10 unusual places to declare your love this Valentine's Day

Any occasion is a good one for declaring your love to the one you've fallen in love with, but Valentine's Day is the perfect time to call on Cupid. We've selected 9 original venues in and around Tours to make your declaration unforgettable!

Villandry gardens © Souffleur de Breizh
In the Andalusian-inspired "Jardin d'Amour" at the chateau of Villandry
Adjacent to the château, the "Garden of Love" is made up of four Andalusian-inspired squares, structured to evoke different facets of love: "tender love", "passionate love", "fickle love" and "tragic love". It's up to you to choose your garden! Make no mistake...
Gardens open all year round / château reopens February 8
3, rue Principale - 37510 Villandry
Reduced-rate tickets available from the Tours Loire Valley Tourist Office
The Gardens of Villandry
The Château de Villandry is a unique example of Renaissance architecture and gardens. Six sumptuous gardens await you: the vegetable garden, the ornamental garden, the water garden, the medicinal plant garden, the labyrinth and the sun garden.
© Léonard De Serres
On the banks of the Loire
The Loire, nicknamed the "royal river", offers an exceptional natural panorama for getting together, strolling hand in hand, or on a bike, and enjoying a peaceful moment to the sound of lapping water to confide your feelings.
© Stevens Frémont (CRT Centre-Val de Loire)
At the Domaine de Candé in Monts
Famous for having hosted the Duke of Windsor's wedding to the "commoner" Wallis Simpsons, this estate is an invitation to stroll and contemplate. It's the ideal place to open your heart to the surroundings of the château, in the shade of a century-old tree with an unobstructed view over the Indre valley.
Route du Ripault in Monts
Reduced-rate tickets available from the Tours Loire Valley Tourist Office
Domaine de Candé
In a preserved setting, 20 minutes from Tours, the Domaine de Candé takes you on a tour of a unique château in Touraine.

The place of the wedding of the century, residence of great fortunes from the 1930s to the 1970s, it presents a tour of 20 fully furnished rooms, decorations in Cordoba leather or Touraine silks, bathrooms in glass mosaics, a Skinner organ on 3 floors, 1,000 m² of wine storehouses equipped with the latest presses, a Bell telephone exchange, a fitness room with equipment equivalent to that on the Titanic...

The 230-hectare park with its century-old trees offers 2 hiking trails, contemporary artworks and atypical games. Don't hesitate to take a picnic with you!
© JC Coutand (ADT 37)
In the clouds aboard a hot-air balloon
Like Alfy and Emily in the TV series Emily in Paris (season 3 episode 9), treat yourself to a romantic moment as you soar over the chateaux of the Loire Valley aboard a hot-air balloon in Touraine.
Book your hot-air balloon flight HERE
© JC Coutand (ADT 37)
Inside Château d'Ussé, the castle of Sleeping Beauty
All you have to do is sing the song "J'en ai rêvé" from Walt Disney's famous cartoon in front of the Château d'Ussé, the inspiration for Charles Perrault's fairytale "Sleeping Beauty".
Between the fairytale castle and the gardens designed by Le Nôtre, creator of the gardens at the Château de Versailles, the setting could not be more romantic.
Please note: this location will not reopen until April 2, 2025, so you'll have plenty of time to make sure you're not mistaken...!
Château d'Ussé in Rigny-Ussé
Afternoon at Ussé and Azay-le-Rideau
We will start our discovery with Acco Dispo by visiting the Chateau of Ussé - known as the "Sleeping Beauty’s Castle”, which inspired Charles Perrault. This property is a combination between Gothic and Renaissance architectures, as well as an expansion done in Classic style.
We will finish our afternoon with the visit of the Chateau of Azay-le-Rideau, its elegant facades are like a jewel trapped between sky and river.
You will discover its 500 years old framework, as well as furniture and tapestries from different periods, in the living rooms.
© Sébastien Andréi
At the Beaune-Semblançay square
Located in downtown Tours, you can reach the Jardin de Beaune-Semblançay via a discreet passageway off Rue Nationale, THE shopping street of Tours.
It features a romantic garden, remnants of the façade of the former Renaissance Hôtel de Beaune and a fountain built of Volvic stone and white Genoa marble, nicknamed “the lovers' fountain”.
1, rue Jules Favre - 37000 Tours
© Office de Tourisme Tours Loire Valley
Under Mifamosa's mosaic "Rue du Petit Cupidon"
Orléans-based street artist Mifamosa brightens up French streets with his quirky, humorous mosaics. In Tours, between the Colbert and Blanqui districts, you'll find the Rue du Petit Cupidon. It features Cupidon, god of love in Greek mythology, and his arrow, famous for making people fall in love at first sight. Ideal for declaring your love!
Rue du Petit Cupidon in Tours
© JC Coutand (ADT 37)
In front of a work of contemporary art at CCC OD
Art arouses emotions, conveys experience and stimulates the imagination... Yes, that's what it's all about! So don't wait any longer, express your emotions in a unique space dedicated to creation, the Centre de Création Contemporaine Olivier Debré.
The exhibition of the moment to invite your other half to? “Presi per incantamento”, a collection of works inspired by the poetry of Dante, which capture the unexpected and the wonderful in our daily lives.
Jardin François 1er, Tours
Reduced-rate tickets available from the Tours Loire Valley Tourist Office
© Léonard De Serres
In front of the "Monstre" on the Place du Grand Marché, which will serve as a contemporary priest!
Xavier Veilhan's "Monstre" is a must-see for Touraine residents, to the point of nicknaming the Place du Grand Marché "Place du Monstre". It may look impressive, but it'll look at you kindly and bless your love so that it lasts forever!
Place du Grand Marché 37000 Tours