Day trip by train to Loire valley - doable?

We will be visiting Paris for a week in late April/May and would like to travel by train to the Loire for the day and see at least 2 chateaux. What train do we take and is there a shuttle or bus service between rail stations and the chateaux? Our preference is to see Chenonceaux and Chambord. Are they close to each other? How many hours should we allocate to cover travel from Paris and the 2 chateaux?

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One way to do it is a train to St Pierre des Corps [outside of Tours] and a car rental. The train takes about an hour and a half. There are car rental offices in the station and the cars are close by.

Driving route planning:

viamichelin.com/viamichelin/…MaHomePage.htm

http://www.mappy.com/

Train schedules, route map and tickets:

http://reiseauskunft.bahn.de/bin/query.exe/en

…raileurope.com/map_of_europe/france.html

www.voyages-sncf.com/dynamic/_SvHomePage…

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Thanks for your help. We have now investigated possibilities re trains and it seems an easy trip from Paris to do in a day. Was pleasantly surprised when I discovered opening hours of chateaux and good late train service back to Paris. Looked at minibus tours of chateaux but very expensive. Have emailed tourist office in Tours regarding a chateau pass and rental cars. Any idea on cost of these?

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I would probably recommend taking the train to Blois as it is located in the middle of the two chateaus you would like to see. You can get a train to Blois from the Paris Austerlitz station. When we went a few weeks ago, they had trains leaving around 6:20 a.m., 7:20 a.m. and 9:15 a.m. The trip takes about an hour and a half. We rented a car because we were going to be there for about 5 days. I remember there being an Avis rental car agency right at the train station (Autoeurope you need to take a taxi to) and I remember seeing tours to the Chateaus from the train station. I did not check out the tours as we had already booked a car. Chambord was about 19 km east and Chenonceaux was about 58 km southwest. If you have extra time you can go to Blois castle. Enjoy!

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Thanks for your help.Will now investigate Blois as another option.

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