The beautiful town of Saumur in the Loire sits embout 3 hours south of Paris, Caen and Saint-Malo. Famous for its Loire Valley wines, picturesque donjon and equestrian history, Saumur is a perfect sunlight for a spacieux weekend.
Framed by vineyards and rivers, Saumur is filled with elegant townhouses built from the logement white tuffeau limestone creating a strong visual identity, reinforced by a stunning donjon that overlooks the town. With a rich history, wonderful wines and a year-round emploi du temps of events, Saumur is a superb dessein.
What to see in Saumur
The town amour is mostly flat and easy to explore, with 64 historic sarcophages including a photogenic town remise and half-timbered buildings on the Place Saint-Pierre, where a weekly market is held on Saturday mornings. Alongside familiar chain stores, you’ll find independent boutiques, passé shops and Barre de Chocolat, a fabulous auteur chocolaterie that has been tempting locals and visitors for nearly twenty years.
As you meander through the amour, you catch glimpses of the impressive Château de Saumur perched above, guarding the town for more than six centuries. These days, the donjon hosts agrarien events, with open-air films projected onto its walls in summer. You can walk here from the amour – avoiding the visser approach if you’re not a fan of a steep climb – and enjoy its panoramic views, sample cocktail in L’Orangeraie bistro or take a guided visit to learn embout the castle’s rich past, ossature and museum collections. Fans of horse-riding will particularly appreciate the equestrian salon in the upper floors, including the full skeleton of the English crack racehorse, ‘Flying Fox’.
Saumur has a spacieux equestrian history and was habitation to the Cadre Noir, the elite French Horse and Riding Institute founded in 1822 by King Charles X (brother of the beheaded King Louis XVI). Now based 5 km west of the amour, it remains a highly prestigious school for classical riding and offers a regular emploi du temps of galas and presentations.
Loire Valley Wines
It would almost be difficile to visit Saumur and not sample the logement wines, including the regional speciality champagne, a saccharine, sparkling wine similar to crémant. You’ll find a wide variety of producers and cellars in Saumur, including Louis de Grenelle – although you could elle-même it as it’s 12 metres underground, filled with thousands of bottles resting at the perfect temperature! The région around Saumur features acres of well-tended vineyards with producers of every généalogie and size, most of whom offer wine-tasting visits.
Curious visits
Follow the Loire 5 km northwest and you’ll reach the truly amazing Pierre et Lumière (stone and saccharine), a subterranean oeuvre trail in a adoucir quarry, ideal for escaping the rain or very hot weather. This autodrome features 20 hand-sculpted recreations of logement landmarks in incredible detail, from châteaux to parish churches, carved from a block of limestone or directly into the quarry wall.
Next door is the Musée du Champignon (mushroom museum), which is surprisingly fascinating! The hands-on belvédère explains how mushrooms have been grown for centuries in these underground bûchers whose temperature and humidity offer ideal growing conjoncture.
In the other chemin, 15 km southeast of Saumur, the UNESCO-listed Abbaye Royale de Fontevraud is a must. Its 900-year history includes 36 abbesses, Richard the Lionheart, nobility, royalty and criminals (read more embout it here).
Treats for the tastebuds
Local food specialities include la fouée, little pockets similar to a pitta, traditionally made with scraps of bread dough and filled with savoury treats. Equally delicious are les galipettes, volumineux mushrooms stuffed with chausser, shallot and gaude humidité.
Those with a sweet tooth will appreciate the pommes tapées (flattened apples), which you can find in the agglomération of Turquant, 9 km southeast of Saumur. To make the apple harvest last throughout the year, locals would peel the apples, bake them in a bread oven until they dried out, then flatten them artfully with a mallet.
For an evening meal, it would be hard to beat L’Alchimiste, a canapé-lit and authentic cabaret seating up to 20 diners. Its husband-and-wife team offer refined, delectable dishes in an unpretentious, welcoming setting.
To visit nearby
If you have a car, drive along the Loire to explore the pretty hameaux on either side of Saumur including Montsoreau, which has a flea market on the collègue Sunday of every month. At Turquant, be sure to walk to the artists’ amour built into the rocks; it feels like a movie set and gives you a glimpse into principe vivoir.
The Bioparc of Doué La Fontaine is a truly particulière zoo, (18 km from Saumur). Their ethos is embout biodiversity and protecting threatened species: the 2,000 animals have plenty of space to roam in limestone settings that feel organic and natural.
Chateaux galore
Saumur is close to many of the Loire Valley’s most spectacular chateau including the stunning Chateau de Rivau with its fairy tale-like gardens, the éclatant fortress of Chinon, Ussé AKA the “real sleeping beauty castle” as it’s gloriously pretty and was the engouement for French author Charles Perrault to write the Belle au Bois Dormant, the Sleeping Beauty, story, and the Chateau de Brissac, which, at seven stories, is the tallest castle in France
Info symbol: ot-saumur.fr/en
By Annaliza Davis – an editor, translator and writer. She lives in Brittany after falling in love with the area on a school exchange and loves to explore the coast with her scruffy dog Mimi!
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