Loire 6 - Dung et D'Artigny,


When you go on a Loire Valley walking holiday in the early spring, you have to be prepared to check into hotels rain-soaked, mud-covered, and, sometimes, with shoes dipped in dung.  The awkwardness is usually ephemeral and easily suppressed.

But if you are trudging your wet, muddy, smelly body up the steps of the palatial Château d’Artigny, a castle-like hotel and spa near Montbazon, it’s hard not to feel a little hesitant and gauche.

We did. But we also felt tired and ready to get into a bath and a bed, and any anxiety turned out to be unfounded.

The people on the front desk greeted us as if we were visiting royalty, and they checked us in to the hotel early and smoothly.  Soon, we were recuperating in our roomy suite overlooking the front lawns.

“They make you feel like you are the most important guest in the hotel,” I said.

“Yeah, like they had no other concern, but your comfort,” Michele observed.

Later in the day, we realized that our observations were more astute than we might have guessed. It turns out that the late spring is a slow time of year for the hotel, and we were, in fact, almost the only concern.  We didn’t see any other guests all day.

This was great at the spa. 

The hotel has a tunnel from the castle so you can get to the spa in any weather in just shorts and sandals. It has a Turkish bath-style steam room, a sauna, and a jacuzzi-equipped pool.  All good stuff if you have been walking through forests and over hills in the rain all day.  Not so good, if the sauna, steam room, and pool are crammed. 

They weren’t.


We stayed in the spa for an hour or two with all the rooms and facilities to ourselves.  We used two or three towels each; we steamed and swam until we could do it no more.  Later that evening, three waiters fussed around us as we worked our way through the multiple-course dinner and multi-form beverages in the elegant dining room.  We had been warned that the Chateau insisted on semi-formal dress and no-dung footwear for dinner so we were relieved to have such a positive reception.

But, then again, we were alone.

Our solitary status at dinner was, in part, due to our Canadian dining habits that induce hunger well before 9 PM when the European-sounding guests arrived to share the room with us. Not many though, and the next morning as we headed down to check out I thought that the Château d’Artigny was kind of lucky to have had us. 

“I mean, after all, it’s not a real Chateau in the 16TH century Chenonceau and Amboise sense,” I said. “It was built about a century ago by a perfume maker who liked to party and cover his ceilings in tacky art.”

“So, why didn’t you study perfume making in school?” Michele said.

Despite her insolence and with the previous day’s odors sweated and jacuzzied away, I felt smug heading to the front desk for check out.  

This did not last.


The machine rejected my credit card.  Same on the second try - and the third.  The other card was rejected as well.  We did not have Château d’Artigny levels of cash and learned that the closest ATM was in town, about an hour’s walk away.  We sweated, we smelled. 

Then, suddenly, one of the hotel staff in the back announced that the problem was with their system.  The front desk woman apologized, and her boss came out and apologized profusely offering to help with arrangements to our next stop.  Happy that they took the credit card in a manual, written-number fashion, we smiled and headed out the door.

Later in the day, we agreed that the Château d’Artigny was a great experience and that everyone coming to the Loire for a walking holiday should consider doing it in the early spring too.  Though they should be prepared for rain, mud, dung, and the ever-present possibility of embarrassment.