TOURS, FRANCE

I was asked to film a wedding at the Chateau Reignac in Reignac Sur Indre, Loire Valley and my first task was to find the easiest way to get to Reignac from Manchester. After much deliberation, I flew direct from Manchester with Air France to Paris Charles de Gaulle, although Orly airport would have been more convenient as it lies to the South of the city, and therefore nearer to Tours. I collected a hire car and drove 3 hours south to Tours (the nearest city to Reignac), an incredibly straight forward journey with the most complicated part being how to drive safely out of the airport. Tours is a beautiful city, known as the 'gateway to the Loire' and I stayed at the two star hotel Trianon, 57 Avenue du Grammont, Tours, a little hotel that I am convinced used to be a small block of offices attached to an apartment block. It was basic, clean and the staff were incredibly friendly. The fresh croissants and exceptionally clean bathroom, made up for the office windows and curtains that slip off the rail when you pulled them across, no air conditioning that I could see either but I was only paying 55 euros a night. The hotel was a in a great location for walking up to the old part of the town, as you leave the hotel on avenue de Grammont, turn left and you're soon in Place de Jean Jaures, home to the 'Hotel de Ville', walk up the Rue Nationale where the bigger stores are located, and bear left into the old town, head to 'Place Plumereau' for all the bars, restaurants and the best place for people watching in Tours. The village of Reignac Sur Indre lies half an hours drive from Tours, driving through Sunflower fields and quiet sleeply villages along the way. The Chateau Reignac was a stunning location for a wedding with a chapel attached to the back of the Chateau. The forty wedding guests had the place to themselves and if you're the bride, you really feel like a Princess for the day. As an international wedding videographer, I am often happy to be given a plate of sandwiches to stop me collapsing from malnutrition but at the Chateau we were given the same food as the guests - scallops, veal and croquembouche and I can say, hand on heart, that it's some of the best food I've ever tasted. In 1861, the Müller family bought Reignac and with the help of Collet, the architect, re-vamped the property in neo-gothic style. Edouard Müller was the mayor of Reignac from 1873 to 1913 and deputy for the Loches constituency from 1890 to 1893. It was due to him that the little town of Reignac gradually modernised: a station, a post office, a library, a fire station and a new washhouse were all installed. Around 1900, the château boasted electric lighting generated by its water-wheel on the Indre river. However, in 1911, the Henrotte-Müller bank went bankrupt and the Müller assets were seized. The château then became the property of the Vibraye-Cheverny family until 1984.