisir Gourmand (Rigolet).

There are green valleys as unspoilt as the lower Vienne; white tuffeau villages glistening in the sun; chateaux as lovely as Usse and Azay-le-Rideau; immense abbeys like Fontevraud, the burial place of two kings of England; and spectacular drives along the dykes lining the Loire.

Saumur (thirty minutes) is the old headquarters of the French cavalry and retains the Cadre Noir, the French equivalent of the Spanish Riding School in Vienna. Tours (fifty minutes) has branches of the Paris department stores, an entire quartier of antiquaires, a Grand Theatre with a good opera season and even an English bookshop.