Riverside towns are charming and sought after – Carolyn Reynier picks out three set along France’s longest waterway, the mighty River Loire

COMPILED BY LOUKIA XINARI Bordeaux remains a dream ...

French property dreams

COUNTRY LIFE writers reveal the hotels that stood out to them in 2025

A French medieval hilltop town is the location of Toile Blanche, a former 19th-century farmhouse reimagined as a boutique hotel

With a lively town centre, river activities and some of France’s finest châteaux on the doorstep, Tours is in a class of its own, writes Karen Tait