Brie Backroads and Meaux Coffee
A 1084 km loop
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Why this ride
A rider’s loop: clean exit, memorable middle, calm return. 1084 km round from Paris - plan on about 19 h 43 of riding. The stops in between: Chevilly, Saint-Aignan, Chauvigny and Brie.
Roadbook
- Paris
start
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.
The honest advice for a rider is to treat Paris as a city to park in. The Périphérique ring road is fast, dense and unforgiving, and central Paris is a web of one-way streets, bus lanes, cobbles and tram lines. Paris also has a low-emission zone, so find out if your bike needs the Crit'Air sticker before you ride in, and look up the latest rules on parking. Motorcycle bays are common at the edges of the centre, and a garage near a metro line is the sanest option. Petrol stations are rare in the middle of the city, so fill up on the outskirts, in Levallois-Perret or Clichy, which are only a few kilometres away.
On foot, the area is easy. You can walk the Tuileries to the Louvre, cross the Pont de la Concorde to the Assemblée nationale, or head up the Rue Royale to the Madeleine and the smart shops of the Faubourg Saint-Honoré. The Champs-Élysées begins at the square's northwest corner and runs gently uphill to the Arc de Triomphe. Early morning, before the coaches arrive, gives you the best light on the stone and the fewest crowds.
If you want a break, take a coffee at a pavement cafe and watch the traffic rotate around the obelisk. Spring and autumn are the best seasons, with soft light and fewer tourists. The metro station at Concorde is a good way to move around if the bike stays in the garage.
- Chevilly
fuel
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.
Look out across the fields near Chevilly and you may spot something odd: a long concrete track raised on pillars, running dead straight toward the horizon. This is the test line of the Aérotrain, a hovercraft train developed by the engineer Jean Bertin in the late 1960s. Prototypes floated on a cushion of air along this track at speeds of over 400 km/h, but the project was abandoned in favour of the TGV, and the track was left standing in the fields, a strange monument to a future that never came.
The Beauce has long been called the granary of France, and its soil is among the most fertile in the country. In summer the wheat ripens to gold, and the harvest fills the roads with combines and grain trucks. The wind blows freely across the plain, and dozens of wind turbines now turn above the fields. On a clear day you can see the spires of Chartres Cathedral rising from the plain further northwest, as pilgrims did for centuries.
The riding is straight and simple. The roads are long, flat and mostly well surfaced, and the wind is often the only challenge, especially for lighter bikes. The N20 and the A10 motorway carry heavy traffic between Paris and Orléans, but the side roads through the villages are quiet. This is a place to make good time, to enjoy the space and the light, and to watch the weather move across the sky, rather than to look for curves.
Chevilly has a few shops, and fuel is easy to find in Artenay to the north or in Saran and the northern suburbs of Orléans, a short ride south. Orléans itself, with its cathedral and its memories of Joan of Arc, who lifted the English siege of the city in 1429, makes a good stop for lunch or a coffee. In summer, carry water and sun protection: there is little shade on the plain.
- Saint-Aignan
town
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.
The collegiate church is the town's treasure. Built in the eleventh and twelfth centuries, it has a fine bell tower, carved capitals and, in the crypt, a set of medieval wall paintings in remarkably fresh colours. The château, rebuilt in the Renaissance style, overlooks the river and the town, and the view from its terrace across the Cher is lovely. Downstream lies Chenonceau, the château that spans the river on arches, one of the most famous in France, and Montrichard with its keep.
Many visitors come to Saint-Aignan for something completely different: the ZooParc de Beauval, just outside the town, one of the largest and most visited zoos in Europe, famous for its giant pandas. On summer weekends the roads around the town are busy with families heading there, so plan accordingly.
The riding in the area is gentle and pleasant. The roads follow the Cher valley through vineyards and meadows, with long, smooth bends and views of the river, and climb onto low plateaus of woods and fields. Small lanes wind between villages, with little traffic outside the tourist season. To the east lies the Sologne, a flat land of forests, ponds and hunting estates, while to the south the land rises gently toward the Berry. Spring and autumn are the best seasons, with green fields, mild weather and fewer tourists.
The local wines are Touraine whites and reds, especially sauvignon blanc and gamay, and the region produces goat's cheeses, including the ash-coated Selles-sur-Cher made just a few kilometres away. There are cafés and restaurants in the town centre, as well as supermarkets with fuel around Saint-Aignan and Noyers-sur-Cher across the river. For a bigger town with every service, Romorantin-Lanthenay is about half an hour east. A walk along the river at sunset, with the château lit above you, is a lovely end to the day.
- Chauvigny
town
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.
The castles were built by different lords between the eleventh and fifteenth centuries, the most important being the baronial castle of the bishops of Poitiers, who held the town. Its ruins host a falconry show in summer, with eagles, vultures and hawks flying over the battlements. The Collégiale Saint-Pierre, at the top of the town, is famous for its carved capitals, with monsters, demons and biblical scenes in vivid detail, some of the finest Romanesque sculpture in the region. The surrounding hills were quarried for limestone for centuries, and the town has a long history of stone working and porcelain making.
The wider area is rich in Romanesque art. About twenty kilometres east, the abbey church of Saint-Savin-sur-Gartempe has one of the most complete sets of medieval wall paintings in Europe and is on the UNESCO World Heritage list. Poitiers, to the west, has its own Romanesque churches and the site of the famous battle of 732, and the Futuroscope theme park lies north of the city.
The riding is easy and pleasant: the roads follow the river valleys and cross low plateaus of fields and woods, with gentle bends and little traffic. The valley of the Vienne and its tributaries, the Gartempe and the Clain, offers some charming routes, with villages, mills and bridges. The climb into the upper town is short but steep, with cobbles and tight corners, so take it slowly. The summer heat can be intense, and spring and autumn are the most comfortable seasons.
Chauvigny has fuel, supermarkets, cafés and restaurants, so it is a convenient place for a break. Local dishes include farci poitevin, a herb and vegetable pie, and goat's cheeses, as well as the macarons of Montmorillon to the south. Park in the lower town or near the top, walk the lanes, admire the carvings and look out over the valley from the castle walls.
- Brie
sight
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.
The village sits close to some surprising places. The Touvre, a few kilometres south, rises from one of the largest springs in France, a resurgence of water that has travelled underground through the limestone from the rivers of the plateau, emerging clear, cold and abundant into a short, wide river. At Ruelle-sur-Touvre, a naval foundry was set up in the eighteenth century to cast cannon for the French navy, using the river's power and the region's iron and wood, and the site is still connected with defence manufacturing today.
Angoulême, just to the south, stands on a high rocky promontory above the Charente, surrounded by ramparts that offer views over the valley. The city is famous for its comic strip festival every January, with murals and statues throughout the streets, and for the Circuit des Remparts, a vintage car race held on the streets around the old walls each September. Further west, the Cognac region produces the famous brandy, and the houses of Jarnac and Cognac welcome visitors.
The riding here is relaxed. The roads wind through low hills, woods and fields, with gentle curves, villages and little traffic, though the main roads around Angoulême can be busy at rush hour. The landscape is green and soft, with vineyards and sunflowers in summer and a warm, almost southern light. The roads east toward the Limousin, around La Rochefoucauld and its château, become hillier and more wooded.
For fuel and supplies, the commercial area of Champniers just north of Angoulême has everything, and Ruelle-sur-Touvre has shops too. A glass of Pineau des Charentes, the local aperitif made from grape juice and cognac, is a regional speciality, though best enjoyed once the riding is done. If you have time, take a walk to the springs of the Touvre, where the water wells up from the ground in a quiet, shaded pool.
- Montmorillon
fuel
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.
Montmorillon calls itself the city of writing and books. In the medieval quarter on the left bank, the old streets have been filled with bookshops, bookbinders, calligraphers and artisans working with paper and printing, and wandering among them is a quiet pleasure. The town's other speciality is sweet: the macaron de Montmorillon, an almond biscuit made to a recipe said to go back centuries, which you can buy in the town and even learn about in a small museum. Above the river stands the Maison-Dieu, a medieval hospital complex with an unusual octagonal chapel.
The wider area has some fine sights. The abbey church of Saint-Savin-sur-Gartempe, with its famous Romanesque wall paintings, lies downstream to the north, and the Gartempe valley offers lovely roads and walks, with cliffs, woods and rapids. Lussac-les-Châteaux, to the west, has a prehistoric cave where engraved stones were found, and the area around it is dotted with ponds and woods.
The riding is easygoing and pleasant. The roads around Montmorillon wind through the river valleys and over low plateaus, with gentle bends, good surfaces and very little traffic. It is a peaceful region, far from the motorways, and the roads invite a relaxed pace. The valley roads can be cool and damp in the morning, especially in autumn, when mist lies over the river.
Montmorillon has fuel, supermarkets, cafés and restaurants, so it makes a convenient break. Local food includes goat's cheeses, lamb and the famous macarons, as well as wines from the nearby Haut-Poitou. For a pause, park near the river, walk across the old bridge into the book quarter and take a coffee on a terrace, with the sound of the water below and the smell of old paper in the air.
- Selles-sur-Cher
town
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.
Selles itself is a quiet town on the Cher, between the Loire valley and the Sologne, with an abbey church dedicated to Saint Eusice and a château by the river that mixes medieval and Renaissance elements. It is the kind of place where the main square has a bakery, a bar-tabac and a few benches, and where life does not rush. The river here is wide and slow, lined with poplars, and in summer you can watch people fishing in the evening light.
The riding around Selles is gentle. To the north, the Sologne is a flat land of forests, ponds and hunting estates, crossed by straight roads under pines and birches, with misty mornings and the occasional deer bounding across. To the south and west, the Cher valley offers pleasant curving roads through vineyards and fields towards Saint-Aignan and the château country of the Loire. The roads are generally well surfaced and lightly used outside the main tourist season, though tractors are common, and in hunting season you may see gatherings of hunters and dogs at forest edges.
With fewer than five thousand inhabitants, Selles has the everyday basics, cafés and somewhere to eat, but if the tank is low the safer bet is Romorantin-Lanthenay, about eighteen kilometres north, the nearest larger town. Spring, when the Sologne is green and the ponds are full, and early autumn, when the light softens and the vineyards are being harvested, are the most pleasant times. In midsummer the heat can be heavy, but the shade of the riverside trees and a cold drink at a terrace make up for it.
- Pithiviers
town
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.
- Meaux
sight
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.
The old episcopal quarter is the heart of the town. The Gothic cathedral of Saint-Étienne rises above the river, and next to it stands the bishops' palace and its garden, laid out in the shape of a mitre. Jacques-Bénigne Bossuet, the great preacher of Louis XIV's court known as the Eagle of Meaux, was bishop here, and his study in the garden pavilion is a quiet spot. Walking among these old stones by the Marne gives the town a weight you might not expect.
Meaux is also a gateway to the battlefields of the First Battle of the Marne in September 1914, when French and British forces halted the German advance on Paris; famously, Paris taxis were used to rush reinforcements to the front. On the edge of town, the Musée de la Grande Guerre is one of the most comprehensive museums of the First World War in France, with uniforms, vehicles and life-size trench reconstructions. It is worth a visit if you have even a passing interest in the period.
The surrounding area is the Brie, a plateau of big fields, scattered woods and small villages. The roads are calm once you are out of the urban fringe, with gentle bends through farmland, along the Marne valley and across small rivers like the Grand Morin. The Marne valley itself, especially upstream towards Château-Thierry, gives pleasant, flowing roads with vineyards appearing on the slopes as you approach Champagne. Meaux has fuel, cafés and restaurants, and on a sunny day a coffee by the river under the cathedral is a gentle way to round off the morning.
- Paris finish