Taking a hike on the bike ... ah, parfait

Richard Collins re-visits the Loire, a world of delicious food, castles, wine and wildlife.

IN 1429, the teenager Jean ‘la Pucelle’ picked out the Dauphin Charles, disguised among his courtiers in Chinon Castle. One hundred years later, Henri II presented another castle, Chenonceau, to his beautiful mistress Diane de Poitiers, who was 20 years his senior. When he died in a tournament, the vengeful widow, Catherine de Medici, ousted Diane from her beloved chateau — Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned. At Amboise, in 1560, low ranking protestant conspirators were thrown into the Loire in sacks. The aristocrats were quartered and their heads hung from the balcony of the castle.

With their sensational history and stunning architecture, the chateaux of the Loire make demands on the visitor. The motorised tourist, hopping from one magnificent edifice to the next, suffers from sightseeing overload; there is so much to take in. The courses of this sumptuous meal need breaks between them, ‘pour neutraliser la palette’, not an easy discipline for these rushed times. But, now, help is at hand, thanks to another French invention — the bicycle.