Pithiviers gave its name to a pastry before most riders ever heard of the town. The pithiviers is a domed pie of puff pastry filled with almond cream and scored with curving lines on top, and you can still buy a proper one at the bakeries here. It is rich, buttery and almost certainly not what your riding gear needs, but it is the local thing, and that should count for something.
The town lies on the edge of two landscapes. To the west and north stretches the Beauce, the great wheat plain of France, flat to the horizon, where a church spire or a grain silo can be seen from ten kilometres away. To the south and east begins the Gâtinais, a slightly more varied country of small valleys, woods and villages. Historically the Gâtinais was known for saffron, grown on these limestone soils for centuries before the trade died out, and a few growers have revived it in recent years.
Pithiviers has a small but real railway heritage too: a narrow-gauge line, preserved as a tourist railway, runs from the town into the surrounding fields, a reminder of the network of little lines that once carried sugar beet and grain across the plain. In the centre, the Saint-Salomon church and the old streets are pleasant for a short wander, and there are enough cafés to sit and watch the town go about its business.
Riding here is honest work. The Beauce roads are mostly straight and fast, which is fine for covering distance but can be monotonous, and they are exposed: on a windy day, crosswinds across the open fields are tiring. The Gâtinais to the south and east is more interesting, with gentle curves through villages and along small river valleys such as the Essonne. As a town of almost ten thousand people, Pithiviers has fuel, supermarkets and everything else you need. Speed cameras and village speed limits are common, so ride accordingly, and enjoy the sense of space under the big sky.