North of Paris, in the Oise, the land flattens into the great chalk plateau of Picardy, all wheat, sugar beet and sky, and Bresles sits on its edge where the small valley of the Thérain drops away towards Beauvais. It is a town of about four thousand people with a solid stone château that once belonged to the bishops of Beauvais, who used it as a country residence and, in the troubled centuries, as a stronghold.
Honesty first, about the swimming. This is not a land of lakes and beaches. What it has instead is water of a quieter kind: the marshes of Bresles, a protected wetland of reed beds, ponds and old peat diggings just outside the town, full of birds in spring, and the gravel-pit ponds of the Thérain valley, some of which are managed for fishing or leisure. Swimming is only allowed where it is signposted, so treat this more as a place to sit by water, cool down and watch the dragonflies than as a plunge.
The riding is open-country riding. Roads cross the plateau in long straight lines between villages, then tip down into the valleys in short bends through beech woods, and the contrast is pleasant. Wind is the real factor: there is nothing to stop it, and on a gusty day the crosswinds across the fields will push you around. Watch for tractors and mud on the road during the beet harvest in autumn, when the lanes can be slick. Summer evenings, with long light over ripe wheat, are the best of it.
Beauvais, about fifteen kilometres away, is worth a detour if time allows. Its cathedral has the tallest Gothic choir ever built, a soaring, unfinished structure whose vaults collapsed in the thirteenth century and were rebuilt with extra supports, and inside is an astronomical clock of remarkable complexity. The town was badly damaged in 1940 but the cathedral survived.
For practical needs, Saint-Just-en-Chaussée, about eleven kilometres away, is the nearest town of over five thousand, with supermarkets and fuel, and Bresles itself has a bakery and small shops. From here the run back towards Paris is quick on the main roads, so it is a good place to stop, drink something cold and let the plateau wind dry you off before the traffic begins.