Château des Marais, Chambord
Description Booking Your Holiday Getting There Things to Do in the Area
Description of the Campsite
The Château des Marais campsite
is only 6 miles
from the magnificent Château de Chambord,
which is pictured here
(photograph © M. Constanty)
The campsite is situated in the countryside in the heart of the Loire Valley.
The campsite itself is set in the spacious grounds of an old stone manor house and the peaceful wooded surroundings make Le Château des Marais an ideal campsite for families with young children. This campsite is a relaxed site with spacious pitches and has the feeling of a country estate !
The facilities at the campsite include :
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A magnificent waterpark next to the old manor house. This includes six separate pools at different depths as well as an indoor swimming pool as well as slides. There is also a sauna available.
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there are three excellent playparks as well as open spaces to run around
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there is onsite ping pong and fishing which are free to use
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you can pay for tennis, karts, kayaks and canoes
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there is bike hire on site
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there is a restaurant, bar, takeaway, pizzeria, grocery and bakery
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all the usual clothes washing, shower and toilet facilities
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there is a campsite children's club which runs ball games in the park, as well as the usual children's clubs run by the tour operators such as Keycamp.
Booking Your Holiday
Book your holiday at Château des Marais with Keycamp.
Book your holiday at Château des Marais with Eurocamp.
These links will take you to the Eurocamp and Keycamp websites where you can find out more about the holiday, get a quotation and go ahead and book your ideal holiday !
Getting There
Hover your mouse over the map for some more information about the various ports and airports. This information is kept as up to date as possible but please only use it as a guide and check details of all flights and crossings with airlines, tour operators and ferry operators.
Ports
There are sailings by ferry with Brittany Ferries and other operators to some of the following ports which are the nearest ones to Chambord :
- St Malo: 352 kms
- Roscoff: 493 kms
- Caen: 328 kms
- Cherbourg: 474 kms
- Le Havre: 317 ms
- Calais: 452 kms
Airports
There are flights by a variety of airlines from the UK and Ireland to the following regional airports. Hover over the map to discover some airlines which fly to each airport (please note that this information was up to date at time of writing but you will need to check details of flights with your tour operator or airline) :
- Tours airport : 85 kms
- Beauvais: 260 kms
- Paris Charles De Gaulle: 205 kms
- Paris Orly: 170 kms
Public Transport
- Local Railway: Mer (11 kms) Services to Paris, Tours, Orleans, Blois
- Also stations at Orleans (55 kms) and Blois (18 kms)
- Blois is 1 hour 40 minutes by a Corail train (SNCF) from Paris Gare d’Austerlitz on the line Paris-Tours-Nantes.
- The TGV stops at Vendome (47 kms) :
- Gare de Paris-Montparnasse: TGV Paris-Vendôme
(42 minutes)
TGV Paris-St Pierre des Corps (55 minutes) - In High Season, there is a bus route with TLC Tourisme buses, which goes from Blois to Chambord via the chateaux of Blois, Chambord and Cheverny. Click here for information. Other routes can be viewed by clicking here.
- If you want to be really eco-friendly, click here to access a guide to bike hire in the area !
However, details may have changed recently. Please check for the best route to the campsite and for up to date public transport details with the campsite or your tour operator.
Things to do in the Area
There is plenty to see and do in this area.
Château de Chambord
This Château is only 6 kilometres from the campsite and is definitely
worth a visit !
It
is one of the finest samples of Renaissance architecture in
France and was completed in 1547. It took more than 30 years to build. This chateau was
used as a retreat by some of the most powerful French kings,
among them the Sun King, Louis XIV. It has 440 rooms,
stabling for over 1200 horses, parkland of over 5,000 hectares
and is surrounded by over 20 miles of walls !
There are many events on at
the chateau, but from June to September, the National Estate of
Chambord will be presenting nightly performances of its
latest sound and light show, “Chambord, Rêve de Lumières”
Château de Chenonceau
The Château de Chenonceau is only an hours drive from the campsite. It is situated near the small village of Chenonceaux, in the Indre-et-Loire département of the Loire Valley in France, was built in 1513 on the site of an old mill on the River Cher. The chateau has magnificent gardens which include a maze ! There is also a restaurant.
Chateau de Cheverny
Cheverny is different from the other chateaux in that it was built purely in the Louis XIII classical style, distinguished by an extraordinarily symmetrical architecture. Cheverny, which was built in the first part of the 17th Century, is a prime example of this style. Its features stand because it is built from white stones from the Bourré quarries in the Cher Valley. This particular stone not only comes out white, but also becomes harder with time. For Tintin fans, there is also a special exhibition called the Secrets of Marlinspike Hall, as it was this chateau which inspired Herge to create Marlinspike Hall in "The Secret of the Unicorn" and "Red Rackham’s Treasure" !
Bike Hire
If you would like to explore the Chateaux by bike, then click here to see the internet site for a guide to the various bike hire companies.
Mini Chateaux de la Loire
If you would like to visit some miniature chateaux then this park in Amboise could be worth a visit. It is about an hour's drive from Chambord. (http://www.aquariumduvaldeloire.com/CHATEAUX/english.php)
Zoo de Beauval
Situated at St Aignan in the heart of the Loire
valley and approximately 45 minutes drive away,
this is one of the best zoos in France. A great
selection of animals to view, but the main
attraction is the white tigers.
Regular exhibitions feature birds of prey and
feeding the animals. Best of all is that you can
see the two baby koalas who
were born in 2009 and 2010 ! For more
information
click here.
Koala photograph © Jenny
Rollo
Le Mans (129 kms)
Le Mans is 1 hour and 40 minutes drive from the campsite. The Le Mans 24 hr race is taking place this year in June. There are other events that take place at the track as well. To access the Le Mans site click here.
Natural Swimming Pool at Chambord !
If swimming outdoors is your thing then you will want to try Chambord's New Natural "Swimming Pool, the largest of its kind in France. The water is purified through an organic, natural process. For more information click here.
Loire Valley Cycle Routes
For an excellent website about cycle routes in the Loire Valley click here.
Chaumont-Sur-Loire
(35kms from campsites)
Here you will find a chateau, and during the months of April until October there is a Garden Festival.
Blois
Blois (18kms from campsite), is a town steeped in art and history. The Royal Château of Blois was one of the favourite residence of the Kings of France, and links four different periods of French architecture. The salamander and the porcupine, the emblems of Francois I and Louis XII respectively, adorn the walls. You can enter the chamber of Henri III where the Duc de Guise was assassinated. There are 200 sculpted wooden panels in the private cabinet of Catherine de Medici, behind which the sovereign would hide her poisons, jewels and secret documents.
There are some nice churches to visit, including St. Nicolas and St. Louis Cathedral. There are also some excellent chocolate shops.
From 3rd April until 26th September, each night at 22.00 hrs, you can watch a night-time spectacle Ainsi Blois Vous est Conté, which is a sound and light spectacle that is projected onto the historic buildings of the Château. The special effects will take you back to experience the drama, love and mysteries that have shaped the history of the Château as well as of France.
The Maison de la Magie oppposite the Château retraces the fantastic story of illusionist Robert-Houdin! Find out more about the hallucinoscope, and some of the mysteries behind the tricks. There may also be a small magic show performed along to music.
Blois has many interesting streets and stairways leading down to the Loire. There are walking routes around the town as well as carriage rides which provide a more leisurely way to discover the town. You can also head for the port of La Creusille and enjoy a boat trip to see a superb panoramic view of the town from the river.Tours (86 kms)
The medieval city of Tours has a gothic cathedral which is well worth visiting.
Chartres (just over an hour and a half's drive, 123 kms from campsite)
Chartres Cathedral is famous.
Other Campsites
There are many other good campsites in the area that we can recommend.
Here are a few that are listed with Keycamp and Eurocamp :
Link to Loire Valley campsites with Eurocamp
Link to Loire Valley campsites with Keycamp
If you have your own tent or caravan, then a site which is recommended, right on the banks of the Loire is the two star campsite Camping Municipal Belle Vue. You may expect to meet less British holidaymakers if you go to a site like this and it doesn't have quite the number of facilties of the bigger, more expensive sites but you will maybe get more opportunities to practise your French !
Alternatively, if you would like to camp on an island in the middle of the River Loire, you might like to try the Camping de l'Ile d'Or d'Amboise ! The campsite is located on the biking itinerary of the Loire (La Loire a Velo) and only 810 meters from the train station.
For a full search of all the campsites in the Loire Valley, click here.
Disclaimer: The reviews published on the site are intended solely for the purpose of providing general information and comment and are purely our opinions. We cannot guarantee that reviews of descriptions on this site are accurate, up to date or free from error.
We have found that the campsites described are very good but we find that it is difficult to find a campsite which has 100% of what you are looking for. Also one person may love a busy campsite with lots of activities while someone else may love a quiet campsite with a small swimming pool. Actually we tend to be the latter ! So what we have done is highlight the good points of the sites and maybe point out a few of what we have found as slightly negative points. However we strongly recommend that you make full use of as many internet sources as possible before deciding about your holiday, including other review sites and Google maps etc.