CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Ordered leg totals agree within rounding. Stop distances are approximate sums of rounded legs. Stops, delays, approach and any separate return travel add time. Basis: planning record, not independently verified geometry.
Reading history stays on this device. My road watch requires a separate selection; opening it does not subscribe this ride.
Distances and riding times are planning figures. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
Built for flow, views and useful stops rather than navigation busywork. Out of Vaux-le-Pénil and back again: 620 km, roughly 11 h 29 in the saddle. On the way it passes Scenic stretch in Ablis, near Pacy-sur-Eure and in Dreslincourt. near Sermaises is the high point.
Vaux-le-Pénil sits on the high ground above the Seine, just east of Melun, in the Seine-et-Marne department. From the edge of the plateau, you can look down on the river as it winds through its valley, with Melun on its island and the forest of Fontainebleau stretching away to the south.
Read the complete High point near Vaux-le-Pénil write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Next is High point near Sermaises.
You top out here; the road stops climbing. Next is Scenic stretch in Ablis.
about 122 km into the recorded legs you reach Scenic stretch in Ablis. Next is Photo stop near Pacy-sur-Eure.
Pacy-sur-Eure sits on the river Eure in Normandy, about an hour west of Paris, in a valley of meadows, poplars and chalk hillsides. The town is a modest market centre with a Gothic church, a riverside setting and good access to the A13 motorway. It is also the starting point of a heritage railway, the Chemin de fer de la vallée de l'Eure, which runs along the valley on summer weekends.
Read the complete Photo stop near Pacy-sur-Eure write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Photo stop near Pacy-sur-Eure, about halfway. Next is Food stop in Dreslincourt.
Food at 354 km, roughly 7 hours into the riding. Next is Paris / Île-de-France escapes return.
Blérancourt is a village of about twelve hundred in the Aisne, in the green country between Soissons and Noyon, and it houses an unexpected museum: the Musée national de la Coopération franco-américaine, in the remains of a seventeenth-century château. It was founded by Anne Morgan, the daughter of the American banker J. P. Morgan, who came here after the First World War to help the villagers rebuild, and the museum tells the story of the friendship between France and the United States, from the American Revolution to the world wars. A fine garden and a pair of pavilions survive from the old château.
Read the complete Near Blérancourt, on the way back write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Paris / Île-de-France escapes return comes up about 412 km into the recorded legs. Next is Milly Forest Roads and Gâtinais checkpoint 8.
Vélizy-Villacoublay is a modern town on the plateau south-west of Paris, between the forests of Meudon and Verrières, best known for two very different things: one of the biggest shopping centres in the region and a military air base. The base at Villacoublay is where French leaders and foreign heads of state usually land when they come to Paris, and you may hear a government jet coming in low over the trees.
Read the complete Vélizy-Villacoublay write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Milly Forest Roads and Gâtinais checkpoint 8 closes the day. Next is Back to Milly Forest.
Fouquet's château is on your doorstep here. Nicolas Fouquet, Louis XIV's finance minister, built it from 1656, with Le Vau as architect, Le Nôtre as garden designer and Le Brun as decorator, and in August 1661 he gave a lavish party there for the young king. Within weeks, Fouquet was arrested, and the king took the same team to build Versailles.
Read the complete Milly Forest write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Back at Back to Milly Forest. That is the ride.
This High point near Sermaises → Scenic stretch in Ablis stretch is for rhythm and scenery. Keep your head up, let the view breathe, and resist turning every open bend into a target. Stop once properly rather than half-stopping everywhere.
Scenic stretch in Ablis → Photo stop near Pacy-sur-Eure is the technical section. Hairpins, gradients and mixed traffic can stack up quickly; use low drama inputs, stay wide of centre lines and expect buses or riders appearing exactly where optimism says they will not.
This Photo stop near Pacy-sur-Eure → Food stop in Dreslincourt stretch is for rhythm and scenery. Keep your head up, let the view breathe, and resist turning every open bend into a target. Stop once properly rather than half-stopping everywhere.
Food stop in Dreslincourt → Near Blérancourt, on the way back can flow quickly, but only if you keep village limits and junction sightlines sacred. Fast connectors are where rides get untidy when fatigue creeps in.