For years, when travelers have asked where they should go after Paris, my answer has included these tried-and-true favorites: Champagne for a celebration, Normandy for history and sea air, Provence for art and wine excursions or the Riviera for glamour and languor. But increasingly, I find myself recommending the Loire Valley. The arrival of a new generation of hotels has made the region feel not just historically important, but newly exciting—and on our spring Insider Journey, I rediscovered wh...