--- title: Loire Valley, France Is One of the World’s Greatest Places description: Find out why Loire Valley, France is on TIME’s 2021 list of the World’s 100 Greatest Places. canonical: https://time.com/collections/worlds-greatest-places-2021/6079268/loire-valley-france/ article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2021-07-20T10:33:51.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-03-02T23:50:45.230Z og:title: Loire Valley, France: The World’s 100 Greatest Places of 2021 og:description: Find out why Loire Valley, France is on TIME’s 2021 list of the World's Greatest Places og:url: https://time.com/collections/worlds-greatest-places-2021/6079268/loire-valley-france/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb80ed0fc72b9c436/698a1de8e76ad2574263952b/worlds-greatest-places-2021-Loire-Valley-France_001.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Loire Valley, France: The World’s 100 Greatest Places of 2021 og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Loire Valley, France: The World’s 100 Greatest Places of 2021 twitter:description: Find out why Loire Valley, France is on TIME’s 2021 list of the World's Greatest Places twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb80ed0fc72b9c436/698a1de8e76ad2574263952b/worlds-greatest-places-2021-Loire-Valley-France_001.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 --- Jul 20, 2021 # Loire Valley, France Chez Leonardo by [TIME Staff](https://time.com/author/time-staff/) ## TIME Staff  DaVinci's artwork projected in a room at the Château du Clos Lucé museum. DaVinci's artwork projected in a room at the Château du Clos Lucé museum.Courtesy Eric Sander—Château du Clos Lucé, Parc Leonardo da Vinci, Amboise Between its beautiful castles and royal residences, the Loire Valley has long been a treasure trove of history. Now Château du Clos Lucé, the final home of Leonardo da Vinci, has a new pièce de résistance: a 5,380-sq.-ft. cultural center and museum featuring an innovative exhibit that projects 17 legendary Leonardo works, including The Last Supper, onto the walls and ceiling of the ground-floor gallery and 3-D animations highlighting some of his inventions. The past comes to life at the 15th century Ainay-le-Vieil castle, one of the best-preserved fortresses from that time, which now offers accommodations in farmhouses on its grounds. Other additions in the area include the Loire Valley Lodges, where visitors can stay in luxury treehouses, and the opening of La Maison Tatin, a hotel in the 19th century residence where the Tatin sisters created the upside-down French pastry by accident. _—Michelle Tchea_ ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"Article","@id":"https://time.com/collections/worlds-greatest-places-2021/6079268/loire-valley-france/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/collections/worlds-greatest-places-2021/6079268/loire-valley-france/"},"headline":"Loire Valley, France","datePublished":"2021-07-20T10:33:51.000Z","dateModified":"2026-03-02T23:50:45.230Z","description":"","url":"https://time.com/collections/worlds-greatest-places-2021/6079268/loire-valley-france/","keywords":["franchise","Magazine","World's Greatest Places"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb80ed0fc72b9c436/698a1de8e76ad2574263952b/worlds-greatest-places-2021-Loire-Valley-France_001.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"TIME Staff","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/time-staff/"}],"creator":"TIME Staff","articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb80ed0fc72b9c436/698a1de8e76ad2574263952b/worlds-greatest-places-2021-Loire-Valley-France_001.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/collections/worlds-greatest-places-2021/6079268/loire-valley-france/","name":"Loire Valley, France"}}]}] ```