Getting Here

For written directions to us from Chinon, please click here; we are also listed on google maps as Chateau de La Fuye. This page is intended for broader travel permutation and possibilities.

As we have visitors from all over the world, I have also covered off international arrival into Paris - and how best to reach us from there - as well as from our closer, regional airports and a variety of train stations. Please read all the way to the end of the page for details on ferries and Eurotunnel, should you be travelling from the UK.

Flights from the UK

Ryan Air flies from London Stanstead to Tours (55km, so around a 45-minute drive from us; you can hire a car at the airport). They run flights throughout the year but with a restricted winter timetable.

Over the summer they also offer flights from London Stanstead to Poitiers (98km / 1 hour 15 minutes from La Fuye) and Manchester to Nantes (see below for details on flying into Nantes).

Flights from London & Europe

Easy Jet flies out of London Gatwick but it is also handy if you’re flying to us from within Europe. As well as Paris Orly and CDG, they also fly to Nantes Atlantique which is our largest regional airport and relatively stress-free compared to flying in to Paris. It is closer to us than the Paris airports: 190km / a 2 hour drive.

If you arrive (in Nantes) around lunchtime - as Easy Jet flights so often seem to due to their early departure slots, regardless of destination - think about making time for lunch at the show-stopping Art Nouveau brasserie La Cigale before beginning your drive to La Fuye.

If you don’t fancy hiring a car, there is a train that goes from the centre of Nantes to Port Boulet - a tiny but handy little station, just 20 minutes’ drive from us. The airport runs a free shuttle bus into the centre of Nantes, making this a fairly accessible option.

Kayak / Skyscanner

The best way, to check all possible flight option and permutations, is to use kayak - or its equivalent travel search engine - where you can play around with airports and see what suits best for your dates, times and starting points. Our nearest airports, listed in order of proximity and/or convenience are:

Tours, Poitiers, Nantes, Paris Charles de Gaulle (has a direct train from inside the airport - see High Speed Trains below), Paris Orly (south of Paris, so closer than CDG if you’re driving; there is also the option of a train, albeit not from inside the airport - more details below).

Paris

Fly in to Paris Charles de Gaulle via one of the usual carriers —and there is a train from inside the airport that takes you to St-Pierre-des-Corps (a dormitory town a few kilometres from Tours; more on that below). There aren’t that many of these trains running though, so you need to hope your flight tees up with the train times. If it doesn’t - take an uber from CDG to Gare Montparnasse (around 30-50 minutes, traffic dependent, and at a cost of around €35-50) and a high speed direct train will take you direct to our nearest TGV station in under an hour, with a service almost hourly (see ‘High Speed Train’ below).

Or arrive by Eurostar into Gare du Nord, cross Paris by metro (line 4 goes direct) and pick up the same TGV train service from Paris-Montparnasse to St-Pierre-des-Corps, as detailed immediately above, and below, under ‘High Speed Trains’. To save queuing at the Metro ticket machines, you can buy a metro card whilst aboard Eurostar.

The airport of Paris Orly has near by Massy TGV station nearby that provides a direct service to St-Pierre-des-Corps; unlike CDG, the train station is not in the airport, but just a short uber ride away and arguably has more regular relevant services running daily than CDG does.

Car hire is of course also possible from within both airports. La Fuye is 310km / 3 hours 45 minutes from CDG and 270km from Orly.

High Speed Train

A direct TGV service runs from Terminal 2 at Paris Aéroport Charles de Gaulle to St-Pierre-des-Corps, our nearest high speed train station, which is just 52km / 45 minutes drive from La Fuye. (The train journey is 1hr 50 minutes).

Or you can catch the fast train from Gare Montparnasse. It takes just under 1 hour to travel from Paris-Montparnasse to St-Pierre-des-Corps, direct. By far our most favourite way to get to and from Paris. There is plenty of parking at SPDC station and you can also hire a car from here with Sixt. If you’d prefer to be collected by a purring Mercedes, Atlas can drive you for €120 door to door, one way (+33 6 52 96 27 04 - he is on What’s App and knows the house). Book your train tickets here. Note that in Europe it’s not much more expensive to travel 1st class (sometimes just an additional €5); especially worth it if you have luggage.

The airport at Paris Orly is a very a short uber ride from the Massy TGV station which has a lot of choice in terms of direct trains to St-Pierre-des-Corps. This is 51 minute train journey, and yet another way to reach us!

Depending where you are coming from, other useful regional railway stations within reach, besides SPDC, include Angers St-Laud (an hour away) and Port Boulet (20 minutes’ drive).

Brittany Ferries

Depending on where you are coming from within the UK - this French-operated car ferry company offers a variety of crossings, but the nearest to us runs from Portsmouth to Caen with a crossing time of 6 hours and the option of overnight travel. We are 300km / 3 hours’ drive away from Caen Ouistreham. If you take the overnight ferry, you should arrive at La Fuye around 10.30am the following morning. Note that you may not be able to check-in straight away if we have outgoing guests, but we try to accommodate early check-in requests where possible.

Eurotunnel ‘Le Shuttle’

Eurotunnel (now rebranded as Le Shuttle) is hugely convenient if you would like to cross exactly when you want, on your own timeframe, with your own car.

Flexiplus tickets (which allow you priority boarding onto the next available shuttle regardless of when you arrive) are very expensive now and only worth buying should you be crossing on a peak travel day - here are their designated peak dates. Assuming that you aren’t, then a standard ticket works well. A standard ticket gives you a 2-hour window either side of your allocated train.

La Fuye is 577km from Calais which equates to 5 hours 30 minutes of driving time. Regardless, it is still one of our preferred ways to travel and you can break the journey with lunch (or better still, get up early and do it in a oner). If you have lunch on the agenda, we have discovered a brilliant little restaurant, almost en route, serving traditional French food in the pretty town of Orbec. Just off the motorway, it sits 85km south of Rouen and is called L’Orbecquoise.

If you are using Google Maps/Waze/Apple Maps, please check the route being suggested and make sure - regardless of what it says time-wise - that you choose the one that goes via Rouen. NOT PARIS.