Nemours lies on the Loing river, in the southern corner of Seine-et-Marne, where the landscape changes from the forests of Fontainebleau to the gentler farmland of the Gâtinais. It is a town of about fourteen thousand people, with a grey-stone centre, a canal beside the river and a medieval castle that still stands guard over the bridge. A good place for lunch, in other words, with enough to look at between courses.
The castle, built in the twelfth century and extended in the fifteenth, is a solid, square fortress with round corner towers, and it houses a museum on the prehistory of the Île-de-France, as well as exhibits about the history of the town. The surrounding area is rich in prehistoric remains, thanks to the rock shelters and caves in the sandstone ridges, and the museum explains how people have lived in the region for tens of thousands of years. The duchy of Nemours, once a royal title, gave its name to a series of notable French nobles.
The Canal du Loing runs through the town, a modest waterway used for centuries to carry goods toward Paris, now mostly frequented by pleasure boats and walkers on the towpath. A seat on a terrace by the canal in summer, with a plate of simple French cooking, is hard to beat. Expect good, uncomplicated fare: a plat du jour, a steak with chips, a goat cheese salad, a tarte aux pommes, and a carafe of house wine. The brasseries around the centre are generally open for lunch from noon until two, and a lot of them are closed on Monday.
The riding to Nemours from the north runs along quiet forest roads and then across open farmland, a good mix of shaded bends and straight sections. The surface is generally good, the traffic light, and the sandstone cliffs on the edge of town give a hint of the scenery in the forest. In autumn, the leaves along the roads can be slippery, especially after rain.
Fuel is easy in Nemours and neighbouring Saint-Pierre-lès-Nemours, both of which have stations and supermarkets, and the town is a convenient base for exploring the area. If you have time after lunch, take a walk along the canal and watch the boats pass through the lock.