Flat does not begin to describe the Beauce. North of Orléans the land opens into an enormous plain of wheat, barley and rapeseed, so level and so open that grain silos and church steeples stand out like lighthouses, and the sky takes up most of the view. Chevilly is a small village on that plain, beside the old road from Paris to Orléans, with a church, a few streets and an eighteenth-century château set in a park on the edge of the village.
Look out across the fields near Chevilly and you may spot something odd: a long concrete track raised on pillars, running dead straight toward the horizon. This is the test line of the Aérotrain, a hovercraft train developed by the engineer Jean Bertin in the late 1960s. Prototypes floated on a cushion of air along this track at speeds of over 400 km/h, but the project was abandoned in favour of the TGV, and the track was left standing in the fields, a strange monument to a future that never came.
The Beauce has long been called the granary of France, and its soil is among the most fertile in the country. In summer the wheat ripens to gold, and the harvest fills the roads with combines and grain trucks. The wind blows freely across the plain, and dozens of wind turbines now turn above the fields. On a clear day you can see the spires of Chartres Cathedral rising from the plain further northwest, as pilgrims did for centuries.
The riding is straight and simple. The roads are long, flat and mostly well surfaced, and the wind is often the only challenge, especially for lighter bikes. The N20 and the A10 motorway carry heavy traffic between Paris and Orléans, but the side roads through the villages are quiet. This is a place to make good time, to enjoy the space and the light, and to watch the weather move across the sky, rather than to look for curves.
Chevilly has a few shops, and fuel is easy to find in Artenay to the north or in Saran and the northern suburbs of Orléans, a short ride south. Orléans itself, with its cathedral and its memories of Joan of Arc, who lifted the English siege of the city in 1429, makes a good stop for lunch or a coffee. In summer, carry water and sun protection: there is little shade on the plain.