Battle of Saumur (1940)

Varennes-sur-Loire (French pronunciation: [vaʁɛn syʁ lwaʁ] , literally Varennes on Loire) is a commune in the Maine-et-Loire department in western France.

The Loire Valley (French: Vallée de la Loire, pronounced [vale də la lwaʁ]), spanning 280 kilometres (170 mi), is a valley located in the middle stretch of the Loire river in central France, in both the administrative regions Pays de la Loire and Centre-Val de Loire. The area of the Loire Valley comprises about 800 square kilometres (310 sq mi). It is referred to as the Cradle of the French and the Garden of France due to the abundance of vineyards, fruit orchards (such as cherries), and artichoke and asparagus fields, which line the banks of the river. Notable for its historic towns, architecture, and wines, the valley has been inhabited since the Middle Palaeolithic period. In 2000, UNESCO added the central part of the Loire River valley to its list of World Heritage Sites.

The Loire Valley is listed UNESCO World Heritage site since 30 November 2000 under the reference 933bis. The justification for the inscription of the territory is based on several criteria: its architectural heritage which includes the Châteaux of the Loire (criterion I), its exceptional cultural landscape (criterion II) and its cultural monuments, witnesses of the Renaissance and the century Enlightenment (criterion IV). The list includes at this date 160 communes distributed in 2 regions (Pays de la Loire and Center-Val de Loire) and 4 departments (Maine-et-Loire, Loiret, Loir-et-Cher, Indre-et-Loire) on a distance of 280 km long stretching from Sully-sur-Loire to Chalonnes.

The Château de Montsoreau-Museum Contemporary Art is a private museum open to the public in Montsoreau, France. It opened 8 April 2016. The permanent collection exhibited at Château de Montsoreau consists of Philippe Méaille's collection of works by the conceptual art collective Art & Language.

The Château de Montsoreau is a Flamboyant Gothic castle in the Loire Valley, directly built in the Loire riverbed. It is located in the market town of Montsoreau, in the Maine-et-Loire département of France, close to Saumur, Chinon, Fontevraud-l'Abbaye, and Candes-Saint-Martin. The Château de Montsoreau is situated at the confluence of two rivers, the Loire and the Vienne, and the meeting point of three historical regions: Anjou, Poitou, and Touraine. A Gallo-Roman origin has been verified for the settlement of Montsoreau but not confirmed for the castle, even though a fluted column made of stone from a Gallo-Roman temple or a public building was found in the moat during the restoration works of the end of the 20th century. The first written sources are from the 6th century with the domain of Restis, but it was only with the construction of a fortress at the end of the 10th century that the market town began to become prosperous. One part of this first castle was found during the same restoration works by the archaeologists. The castle was reconstructed in a Flamboyant Gothic style between 1450 and 1460 by Jean de Chambes, one of the kingdom's wealthiest men, a senior councillor and chamberlain to King Charles VII and King Louis XI. The Château de Montsoreau was written about by Alexandre Dumas in his novel La Dame de Monsoreau (1845–1846). This novel is the second part of a trilogy on the Renaissance between La Reine Margot and The Forty-Five Guardsmen. Parts of the Château de Montsoreau were listed as a monument historique by the French Ministry of Culture in 1862, 1930, and 1938. The Loire Valley between Sully-sur-Loire and Chalonnes has been inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 30 November 2000. In 2015, the French contemporary art collector Philippe Méaille signed with Christian Gillet, president of the French department of the Maine-et-Loire an emphyteutic lease of 25 years of the real property of the Château de Montsoreau. The Château houses Méaille's collection of the conceptual art collective Art & Language as a museum named Château de Montsoreau-Museum of Contemporary Art.

The Vienne (French pronunciation: [vjɛn] ; Occitan: Vinhana, pronounced [viɲaˈno]) is a major river in south-western France. It is 363 km (226 mi) long. It is a significant left tributary of the lower Loire. It supports numerous hydroelectric dams, and it is the main river of the northern part of the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region. Two French departments are named after the Vienne: Haute-Vienne (87) in the Limousin region and Vienne (86) both in the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region.

Montsoreau (French pronunciation: [mɔ̃sɔʁo] ) is a commune of the Loire Valley in the Maine-et-Loire department in western France on the Loire, 160 km (99 mi) from the Atlantic coast and 250 km (160 mi) from Paris. The village is listed among The Most Beautiful Villages of France (French: Les Plus Beaux Villages de France) and is part of the Loire Valley UNESCO World Heritage Site. Montsoreau was identified under the name Restis (rope or fishnet) at the end of classical antiquity as a port on the Loire at the confluence of the Loire and the Vienne. It has taken its name Mount Soreau (Mont Soreau) from a rocky promontory situated in the riverbed of the Loire and surrounded by water on top of which was built a fortress in 990. There have been three major buildings on this promontory, a Gallo-Roman temple or administrative building, a fortified castle, and a Renaissance palace. Montsoreau was, until the seventeenth century, a center of jurisdiction and the seigneury of Montsoreau stretched from the river Loire to Seuilly-l'Abbaye and Coudray castle in the south. After the French Revolution, the exploitation of a building stone, the tuffeau stone, abruptly increased its population of 600 inhabitants to more than 1000, maintained during the first half of the nineteenth century. This stone, easy to work, was gradually exhausted, and the population decreased to stabilize again around 600 people. Montsoreau then concentrated its activities on agriculture, wine and river trade until the end of the nineteenth century. During the Twentieth century, Montsoreau has seen river trade replaced by terrestrial trade and the rise of a tourism economy.

Candes-Saint-Martin (French pronunciation: [kɑ̃d sɛ̃ maʁtɛ̃] ) is a commune in the Indre-et-Loire department, central France. It overlooks the confluence of the Vienne and Loire rivers from a steep hill on the left bank of the Loire, and marks the boundary between the modern departments of Indre-et-Loire to the east, and Maine-et-Loire to the west. It is a member of Les Plus Beaux Villages de France (The Most Beautiful Villages of France) Association.

Saint-Nicolas-de-Bourgueil (French pronunciation: [sɛ̃ nikɔla də buʁɡœj] , literally Saint-Nicolas of Bourgueil) is a commune in the Indre-et-Loire department in central France. This village is in the Loire Valley, in the midst of many castles, such as Chenonceaux, Villandry, etc. The commune is home to a wine appellation, Saint-Nicolas-de-Bourgueil AOC.

Turquant (French pronunciation: [tyʁkɑ̃] ) is a commune in the Maine-et-Loire department in western France.