Chinon sits at the centre of a cluster of excellent day-trip options. Azay-le-Rideau is just 21 km east — one of the most elegant Renaissance châteaux in the Loire, built on an island in the Indre river and open for visits. Fontevraud is 20 km to the southwest: a vast royal abbey where Richard the Lionheart and Eleanor of Aquitaine are buried, and one of the best-preserved medieval monastic complexes in France. Both are straightforward by car and manageable by bicycle for confident cyclists.