Brie Backroads and Meaux Coffee + Paris · Fontainebleau and Loing Sweep

Scenic road chapters

Waypoint introductions and full write-ups

1. 1. Paris

   It is a gift from the ruler of Egypt, about three thousand years old, and it was set up here in 1836 on the spot where the guillotine stood during the Revolution. Louis XVI was executed on this square in 1793, and so, in the Terror that followed, were over a thousand others. Now the square is a roundabout with fountains, ringed by traffic and framed by the Tuileries gardens on one side and the Madeleine church on the other. The banks of the Seine in this part of the city are UNESCO listed.

   Read the complete Paris write-up.

2. 2. Chevilly

   Flat does not begin to describe the Beauce. North of Orléans the land opens into an enormous plain of wheat, barley and rapeseed, so level and so open that grain silos and church steeples stand out like lighthouses, and the sky takes up most of the view. Chevilly is a small village on that plain, beside the old road from Paris to Orléans, with a church, a few streets and an eighteenth-century château set in a park on the edge of the village.

   Read the complete Chevilly write-up.

3. 3. Saint-Aignan

   Saint-Aignan rises from the south bank of the Cher in tiers: a stone bridge, a riverside quay, steep streets of white tufa houses, a Romanesque collegiate church, and above it all a Renaissance château on its rocky terrace. It is a small town in the southern Loire valley, surrounded by vineyards, woods and fields, and it has the soft, unhurried feel of the Touraine.

   Read the complete Saint-Aignan write-up.

4. 4. Chauvigny

   Five castles on one rocky spur is an unusual sight anywhere, and Chauvigny wears them well. The upper town stands on a limestone ridge above the Vienne river, east of Poitiers, with the ruins of medieval fortresses, a Romanesque church and narrow lanes packed onto the hilltop, while the lower town spreads along the river below. Approaching from the west, the skyline of towers and walls above the trees is a surprise.

   Read the complete Chauvigny write-up.

5. 5. Brie

   Do not come here looking for cheese. This Brie is a small village in the Charente, just north of Angoulême, a long way from the famous cheese country east of Paris. It is a quiet place of limestone houses, a church and fields, set in the gentle hills that roll toward the Cognac vineyards to the west and the wooded uplands of the Limousin to the east.

   Read the complete Brie write-up.

6. 6. Montmorillon

   The Gartempe runs right through the middle of Montmorillon, and the town has grown up on both its banks, linked by old bridges, with mills, gardens and steep lanes stepping down to the water. It is a small, quiet market town in the southeast of the Vienne department, surrounded by woods, pastures and the rolling country that leads toward the Limousin.

   Read the complete Montmorillon write-up.

7. 7. Selles-sur-Cher

   If you like cheese, Selles-sur-Cher needs no introduction. The town gives its name to a small, flat disc of goat's cheese coated in charcoal ash, with a bluish rind and a dense, slightly nutty interior, made under a protected designation in the surrounding area. Buying one from a local shop and eating it with bread on the riverbank is a simple pleasure that justifies the stop all by itself.

   Read the complete Selles-sur-Cher write-up.

8. 8. Pithiviers

   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.

   Read the complete Pithiviers write-up.

9. 9. Meaux

   Meaux sits on a loop of the Marne about forty kilometres east of Paris, and its name is on two famous products: the Brie de Meaux, a soft, creamy cheese with a long history in the markets of Paris, and a grainy mustard sold in stoneware pots sealed with red wax. Either one makes a good souvenir if you have space in a tank bag, though the Brie is better eaten here.

   Read the complete Meaux write-up.

10. 10. Fontainebleau

    Fontainebleau is a royal town in a forest, and the combination is irresistible. The château grew over seven centuries from a medieval hunting lodge into a palace of great beauty, and François I turned it into a showpiece of the Renaissance, importing Italian artists to decorate its galleries. Napoleon was fond of it, too, and it was in the horseshoe staircase courtyard that he said farewell to his Old Guard in April 1814, before leaving for exile on Elba. The courtyard is called the Cour des Adieux, and visitors still stand on those steps for photos.

    Read the complete Fontainebleau write-up.

11. 11. Paris

    Return visit. Read the place description above.

    Read the complete Paris write-up.