Sergines is a quiet village in the north of the Yonne department, on the chalk plateau between the Seine and the Yonne, roughly where Burgundy shades into Champagne. The landscape is wide and open, with huge fields of wheat, barley, sugar beet and rapeseed stretching to the horizon, broken only by clumps of trees, church spires and the occasional water tower.
This is the Sénonais, the country around Sens, and history runs deep here. Sens, about twenty kilometres south, has one of the earliest Gothic cathedrals in France, Saint-Étienne, begun in the twelfth century. Its architect, William of Sens, later rebuilt the choir of Canterbury Cathedral after a fire. The town's treasury is one of the richest in France. To the north, Bray-sur-Seine and the Bassée wetlands along the Seine offer a different landscape of river meadows and gravel pits.
The riding on the plateau is open and fast, with long straights and gentle bends, good surfaces and very little traffic. It is the kind of country where you can see weather coming from miles away, and wind can be a factor. The roads down into the river valleys offer a bit more variety, with short descents and bends.
As a sight and photo stop, Sergines offers the big skies and vast fields of northern Burgundy. In early summer, when the rapeseed is in bloom, the plateau turns brilliant yellow. Fuel and food are available in Sens and Pont-sur-Yonne. The village has a church worth a look, and the silence of the plateau is part of the appeal.