Perche Quiet Roads Overnight
A 257 km loop
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Why this ride
Scenery first, traffic last, with checkpoints that make sense on a bike. Out of Saulx-les-Chartreux and back again: 257 km, roughly 5 h 21 in the saddle. It goes by way of Garches, Scenic stretch in Conflans-Sainte-Honorine and near Parmain. The climb of the day is near Limours. Long stretches are under trees.
Roadbook
- Fuel stop in Saulx-les-Chartreux
fuel
Fuel at 0 km.
- High point near Limours
pass
You top out here; the road stops climbing.
- Garches
finish
The route ends here after 257 km.
- Scenic stretch in Conflans-Sainte-Honorine
scenic
Scenic stretch in Conflans-Sainte-Honorine, about halfway.
- Photo stop near Parmain
photo
Photo stop near Parmain sits at 147 km, about halfway.
- Near Quincy-Voisins, on the way back
swim
Paris / Île-de-France escapes return comes up 184 km in.
- Food stop near Neufmoutiers-en-Brie
food
A break here at 220 km.
- Back to Perche Quiet
finish
This is a landscape of big fields, wheat and sugar beet, cut through by motorways and dotted with research laboratories and business parks. The plateau is one of France's main scientific clusters, with universities and institutes that grew up around the old agricultural land, so you will see low modern campuses sitting beside barns and farm tracks.
The name Saulx-les-Chartreux hints at an older story. The Carthusians, a strict order of contemplative monks, once owned land here, and the village remembers them in its name. Many villages in this part of the Essonne grew up around a church and a few farms, and some of the old stone houses and farm courtyards can still be found down side streets. Villebon-sur-Yvette lies in the valley of the Yvette, a small river that runs through woods and meadows toward the Seine, and it still has a pleasant green corner or two.
From the plateau, the road toward the Perche runs west past Chevreuse and Rambouillet, onto smaller lanes. The ride's quiet reputation depends on avoiding the main roads, which can be badly congested at commuting hours, especially on the roads around Courtaboeuf and the A10. Use the smaller departmental roads on the plateau, where the surface is good and the bends are gentle. Fuel is not a problem: Saulx-les-Chartreux has about five thousand people, Villebon-sur-Yvette about ten thousand, and there are supermarkets with cheap petrol nearby.
The best time to ride this area is early on a weekend morning, before traffic builds, or in the evening after the commute. Autumn is gorgeous, with fields turning gold and then brown, while spring brings the bright yellow of oilseed rape. In winter, fog can lie in the valley and ice can form on shaded bends, so be careful.