Flowing from the Massif Central to the Atlantic at Saint-Nazaire, the Loire is France’s longest river. As the Loire and its tributaries run through the Loire-Atlantique region, numerous chateaux, with their trademark white limestone walls and grey slate roofs, tell epic stories of assassinations, duels, intrigues and wars.
The six-day cruise departs and returns to Nantes, a fascinating city with identity issues that has frequently had to reinvent itself. After the abolition of slavery, Nantes turned to biscuits for prosperity. In 1941, under Nazi rule, Nantes was reluctantly transferred from Brittany to the Loire-Atlantique region. Then the city lost shipbuilding to Saint-Nazaire in the 1980s. Riverside regeneration has focused around steampunk meets Jules Verne’s legacy at the Iles de Machines.
The ship
For all its wild beauty – and the Loire may well be France’s Moon River – it is a notoriously shallow waterway. The MS Loire Princesse, designed and built at Saint-Nazaire’s Chantiers Atlantique shipyard in 2014, brings a Mississippi look to the Loire. Paddle-power gives the elegant river cruiser a depth of just 0.8 metres. Though the 48-cabin MS Loire Princesse can navigate no further east than Bouchemaine. There she moors up so that coach trips take explorers to Angers and the heart of the Loire region.
As a luxurious small ship with a maximum of just 96 passengers, there is plenty of room for everyone in both the lounge bar and up on the sun-deck.
Upper deck cabins have beds looking out over the balcony to the Loire views. Beds can easily be moved to make two singles or a double with sufficient room underneath to stow away luggage. A large wardrobe, with plenty of hanging space, plus ample cupboards, keeps everything shipshape.
A spacious shower has easy to regulate water temperature and pressure within the en-suite bathroom. Push-button controlled, a screen rolls down from the ceiling giving information on the day’s programme and menus. It also offers television channels, including BBC World. Highly effective air-conditioning counters France’s summer heat.
Food and drink
A welcome cocktail and canapés served in the lounge bar, whilst the crew is introduced, make a statement. Almost all drinks, unless you have a penchant for champagne and premium wines, are included. Throughout the day coffee, tea and soft drinks are also available from the lounge bar.
Breakfast is always buffet with impressive fresh bread and quintessential French boulangerie: brioche, croissants and even some Danish pastries. Eggs, if required, are cooked to order.
Lunch and dinner are usually three courses and served. Though when dinner is followed by a transfer to another ship for a sunset cruise on Nantes’s second river, the Erdre, a buffet is provided.
Food presentation is exquisite, sourcing immaculate. Highlights include a hake fillet on a bed of squid ink linguini and a pork steak in a creamy sauce. The dessert of the cruise is a chocolate pudding with a soft soufflé-style centre which even has the experienced foodies purring. Although a set menu is served, most guests are hugely impressed by gourmet standards.
Wisely the gala dinner, beginning with an intense mushroom cappuccino amuse-bouche that moves on to a taster of foie gras, is served on the penultimate evening. The chef senses that diners would be too-chateaued-out after the final day’s lengthy excursion to fully appreciate a gourmet five-course menu. The feast spectacularly concludes with the theatrical presentation of baked Alaska and flaming Cointreau.
Shore excursions
There is a lot of Loire to see and not too much time for relaxing on the upper deck. Even when the Loire Princesse is cruising from Nantes to Saint-Nazaire, there is the estuary art trail to look out for.
Appropriately, as the MS Loire Princesse was constructed at Saint-Nazaire, the excursions begin with a tour of thriving shipyards that have their order books full for the next eight years. Currently being fitted out, the €1 bn Europa, ultimately sailing with 6,700 passengers and 2,100 crew, exemplifies the large scale production.
Back in Nantes, guests can opt for a Classic tour that takes in the arty streets radiating from the neo-classical 18th century Opera House. Then it is on to a 19th century retail centre, the Passage Pommeraye, whose classical design and sculptures would not be out of place in an Opera House. The tour of Nantes chateau focuses not just on medieval defence, but also the problem of coming to terms with the city’s leading role in France’s slave trade. Archives show that 43% of France’s slaver voyages embarked from Nantes.
Nantes is also the starting point for an excursion to the surprisingly Italianate village of Clisson whose ruins attracted Romantic painters. The excursion concludes with Muscadet wine-tasting.
Hosting the world’s largest tapestry, Angers is a major destination along the Loire, although King Francis l fantasised over diverting the river from Angers to Tours. The Tapestry of the Apocalypse is a 104 metres wide fire-and-brimstone presentation of the Medieval mindset.
Although, Azay de Rideau, the extensive gardens at Villandry and the fairy-tale Ussé, are among the Loire’s less well-known chateaux, their tranquil beauty is all the better for the lack of crowds.
In a nutshell
This voyage through the varied attractions of the Western Loire is made possible by the innovative Loire Princess. A busy itinerary takes passengers upstream from today’s high-tech shipbuilding on the coast at Saint-Nazaire and back to the chateaux of the Loire. Superb guides, speaking in both English and French, bring the region’s dramatic history to life.
Factbox
CroisiEurope’s six-day Loire Valley cruise onboard the MS Loire Princesse runs from April to October with prices from £1,487 per person for the cruise with all meals, drinks and port taxes included. Call CroisiEurope on 020 8328 1281 or visit croisieurope.co.uk
