Rambouillet is the town where a king died and a president spends his summers. François I, the Renaissance monarch who brought Leonardo da Vinci to France, died in the château of Rambouillet in 1547, and the building, a mix of medieval towers and later wings, has been a royal and then presidential residence ever since. It is surrounded by a large park, partly formal and partly wild, and by one of the largest forests in the Paris region, over twenty thousand hectares of oak, beech and pine.
The estate holds some real oddities. In the park stands the Laiterie de la Reine, a dairy built for Marie Antoinette as a pleasure house, in the fashion for playing at country life, with a grotto and a little temple. Not far off is the Bergerie Nationale, a sheep farm founded under Louis XVI, who imported Spanish merino sheep to improve French wool, and the breed is still kept there today. A visit gives you a very different view of royal life from the glitter of Versailles.
The forest is the main attraction for riders. Its roads, many of them straight and lined with tall trees, run through tunnels of green, with dappled light and the smell of resin and leaf mould, and it is a pleasure to ride on a quiet weekday morning. The surface is mostly good, but narrow in places, and wet leaves, sandy patches and fallen branches can be treacherous. Deer and wild boar live in the woods, and a boar crossing at dusk is a real possibility.
Rambouillet itself, with nearly twenty-seven thousand people, has everything: fuel, supermarkets, cafes and a pleasant market on Saturdays. The old centre is quiet and tidy, with a few good restaurants, and the park is an excellent place to stretch out on the grass after a ride. The photo spot is at the forest edge, where the trees open to a view across a pond or a clearing, best in the soft light of early morning.
Weekends in fine weather bring many walkers and cyclists, so ride with care and expect to share the road. In winter, the forest can be cold and misty, with ice on the road in shaded sections.