Loire Castle Edge Tour
A 687 km loop
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Why this ride
Scenery first, traffic last, with checkpoints that make sense on a bike. 687 km round from Mouy - plan on about 14 h 19 of riding. It goes by way of near Sérifontaine, near Évreux, Ingré and Scenic stretch near La Chapelle-la-Reine. Long stretches are under trees.
Roadbook
- Fuel stop in Mouy
fuel
Fuel at 0 km.
- High point near Sérifontaine
sight
High point near Sérifontaine comes up 98 km in.
- Food stop near Évreux
food
Évreux is the capital of the Eure department in Normandy, a medium-sized city on the river Iton about an hour and a half west of Paris. It has had a turbulent history, sacked by Vikings, burned during the Hundred Years' War and heavily bombed in 1940 and 1944, but it has kept a fine Gothic cathedral, Notre-Dame d'Évreux, whose stained glass is among the best in Normandy. The former bishop's palace beside it now houses the city museum, with Gallo-Roman finds from the area.
The countryside around Évreux is classic Normandy: rolling farmland, hedgerows, half-timbered farmhouses and small valleys with rivers that wander towards the Seine. The Iton runs through the city, and a pleasant riverside walk follows it through the centre. To the east lies the Eure valley, and beyond it the Seine with its chalk cliffs and the gardens of Giverny.
As a start and finish, Évreux works well. The city has plenty of restaurants, cafés and bakeries, and Norman food is rich and satisfying: cream, butter, apples, cider, calvados and cheeses like Camembert, Pont-l'Évêque and Livarot. A simple lunch of a galette or a plate of local cheese and bread with a bowl of cider is a fine reward.
The riding around Évreux is gentle, with roads winding through farmland and small valleys. Surfaces are generally good, and traffic is light away from the main routes. Fuel is readily available in the city. From here, rides lead south towards the Loire, west into the heart of Normandy, or east along the Seine.
- Near Ingré, on the way back
swim
North of Orléans the Beauce begins, the great wheat plain of France, flat as a table and sown to the horizon. This stop lies on its southern edge, between Ormes, Bricy and Ingré, where the plain meets the suburbs of Orléans and the military air base at Bricy, home to the French air force's transport aircraft. You may see the big grey A400Ms lumbering overhead.
Orléans is the city of Joan of Arc, who lifted the English siege in 1429, and the city still celebrates her every May with processions and festivities. The cathedral of Sainte-Croix, rebuilt in a Gothic style after the Wars of Religion, dominates the old town, and the riverside quays along the Loire are pleasant for a stroll.
The Loire itself is beautiful but dangerous. Its sandbanks shift, its currents are strong and unpredictable, and every summer people drown trying to swim in it. Do not swim in the river. The leisure base on the Île Charlemagne, at Saint-Jean-le-Blanc, has a lake with a supervised bathing area in summer, which is a much safer option.
East of Orléans, the Forêt d'Orléans is one of the largest state forests in France, a vast area of oak and pine with ponds and quiet roads, perfect for a peaceful ride. The roads in the Beauce are straight and fast, but the wind can be strong and the views monotonous.
The suburbs around Ingré solve fuel and groceries in minutes. If you eat in Orléans, look for Olivet, a soft local cow's milk cheese often rolled in ash, and remember that the city was France's vinegar capital for centuries; a few old vinegar houses still trade on the name.
- Scenic stretch near La Chapelle-la-Reine
sight
Scenic stretch near La Chapelle-la-Reine sits at 393 km, about halfway.
- Photo stop near Sergines
sight
Sergines is a quiet village in the north of the Yonne department, on the chalk plateau between the Seine and the Yonne, roughly where Burgundy shades into Champagne. The landscape is wide and open, with huge fields of wheat, barley, sugar beet and rapeseed stretching to the horizon, broken only by clumps of trees, church spires and the occasional water tower.
This is the Sénonais, the country around Sens, and history runs deep here. Sens, about twenty kilometres south, has one of the earliest Gothic cathedrals in France, Saint-Étienne, begun in the twelfth century. Its architect, William of Sens, later rebuilt the choir of Canterbury Cathedral after a fire. The town's treasury is one of the richest in France. To the north, Bray-sur-Seine and the Bassée wetlands along the Seine offer a different landscape of river meadows and gravel pits.
The riding on the plateau is open and fast, with long straights and gentle bends, good surfaces and very little traffic. It is the kind of country where you can see weather coming from miles away, and wind can be a factor. The roads down into the river valleys offer a bit more variety, with short descents and bends.
As a sight and photo stop, Sergines offers the big skies and vast fields of northern Burgundy. In early summer, when the rapeseed is in bloom, the plateau turns brilliant yellow. Fuel and food are available in Sens and Pont-sur-Yonne. The village has a church worth a look, and the silence of the plateau is part of the appeal.
- Argenteuil
finish
Loire Castle Edge Tour checkpoint 8 closes the day.
- Back to Loire Castle Edge
finish
A modest town on the little river Thérain, in the Oise département, Mouy lies about fifty kilometres north of Paris, among the low chalk hills and wooded ridges of the Picardy edge. The landscape is quiet: wheat fields, hedgerows, woodland and neat red-roofed villages, with the occasional church spire poking up on the skyline. It does not shout about itself, and there is something restful in that after the big roads of the capital.
The area is on the doorstep of two famous places. To the east, Chantilly has a grand château with a collection of paintings in the Musée Condé, a racecourse and the great stables that house horses and a museum of the horse, and the town is also known for its whipped cream. Not far away, the old town of Senlis has medieval walls, a cathedral and a cluster of narrow streets, and the forests of the Oise are full of deer. Together they make the case for ending a day here, on the edge of the château country that gives the ride its name, rather than at the far end of the Loire valley.
The riding is easy and pleasant. Roads in the Thérain valley and the surrounding plateau are smooth and lightly trafficked, with gentle bends, long views over farmland, and a pleasant rhythm of fields and woods. On weekends, cyclists and families are out in numbers. Fuel and food are no problem, because Mouy has about five and a half thousand people, with a supermarket, bakeries and a few cafés. The larger town of Creil is not far away, and has more stations. In winter, mist and ice can build in the valley, so take care on shaded bends and bridges.
In autumn, the beech woods turn deep copper, and mushrooms appear along the verges, and by evening there is a smell of leaf mould and woodsmoke. Park near the church, take a deep breath, and let the day settle. After a long ride, the peace of a small French town is hard to beat.