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Telegraph
13-05-2025
- Telegraph
My cycling holiday in the Loire was a navigational nightmare
In the end, cycling up to 75km a day wasn't the problem. Not when you've got an electric bike doing most of the heavy lifting, and the Loire Valley is almost as flat as a crepe. Chateau hopping by bicycle proved much easier than expected for a 50-something who's never darkened the door of a spin class. No, the problem wasn't pedalling from one storybook castle to the next – it was finding them in the first place. It wouldn't have been an issue in the Renaissance, of course, when the horses could probably gallop blindfolded between the architecturally dazzling buildings peppered along the Loire. Centuries of French royalty lived, loved and loitered here. But my two-wheeled steed, due to take me on a three-day itinerary from Blois to Tours, was handed to me by the cycle hire outfit along with a rubbish app and a map only covering half the route. Google Maps wasn't going to cut it: I was on the Loire à Vélo, a 900km cycling network of mostly off-road routes and quiet country lanes marking its 20 th birthday this year. Nearly two million people pedal its paths annually, breezing along the riverbanks and meandering through vineyards and forests. Presumably, most of them don't get lost. The routes are signposted to a degree, often with just a route number and a cycling icon; sometimes you see them, sometimes you don't. But my second day's ride between the Château of Cheverny and Chaumont was marked more by wrong turns, making the 35km morning outing stretch to almost double its estimated time. The outlook for the afternoon was worse; neither map nor app extended beyond Chaumont. With no WiFi to download another app, I tried the tourist office for old-fashioned paper assistance. 'That's not our region,' the assistant shrugged with Gallic indifference. But let's park the navigational disasters for the moment; once you find them, the chateaux are truly magnifique. Day one had taken me to an estate the size of Paris at Chambord, topped with a riot of chimney stacks, stair turrets and dormer windows. It's less of a roof and more of a skyline in miniature. Leading up to it is an ingenious double-helix staircase ensuring that anyone ascending never meets those descending (handy for when your mistress is arriving as your wife is leaving). Further on, Cheverny looked the picture of stately elegance from the exterior, though that image wobbles slightly on discovering it was the model for Captain Haddock's Marlinspike Hall in the Tintin books. Inside, it's dripping with 17th-century tapestries, painted timber ceilings and wood panelling. Everything is so lavish, you could easily overlook the paintings by Titian and Raphael. While an English stately home might have a teashhaop outside the gates, here refreshments come courtesy of the Maison des Vins (the Loire is one of France's great wine-growing regions, after all). It's no ordinary tasting; place your glass under any of 130 nozzles on the side of enormous fake barrels, and out comes your selection. Try doing that at a National Trust café. It's much better value than you'll get in Blighty, too, at €7 for seven tastes. By the time I rolled up at the nearby Relais des Trois Chateaux, I was feeling distinctly mellow. My suitcase was already waiting (courtesy of the Loire a Velo transport scheme), while a soak in the bath soothed a bum numbed by a day in the saddle. During an excellent dinner (you eat well on this trip), I chatted to New Zealanders Catherine and David Davies-Colley, who had just started a three-week cycle tour. They'd booked through a company whose custom-built app offered the kind of detailed directions I could only fantasise about. 'Some of the routes' sign posting definitely needs to be updated,' agreed David. These were seasoned pros; they'd even brought their own saddles. I thought of them the next day as I winced my way off the bike after finally reaching the Chateaux of Chaumont and later Chenonceau (and yes, there does seem to be an obsession with the letter C when naming castles). These two have a backstory worthy of a soap opera. Henri II's formidable wife, Catherine de Medici, had looked on jealously when he granted Chenonceau to his mistress, Diane de Poitiers. So after Henri died, Catherine orchestrated a royal chateau swap, nabbing Chenonceau and giving Diane Chaumont. As consolation prizes go, it wasn't a bad one. Today, Chaumont's fairytale façade encloses an interior filled with modern art installations, with everything from a hanging garden in the chapel beneath Catherine's old room to crystal books glimmering in the library. Even the gardens double as an extensive gallery space, with a different theme each year. It's quite the contrast to Chenonceau, where the grounds are less about art and more about the love rivals trying to outdo each other in flowerbeds and fountains. Both also left their mark on the architecture. Diane built the elegant bridge linking the château to the opposite riverbank; not to be outdone, Catherine had the bridge covered to create a 60-metre-long gallery begging for a candlelit ball. Arriving late in the day, I had it to myself. By day three, I could fully appreciate the (ahem) cycle of life – eat, sleep, bike, repeat – as I finally cracked the navigation. It turns out that the Loire à Vélo website works with an app it failed to mention called Geovelo. Once downloaded, it transformed my experience, offering proper directions, route options and a chance to feel briefly competent. A much more relaxed pedal that day took me from Chenonceau to Amboise, weaving along the banks of the Cher river, then through spring-green vineyards and undulating woodland that filtered the light like something from a painting. It was bliss. With a press of the e-bike's boost button, I surged up gentle hills, soaring down them to occasionally top 30kph before reverting to a more civilised 20. The only real hazard was a tunnel so low that staying on the bike might have resulted in a lengthy lie down before reaching Amboise, where Leonardo da Vinci's tomb lay in a tiny chapel atop the chateau's impossibly high walls. And so to Tours, via one last refreshment stop in Montlouis-sur-Loire's Le Clos des Vignes de Cray vineyard. Here, the delightful Evelyne Antier wasn't surprised to hear about my misadventures. 'People turn up all the time complaining about how lost they've been,' she said. My advice then, for anyone chasing chateaux culture from behind the handlebars is to download Geovelo, take a battery pack (these apps are hungry), and, unless you're built like a Tour de France veteran, consider investing in a seat cover. Your backside will thank you. Essentials Jane Knight was a guest of the Centre-Val de Loire tourist office ( Four nights' B&B with cycle hire and luggage transfer but not chateaux entry costs from €610/£518 ( Itineraries can be found on The train line has tickets from London to Blois-Chambord, returning from Tours to London from £123.
Global News
24-04-2025
- Politics
- Global News
Canada election 2025: Kings—Hants
See more sharing options Send this page to someone via email Share this item on Twitter Share this item via WhatsApp Share this item on Facebook Kings—Hants is a federal riding located in Nova Scotia. This riding is currently represented by Liberal MP Kody Blois who first took office in 2019. Blois collected 20,192 votes, winning 44.92 per cent of the vote in the 2021 federal election. Voters will decide who will represent Kings—Hants in Nova Scotia during the upcoming Canadian election on April 28, 2025. Visit this page on election night for a complete breakdown of up to the minute results. Candidates Liberal: Kody Blois (Incumbent) Conservative: Joel Hirtle NDP: Paul Doerr Green: Karen Beazley People's Party: Alexander Cargill
CBC
24-04-2025
- Politics
- CBC
The farming factor and the battle for Kings-Hants
In the federal riding of Kings-Hants, scattered among the typical campaign signs in bright party colours, there are some large signs in an unfamiliar burgundy. "Farmers for Kody," the signs say, referring to Liberal candidate Kody Blois but with no mention of the party. The signs speak to the importance of the agriculture industry in this part of Nova Scotia, as well as the strategy of the incumbent, who is seeking a third term. "There's a lot of farmers in Kings-Hants. Not all are Liberal farmers, of course. Some like the government, some don't, but they generally have supported my work and my candidacy here," Blois said in an interview. He said he came up with the idea for the sign about a year ago, at a time when the Liberal brand was sinking in popularity and well before he was appointed to Prime Minister Mark Carney's cabinet as agriculture minister. Even though the Liberals are now leading in most public opinion polls, political science professor Erin Crandall said Blois's strategy is still sage. Fighting to keep the seat "Any Liberal candidate will be fighting really hard to keep this riding," said Crandall, who works at Acadia University in Wolfville, N.S., in the heart of Kings-Hants. "Despite the fact that it has been a Liberal riding for 20 years, I don't think anyone here would call it a Liberal riding.… It was a Scott Brison riding," she said, referring to Blois's predecessor who served as a Conservative MP before he was a Liberal, and a Progressive Conservative before that. Crandall said Blois's use of his personal brand, plus the recent Liberal boost, is giving Blois the edge over his Conservative competitor, Joel Hirtle. Hirtle, a one-term councillor for the Municipality of the County of Kings and former tire builder at Michelin, secured the federal Conservative nomination more than a year ago and began unofficially campaigning right away. Old posts drum up controversy Soon after the writ dropped, old tweets by Hirtle in which he criticized the #MeToo movement began circulating online. "As a straight (married) man I have not issued compliments to female coworkers that I believe would be appreciated. "I like your new haircut" suddenly becomes dangerous post #metoo," reads one of his posts from July 2018. In another, he said he would require Bitcoin donations to interact with members of the "#metoo swarm mob," and in another he refers to adherents of #MeToo as "heroines of hypocrisy" and "sultans of slander," among other epithets. The posts drummed up critical chatter online and inspired a small protest against Hirtle in a public park in Wolfville, where a little more than a dozen participants chanted "We do not consent to Hirtle" and "Hirtle has no place in Parliament." Rene Doucet Cottreau, a student at Acadia University, organized the event and said it was partly about Hirtle's past comments, and partly about Hirtle's response — or lack thereof — to them. "[He] is continually refusing to meet with the people that he claims to want to represent," Doucet Cottreau said, referring to Hirtle declining to participate in two local candidates debates. Hirtle also declined to speak with CBC News. "This is about candidate quality both in a professional and personal capacity," said Doucet Cottreau. Doucet Cottreau said he hoped Hirtle would apologize. Hirtle does not appear to have commented publicly on the issue, but the Conservative party told CBC News that he "regrets his imprudent posts from 7 years ago." "Sexual assault and sexual harassment are serious issues that demand equally serious responses. Mr. Hirtle firmly believes such incidents must be properly addressed and perpetrators held accountable," a party spokesperson said in an email. Conservative headwinds Crandall said the matter doesn't seem to be affecting the race. At least, not as significantly as other factors. "I would guess that what's bringing down the local campaign has more to do with the struggles of the national [Conservative] campaign as opposed to perhaps some of the controversy around the candidate," she said. WATCH | Polls analyst Eric Grenier breaks down the parties' standings: Where do the polls stand 1 week from election day? 2 days ago Duration 7:37 Éric Grenier, who runs CBC's Poll Tracker, joins Power & Politics to break down where the parties stand in the polls with just one week until election day. Crandall highlighted that as generations who grew up with social media age into politics, candidates are increasingly having to grapple with old social media posts. "[People] do have to be held accountable for it. But you also have to allow for growth of a person," she said. "What you say when you're 22 is not going to be representative, necessarily, of what you believe when you're 32. And voters will get to decide that. That's the value of the vote." Five names on the ballot The New Democrats have Paul Doerr on the ballot. A professor of history at Acadia University, he ran unsuccessfully in the fall provincial election for the Nova Scotia NDP. He said his career studying and teaching 20th-century European politics and history inspired his run. "I'm very much aware of the dangers of authoritarianism and fascism and the fragility of our democracies. So at that time I wanted to make a contribution. I also wanted to be sure that postelection we have a country with a strong social safety net, including a very strong health-care system," he said in an interview. Green candidate Karen Beazley is a retired professor with Dalhousie's school of resource and environmental studies. At a local debate, she said she's running because party co-leader Elizabeth May's message resonates with her — especially as Canada navigates new international tariffs and the economic fallout. "Democracy and respect for human rights, climate action and collective work for a better world must not be abandoned," she said. The People's Party is running Alexander Cargill, who describes himself on the PPC website as a "key figure" in the Freedom Convoy, which descended on downtown Ottawa in 2022 to protest pandemic protocols and other federal Liberal government policies.
