Moret-sur-Loing is what an impressionist painter would have ordered if asked for a small medieval town. It sits on a quiet bend of the river Loing, where an old stone bridge with a mill arches over the water, and the whole composition, with a church tower, reflections and drifting willow, is the one that Alfred Sisley painted again and again after settling here in the 1880s. He is buried in the local cemetery. The town was fortified in the Middle Ages, and two great gates, the Porte de Samois and the Porte de Bourgogne, still stand at the ends of the main street, which runs between them past old houses and tiny courtyards.
It also has a sweet claim to fame. Moret's sugar of the Sisters, a hard, golden barley sugar sold in little twisted sticks, was invented by nuns here in the seventeenth century, and you can still buy it in the town, in tins, with an old-fashioned label. A few hundred metres away at Saint-Mammès, the Loing meets the Seine, and barges laden with grain, sand and containers pass through the locks, so the water stop there is full of working boats rather than pleasure craft.
The surrounding countryside is particularly pleasing. Moret sits on the edge of the Forest of Fontainebleau, a huge royal hunting forest of oak and beech with sandstone boulders scattered through it, and the roads in and out are shady, with gentle bends and not much traffic during the week. The surface is generally good, though forestry lorries and cyclists share the lanes, and weekends are busier. Early morning, with mist on the river, is the best time. In spring the woods are fresh and green, and in autumn they turn copper.
For practicalities, a town with a few thousand inhabitants has bakeries, a supermarket and a couple of cafes beside the river, and the neighbouring Veneux-les-Sablons has fuel and bigger shops. There is a public tap and benches near the bridge, which makes it a convenient water stop. It is also a useful half-day escape from Paris, easily combined with a loop through the forest and the castle at Fontainebleau.