Valle della Loira: il Rinascimento francese

Paris seduces, and never stops: capital of art, fashion, gastronomy, and a certain way of inhabiting the world that the rest of the planet has tried to imitate without ever quite succeeding. The Eiffel Tower, rising through the morning mist above the Champ-de-Mars, is the most recognisable image on earth; yet Paris is far more than this steel icon. The Louvre houses one of the most extraordinary art collections ever assembled under a single roof, from Egyptian antiquities to David, from the Mona Lisa to the Venus de Milo. The Musée d'Orsay, installed in a former railway station, tells the story of Impressionism with unrivalled depth: Monet, Renoir, Degas, Cézanne — all gathered in halls where light filters through great skylights as if in the paintings themselves. Every arrondissement has its own character. Le Marais, with its medieval streets and aristocratic mansions now turned into galleries and boutiques, contains the Place des Vosges, the city's oldest royal square. Montmartre, on the hill that commands the smoky rooftops of the Right Bank, retains something of the bohemian spirit that inspired Toulouse-Lautrec and Picasso; the gleaming white Sacré-Cœur stands on a hilltop esplanade from which the whole city unfolds below. Saint-Germain-des-Prés is the district of historic bookshops and philosophical cafés — Café de Flore, Les Deux Magots — where Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir wrote and debated until dawn. The Latin Quarter, on the other bank, thrums with student life around the Sorbonne and the magnificent Sainte-Chapelle, whose Gothic rose window stains the limestone in violet and scarlet. Parisian cuisine is a world unto itself: from traditional brasseries serving steak frites and sole meunière to natural-wine bistros where young chefs reinterpret tradition with seasonal produce. Markets like Marché d'Aligre and Marché des Enfants Rouges fill the air with aged cheeses, exotic fruit and spice. The nineteenth-century covered passages — Galerie Vivienne, Passage des Panoramas — shelter antiquarian bookshops, cigar merchants and tea rooms unchanged since the 1800s. The Seine divides but above all unites, crossed by thirty bridges heavy with history: the Pont des Arts, the Pont Neuf, the Pont Alexandre III with its gilded lamps. A boat ride at sunset, when the light gilds stone façades and church spires, is the kind of moment one never forgets. Paris is not simply a destination: it is an experience of the soul, a place where every visit leaves something unresolved — and the promise of a return. Chartres is dominated by the unmistakable silhouette of its Gothic cathedral, which rises above the plains of the Beauce like a stone beacon visible for dozens of kilometres. Notre-Dame de Chartres, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, is regarded as one of the absolute masterpieces of French Gothic architecture: its blue stained-glass windows of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, almost entirely original, constitute the largest ensemble of intact medieval stained glass in the world. The old town, sloping down to the Eure river, preserves medieval houses, wash-houses and atmospheric lanes. The Centre International du Vitrail promotes the tradition of stained-glass art still alive in the city. Chartres, less than an hour from Paris, deserves a slow and contemplative visit. Orléans carries French history in its very name: it was here that Joan of Arc broke the English siege in 1429, turning this city on the Loire into a symbol of national liberation. The cathedral of Sainte-Croix, rebuilt by the kings of France over six centuries, rises with its neo-Gothic spires over a historic centre filled with restored Renaissance houses. Every May, the Festival de Jeanne d'Arc re-enacts the glorious episode with historical processions and ceremonies. The gardens of the Hôtel Groslot and the banks of the Loire offer wonderfully atmospheric walks. Orléans is also the gateway to the Orléanais wine region and an ideal starting point for cycling the Loire à Vélo route.

Blois unfolds across a series of limestone terraces descending to the Loire, a royal city that served as the residence of four French kings and the gateway to the châteaux of the Loire Valley, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Its castle, which encompasses four architectural eras — medieval, Flamboyant Gothic, Renaissance and Classical — is one of the most captivating royal complexes in France. The famous spiral staircase of François I, the room where the Duke of Guise was assassinated and the painted salons narrate centuries of courtly history. The historic centre, with its climbing lanes, chocolate shops and Renaissance houses, is a delight to explore on foot. Blois is the ideal base for visiting Chambord, Cheverny and Chaumont.

Tours occupies the geographical and cultural heart of the Loire Valley, the «Garden of France» declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site for its châteaux, vineyards and river landscapes. Roads from the city lead to Chambord, Chenonceau, Villandry and Amboise — the jewels of the French Renaissance that made this valley the favourite residence of the Valois kings. Tours itself deserves attention: the Place Plumereau, in the medieval Vieille-Tours quarter with its half-timbered houses, is the city's most animated evening gathering spot; the Cathédrale Saint-Gatien, in Flamboyant Gothic style with magnificent thirteenth-century stained-glass windows, rises at the far end of the centre. The wines of the Vouvray appellation (whites from chenin blanc) and Bourgueil (reds from cabernet franc) are tasted in caves carved into the tufa of the surrounding hills. Tours is the ideal base for exploring the Loire by bicycle along the Loire à Vélo route.

Saumur presents itself with its white château presiding over the slope above the Loire, one of the most elegant castles in the region, now home to a museum of decorative arts and a museum of the horse. The city is the world capital of equestrian arts thanks to the Cadre Noir, the elite military riding school that since 1814 has trained masters of haute école, housed at the École Nationale d'Équitation. The limestone subsoil — tuffeau — is honeycombed with kilometres of caves storing Saumur wines and the fresh, fragrant cabernet franc of Saumur-Champigny. Troglodyte dwellers have transformed the caves into unique homes, restaurants and museums. Saumur is a city that lives between sky and underground.

Angers is the gateway to the Loire Valley, a city defined by the formidable medieval castle of the Counts of Anjou, which dominates the Maine river with its slate-dark towers. Within its walls is kept the Tapestry of the Apocalypse, one of the largest surviving works of medieval tapestry in the world, woven in the fourteenth century and more than 100 metres long. The Angevin city is also the capital of Anjou wine and Cointreau, the celebrated orange liqueur produced here since 1849. The Doutre quarter, with its half-timbered houses and Romanesque churches, and the gardens sloping down to the river complete the urban scene. Angers is a city of tradition and flavour, ideal as a base for exploring the châteaux of the Loire.

Nantes strides confidently toward the future without forgetting its past: the historic capital of Brittany (though today part of the Pays de la Loire region), it is the city that transformed its old shipyards on the Île de Nantes into a permanent cultural laboratory. Les Machines de l'Île — the great mechanical Elephant that walks among the crowds and the Carousel of Sea Worlds — are the symbol of an urban creativity with few equivalents in France. The Château des Ducs de Bretagne, where François II of Brittany lived and Anne de Bretagne was born, now houses the Musée d'Histoire de Nantes. The Passage Pommeraye, a three-level neoclassical shopping arcade, is one of the most spectacular nineteenth-century interiors in France. The Bouffay and Graslin quarters come alive with bistros, wine bars and live music every evening; the Saturday morning market at the thalweg welcomes produce from the Loire estuary: Bourgneuf oysters, muscadet, salted butter from the Brière.