Le Manoir Saint Thomas Hotel, Amboise

This emblematic monument and its landscaped gardens offer one of the most remarkable panoramas of the Loire Valley. A regal heritage, the Château d'Amboise has been home to Charles VII, Louis XI and Charles VIII. The château is registered as a World Heritage site by UNESCO. Still incredibly impressive, the current buildings are just one fifth of the original palace which was destroyed and neglected over the years. Leonardo da Vinci is buried in the Chapel of Saint-Hubert in the château's grounds.

Home to Leonardo da Vinci during his final years, this house was built in the 15th century and was a gift to da Vinci from King François I. The death of Leonardo da Vinci, on 2nd May 1519, marked the end of an era in the history of the Château du Clos Lucé. Today the château is a listed monument and has been restored in an authentic style, displaying an impressive collection of da Vinci's inventions and machines.

Built on the river Cher, the Château de Chenonceau is the epitome of beauty. Château des Dames, as it is recorded in the French history books, owes a large part of its charm to women.

Dating back to the 14th century, this Renaissance château was home to many royal mistresses. Nowadays it is visited more for its beautiful grounds which include a vegetable garden with a massive 650 varieties of tomato, the contemporary and colourful Dalhia garden and a medicinal garden. It is possible to stay in the château and take cookery classes there.

Château de Chaumont dominates the Loire Valley skyline and is an illustration of both the defensive architecture of its period and the beautiful Renaissance style. In the 18th and 19th centuries, the château, which belonged to Queen Catherine de Medicis and later Diane de Poitiers, knew an intense period of intellectual activity. The Le Ray de Chaumont family welcomed, one after the other, the sculptor Nini, the American Benjamin Franklin and writer Germaine de Staël. The wider Domaine de Chaumont-sur-Loire reached its peak at the end of the 19th century thanks to Prince and Princess de Broglie. The royal couple designed magnificent modern stables, with the help of Maison Hermès, and entrusted Henri Duchêne, the landscape architect, with the creation of a landscaped park. The château is a UNESCO world heritage site.

The Cave des Roches at Bourré is the only example in the world of the complete production of different varieties of mushroom at 50 metres underground. The farm covers 120 kilometres of galleries on seven levels. The old-fashioned cultivation methods, in a natural atmosphere at 13°C, produce a mushroom unrivalled in terms of flavour, with a guaranteed vitamin content. Total production amounts to over 100 tonnes of mushrooms per year, entirely hand-picked. The Cave des Roches offers a varied selection (pied bleu, shitake, oyster, horse, old-fashioned button mushrooms). It is responsible for 40% of the world's pied bleu mushroom production, principally destined either for the best starred restaurants in France or exported around the world.