BOAT TOURS & CANOEING

A boat trip on the Vienne is a lovely way to get an alternative view of Chinon’s magnificent château.

Joules is your captain - he runs all the boat tours in Chinon. The Vienne has pockets of quite strong currents, so taking a boat out on your own and navigating the Vienne is not an option. There are different packages and choices available, depending on how many you are/whether or not you want to be with other people/what season it is. Here is Julien’s board of scheduled departures, as well as his contact number (+33 06 76 74 51 14). He offers a charcuterie board and local wine if you request it in advance (at an understandable extra charge).

Canoes, kayaks and paddle boards are also great fun in the summer and can be organised from just beyond the Guinguette de Chinon - you can also reserve them on line, here. You will need to arrange where they will either drop you off, or collect you from, as you can only paddle in the direction of the current (as it’s pretty strong, it takes too long to do an aller retour). You can either start outside Chinon (i.e. upstream) and land up back at the Guinguette/boat shack; or start in Chinon and get picked up by them at a set meeting point further down stream. Yell if this sounds confusing, or better still, speak to them!

For novices/those with young children, it IS possible to muck about on the river for an hour, rather than embarking on a trip, and you can paddle between Chinon’s two bridges. This taster option is called Plan d’Eau. In the summer the ‘Clan’ boat shack opens at around 830am/9am and canoes, kayaks and paddle boards are available for hire from 22 April until 30 September.

Another company offers boat trips from Monsoreau (20kms from Chinon) and offers guided cruises on the Loire and Vienne rivers, a beautiful way to see Montsoreau and Candes-st-Martin. You can organise lunch or dinner on board, they even offer wine tasting - see their website here for more details.