Crépy-en-Valois was once the capital of the Valois, the old county whose name passed to a whole dynasty of French kings. Today it is a busy market town of some fifteen thousand people on the plateau north-east of Paris, a natural place to refuel before heading on to Laon and the Aisne valley.
The remains of the old castle house a museum of archery and the Valois, a reminder that archery companies were once important social institutions in this part of France, and some still exist. The old town has narrow streets, a few half-timbered and stone houses and the ruined church of Saint-Thomas, its unfinished façade standing on its own like a stage set. It is not a place that demands a long stop, but it rewards a short walk.
The countryside around Crépy is good riding country if you know where to look. To the north lies the Forest of Compiègne, to the east the Forest of Retz around Villers-Cotterêts, and between them a gently rolling landscape of wheat and beet fields, small valleys and villages built of pale stone. Villers-Cotterêts is where Alexandre Dumas was born, and it is also where King Francis I signed the ordinance of 1539 that made French, rather than Latin, the language of official documents. Morienval, a few kilometres from Crépy, has an abbey church with some of the earliest Gothic rib vaults in France, tucked away in a quiet village.
Roads here are generally quiet D-roads, smooth and well signed, with long, open straights across the plateau and more interesting stretches where they drop into valleys and wind through woods. Wind can be a factor on the exposed parts, and the long straights invite speed, but speed cameras are common in this part of France. Crépy has fuel, supermarkets and bakeries in good supply, so fill up, grab something to eat and enjoy the run north towards the Aisne.