The visit of the Loire castles, a classic that comes from far away…
Certainly, they do not lack charm, these posters which return us to a time… rather distant. As early as the end of the 19th century, famous artists such as Frédéric Hugo d’Alési realized some of them. But it is with the development of the railway connections that these first advertisements will multiply.
In the beginning of tourism
If we put aside pilgrimages (in particular the one to Santiago de Compostela), it is our English neighbors who were the first to make use of the cultural initiation trips to Italy and the French Riviera, which were popular with the British aristocracy in the 18th century. Thomas Cook was the forerunner of travel agencies and tour operators, and was responsible for the first organized trips in the 19th century.
But a “therapeutic tourism” also developed in France as early as the 18th century, based on thermal establishments (Cauterets, Plombières-les-Bains, Vichy, Aix-les-Bains…). A few decades later, the first sea bathing establishment was built in Arcachon (1823), followed by a seaside resort in Deauville (1858). At the same time, between The Red and the Black (1830) and The Charterhouse of Parma (1839), Stendhal published his travel stories in France under the title “Memoirs of a Tourist” (1838). As for the first “syndicat d’initiative”, the forerunner of the tourist offices, it was in Grenoble that it appeared in 1889.
At the end of the First World War, tourism was initially the domain of rich foreigners, but the economic crisis of 1929 slowed down the activity. The introduction of two weeks of paid vacations for French workers in 1936 gradually changed the profile of tourists.
The circuit of the Loire castles
Like any advertising poster, those you can admire above and below were intended to encourage the public to undertake a journey. In this case, to use the services of the Compagnie de Chemins de fer de Paris à Orléans, one of the big private railway companies, which were then grouped together in the SNCF.
Designed by Constant Duval and other artists, they already focused on the great “musts” of Touraine, such as Chenonceau, Azay-le-Rideau, Amboise, Villandry, Chinon or Ussé. As the castles of the Loire Valley are far from each other, an agency was offering car tours from the Tours train station to bring travelers to their place of visit.
Finally, to conclude this little leap in time, we should remember that the first sound and light shows took place in Chenonceau (1953) and Azay-le-Rideau (1954), and that the first helicopter flights over the castles were organized in 1956!
Vintage posters
Source : Departmental Archives of Indre-et-Loire. Chenonceau (ref 99Fi0488 – CONSTANT-DUVAL, Léon) ; Tours (ref 99Fi0490 – HALLO Charles-Jean) ; Ussé (ref 99Fi0489 – CONSTANT-DUVAL, Léon) ; Azay-le-Rideau (ref 99Fi0483 ; CONSTANT-DUVAL, Léon); Amboise (ref 99Fi0485 – CONSTANT-DUVAL, Léon); Langeais (ref 99Fi0492; CONSTANT-DUVAL, Léon); Villandry (ref 99Fi0486; CONSTANT-DUVAL, Léon); Chinon (ref 99Fi0495).
More vintage posters can be seen on our Pinterest account.