Pierrefitte-sur-Seine is not where anyone dreams of ending a ride, and that is fine. It is a dense northern suburb of Paris in the Seine-Saint-Denis, just above Saint-Denis, with tower blocks, small houses, busy junctions and the steady rumble of the routes nationales that carry traffic between the capital and the plain to the north. You arrive here because it is the doorway back into the city after a day in the forests of Chantilly and Ermenonville.
It does have one thing that surprises people. The new home of the Archives nationales is here, a large modern building designed by Massimiliano Fuksas and opened in 2013, where millions of documents of French history are now kept, from royal decrees to revolutionary papers. A couple of kilometres south stands the Basilica of Saint-Denis, the burial place of the kings of France and the building where Gothic architecture was more or less invented in the twelfth century. If you have energy left, it is a far better final image of the day than the ring road.
The last kilometres in are urban riding, plain and simple. Expect traffic lights, buses, delivery vans, filtering scooters and drivers who change lanes with confidence. Arrive in the early afternoon on a Sunday and it is calm; arrive at six on a weekday and you will practise slow-speed balance. Keep an eye on the speed cameras that are common on the approach roads, and on the low-emission rules in and around Paris, which apply to motorcycles too, so carry your Crit'Air sticker.
The contrast with the start of the day is part of the charm. A few kilometres north, the slopes of the Montmorency forest rise above Groslay and Montmagny, and Groslay was famous for centuries for its orchards, especially pears, grown on the sunny hillside for the Paris markets. Beyond that the Plaine de France opens out into big fields, and then the forests of Chantilly begin, with their racecourse, their château and the long straight rides cut for royal hunts.
Fuel, food and everything else are everywhere here, open late, and the RER and metro lines nearby make it an easy place to meet someone or drop the bike for the night. Treat it as a landing strip: put your feet down, take off the helmet and let the day settle.