Mouy is a small town in the valley of the Thérain, in the Oise department, about sixty kilometres north of Paris, halfway between Creil and Beauvais. The valley is green and pleasant, with water meadows, poplars and old mills along the river, and the town has a modest centre with a church and a market square.
The Thérain valley was once an industrial corridor, with textile mills and workshops powered by the river, and some old factory buildings survive. Today, the area is mostly rural, with farms on the plateaux above the valley and villages scattered along the river.
Beauvais, about twenty-five kilometres to the north-west, is home to the Cathedral of Saint-Pierre, which has the tallest Gothic choir in the world, an astonishing feat of medieval engineering that partially collapsed in 1284 and was never completed. Its astronomical clock is also remarkable. To the south, Chantilly and its forests offer more sights.
As a food stop and start, Mouy has bakeries, cafés and a few restaurants, and the larger towns nearby offer more choice. The riding around Mouy is pleasant, with roads following the valley and climbing onto the plateaux, where the fields stretch to the horizon. Surfaces are generally good, and traffic is light away from the main roads. Fuel is available in town. Coming out of the valley in the early morning, with mist lifting off the water meadows and the smell of wet grass and woodsmoke in the air, it is easy to forget that the Paris ring road is barely an hour behind you.