Just over 100 miles from Paris, the Loire has been a bucolic getaway for half a millennium. Anchored by a dreamy river, the region offers gorgeous scenery, excellent food and wine, and charming villages grown up around royal castles and other grand homes of the aristocracy. Visitors have typically received the Renaissance treatment, checking into antiques-filled châteaux set on parklands removed from towns’ bustle.

Two hotels that opened this past summer eschew that formula, offering a respite from the courtier feel.

Fleur de Loire

A disciple of the late Paul Bocuse, Christophe Hay earned two Michelin stars at his former restaurant, La Maison d’à Côté in the village of Montlivault. Now he has moved to town and become a hotelier. Located on the river road in Blois, Fleur de Loire offers two destination restaurants and views across the water of the town’s main attraction, the massive Château Royal. This home to seven French kings and 10 queens is just a 13-minute walk from the hotel.

The château housing Fleur de Loire was erected in 1647 for Gáston d’Orléans, brother of Louis XIII, who hoped to keep his sibling away from the Parisian court where he might threaten the king’s authority. Today, the hotel welcomes guests into a low-ceilinged lobby dominated by a contemporary chandelier that looks like a flutter of butterflies. Accommodations in one wing were still being converted during my stay, but the property will eventually include 44 guest rooms. I opted for a 500-square-foot Prestige Suite secluded in a second-floor corner. Glamorous accents — a white Lucite table, a gold-and-black coffee table, a clever blond-wood desk that opens up to a glowing vanity — punctuated a soothing décor in moss green and grays, and the bedroom featured a shimmering Asian wall mural. I liked the bath’s trough sink, its rainfall shower and separate deep tub and the Savonnerie des Muids and Sisley products, but I was less enamored of the suite’s nonfunctioning windows.

Editor Photos (slideshow below)