Luxury hotel holiday Chateau de la Bourdaisiere Loire Valley

In the heart of the Loire Valley, the 55 hectare estate of the Château de la Bourdaisière offers enchanting grounds made for exploration. There was a fortified castle on the site of the present chateau before the Renaissance when the chateau was extended, but the current building is a result of extensive restoration and additions in and about 1802. After numerous owners in the 19th and early 20th centuries, the chateau was purchased by the Broglie Princes in 1991. There are 29 individually but traditionally decorated guestrooms. Fourteen of the rooms are located in the chateau itself, with three apartments available for families and larger parties, while Choiseul Pavillon houses 12 rooms including an apartment, and there is the Clos Bourdaisiere with three rooms. Decorated in fabrics by the house of Pierre Frey, each room is named after a person connected with the history of the Touraine or the chateau. In sight of many of the rooms, the immediate surroundings of the castle feature pristine lawns and the manicured shrubbery of a formal garden. Such order gives way to wilder and freer terrain, where guests can discover many varieties of trees and the like: spot the 76 varieties of fruit trees, 180 varieties of dahlias and the 150 vegetables of the kitchen garden. Meanwhile, the 650 different strains of tomatoes in the Tomato Conservatory are a magical sight and feed the menu of Bar à Tomates, an open-air kitchen where guests dine on strictly fresh, home grown and local produce sourced within a 250-kilometre radius. The simple flavours drawn from the kitchen garden are sculpted into unusual dishes full of natural flavours that belong to the region. Recreate the dishes yourself after participating in cookery classes and learn how to grow organic produce from the estate's gardeners. Other facilities at Château de la Bourdaisière include an outdoor swimming pool, a tennis court and a fitness circuit. Once a year in September, usually over a weekend, the chateau is the venue for a tomato festival when about fifty exhibitors connected the the tomato gather to give demonstrations and tastings. Equidistant between Tours and Amboise, this is a great base for exploration.