The area is chalk plateau and river valley, with big fields of wheat and sugar beet on the heights and woods and meadows along the water. It lies about eighty kilometres north of Paris, and for people from the capital it is a quiet, flat place to ride out to for lunch.
The cathedral of Saint-Pierre in Beauvais is one of the strangest in France. The medieval builders wanted to make the tallest Gothic choir in the world, and reached almost forty-eight metres in the thirteenth century, but part of it collapsed in 1284 and had to be rebuilt. In 1573 the tall central tower fell as well, and the nave was never finished. The result is a soaring, lopsided building that is still astonishing from the outside, with an astronomical clock inside that is a marvel of nineteenth-century engineering. The town also has a tapestry manufactory, founded in the seventeenth century, that still produces work for the state.
Beauvais has lakes and the Thérain has some quiet stretches, but bathing places in this part of the Oise are limited, so ask locally. Fuel and supermarkets are easy to find in Saint-Just-en-Chaussée, about eleven kilometres away, and in Beauvais itself, with plenty of choice. Bresles is small and quiet, and has a few shops.
The riding is relaxed, with long straight roads and gentle bends, though the plateau can be windy and the farm traffic heavy at harvest. In autumn, mist fills the valleys and the sugar beet lorries leave mud on the road. A spring ride, with yellow rapeseed fields under a blue sky, is lovely, and so is a calm September morning. It is not a place for adrenaline, more a pleasant day with a good lunch and a church or two.