The Loire is a long river through the middle of France, running west toward the Atlantic. English speakers say it the way you say a famous name: the Loire, sometimes the River Loire. What learners always hear next is the land beside it — the Loire Valley — famous for wine and for those grand old houses the French call châteaux. The tidy tourist picture is true enough, though of course a working river is also mud, barges, and ordinary towns, not only castles. In everyday English there is this one Loire; it is not a common noun you can have two of. France also has a département named Loire after the river, but that is a map-word. Visitors mean the river and the valley.