Château d'Azay-le-Rideau

Azay-le-Rideau is twenty-two kilometres south-west of Tours and is the most photogenic of the smaller Loire châteaux for one reason: it is built on an island in the Indre, and the river was widened around it to make a mirror. From the park path along the far bank the whole white facade, its steep slate roofs and the famous open staircase sit doubled in still water.

Work the reflection first, then the detail. The great staircase on the courtyard side is the architectural set piece — three storeys of Italianate loggias in white tuffeau — and the park behind gives cedars, long grass and a completely different, softer register.

Still water is the whole trick, so wind is the enemy and morning is usually calmer than afternoon. The facade faces broadly north-east across the water, so early light lands on it while the park behind is still shaded, and mist off the Indre in autumn mornings is a bonus rather than a problem.

Azay is a state-run monument, ticketed, with fixed opening hours, a seasonal calendar and its own conditions for professional photography and drones — check them before a session is promised inside the gates. Allow thirty to forty minutes' drive from Tours, and remember the park paths are grass and gravel, wet under foot early.