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.

I first visited the valley of France’s greatest river in 1969, at the wheel of an overloaded down-at-heel little Fiat. Last week, ‘à la recherche du temps perdu’, I returned to that world of delicious food, wines and magnificent castles. Much has changed. The men no longer wear black berets, play ‘boules’ on the village green or cycle from the boulangerie with baguettes under their arms. The bouncy little Citroëns with their back-sides up in the air are gone, nor does one bring a bottle to l’épicier for a top up of vin ordinaire.

France had few bird-watchers back then and a scruffy bearded Irlandais with binoculars aroused suspicion; I remember being interviewed by two perplexed policemen summoned by the neighbourhood watch in the Sologne. Searching for wildlife, just for the joy of observing it and with no wish to hunt and eat it, was beyond French comprehension. Nowadays, the bird-watcher is above suspicion and welcomed with open arms.

But the old magic survives and there’s a new addition to the infrastructure of this UNESCO world heritage listed valley; over 600km of smooth-surfaced sign-posted cycle paths now skirt the Loire and its tributaries. Bike rental costs about €14 per day or €57 per week. Tandems are a bit dearer.

This is perfect cycling country. There are few hills. The stands of rich woodland, and abundance of mature trees, provide shade from the sun and protection from the breeze. Not just the famous castles, but prestigious towns such as Tours and Orleans are linked by cycle paths.

Cycling offers fresh air, exercise and an intimate encounter with the countryside, the perfect break between sightseeing visits. A leisurely jaunt from Tours to Villandry, last week, took about an hour and a half. Turtle doves purred from the undergrowth, harriers quartered the fields. Big black carpenter bees, a species recorded recently for the first time in Ireland, pollinated the flowers and raucous frog choruses drowned out the mellow warbling of the blackcaps. And there was an unexpected bonus; cycling whets the appetite in this gastronomically famous region; but a word of warning — with too much wine you risk a more intimate encounter with the Loire.

In the old days, the plain people of Ireland took their holidays at home. Then, in the 1960s, things improved and people had a few bob to spare. Flying was still expensive, especially for families with children, and the roll-on roll-off car-ferry came into its own. Ireland’s new tourists sallied forth to witness the sights and sounds of ‘the Continent’.

For the Ryanair generation, intercontinental travel became the norm but, as oil prices rocket and pressure builds to curb carbon emissions, we will holiday closer to home from now on. Ryanair flies from Dublin to Tours but, for the virtuous eco-tourist, the ferries to Le Havre, Roscoff or Cherbourg, and France’s superb rail network, will be the vehicles of choice.

The Loire à Vélo trail is part of Eurovelo 6, a 2,400 km cycle route which will run from Nantes to Budapest. www.visaloire.com, www.tourism-touraine.com.