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| - The Loire Valley was a physical feature in the nation of France on Earth. The Château Thelian, residence of the President of the United Federation of Planets, was located in the Loire Valley. (DTI novel: Watching the Clock)
- Situated to the south-west of Paris, the Loire Valley (La Vallée de la Loire in French) is without doubt one of the most strikingly beautiful regions of France. It is popular with those wishing to visit a part of France other than Paris or the Atlantic or Mediterranean coastal resorts such as Biarritz or Cannes. The most well-known and most popular with cvisitors are the Château de Chambord, Château d'Ussé, Château d'Amboise, Château de Villandry and Chenonceau.
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| abstract
| - Situated to the south-west of Paris, the Loire Valley (La Vallée de la Loire in French) is without doubt one of the most strikingly beautiful regions of France. It is popular with those wishing to visit a part of France other than Paris or the Atlantic or Mediterranean coastal resorts such as Biarritz or Cannes. The Loire Valley is known as "le Jardin de la France" (the Garden of France) and "le Berceau de la Langue Francaise" (the Cradle of the French Language). The most celebrated and visually striking element of the Loire Valley is its architectural heritage, which is visible in its magnificent historic towns such as Angers, Amboise, Chinon, Blois, Saumur, Orléans, and Tours, but also of course in its famous "châteaux" often referred to in English as castles, but in fact "palaces" or "stately homes" would be a more accurate description. The most well-known and most popular with cvisitors are the Château de Chambord, Château d'Ussé, Château d'Amboise, Château de Villandry and Chenonceau. At the turn of the century, in the year 2000, UNESCO named the part of the Loire valley situated between Maine and Sully-sur-Loire, as a World Heritage Site (Site du Patrimoine Mondial). In the words of the committee this part of the Loire Valley is: "an exceptional cultural landscape, of great beauty, comprising historic cities and villages, great architectural monuments - the Châteaux - and lands that have been cultivated and shaped by centuries of interaction between local populations and their physical environment, in particular the Loire itself." There are, in fact, more than 300 châteaux in the Loire Valley, some of which were built many hundreds of years ago. This proliferation of châteaux in the same region was due to the fact that the French kings decided to construct their châteaux in this area, and the nobility, who were keen, or even desperate, to remain close to the seat of French power, decided to do likewise, which in turn attracted the very best landscape designers and resulted in the magnificent châteaux that we see today. But royals are nothing if not fickle, and in the middle of the 16th century King Francois I decided to leave the Loire Valley and move the seat of French power back to the ancient capital of Paris. The great architects followed behind of course, but the Loire Valley continued to be the place where most of French nobles preferred to spend the majority of their time. In the 17th century, however, King Louis XIV made Paris the permanent site for the royal family by building the Palace of Versailles just outside Paris. The nobility and the wealthy still continued, nevertheless, to renovate their existing châteaux or to build new ones which they used as summer residences in the Loire valley.
- The Loire Valley was a physical feature in the nation of France on Earth. The Château Thelian, residence of the President of the United Federation of Planets, was located in the Loire Valley. (DTI novel: Watching the Clock)
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