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: producer-declared routed record.
Reading history stays on this device. My road watch requires a separate selection; opening it does not subscribe this ride.
Distance and riding time are measured on the routed road. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
Leave the city behind and spend the day on roads with texture. Out of Mitry-Mory and back again: 381 km, roughly 6 h 17 in the saddle. On the way it passes near Mouy, Scenic stretch in Élancourt and Épernon. The climb of the day is near Persan.
The aircraft give it away. Mitry-Mory lies just south of Charles de Gaulle Airport, and the planes descending over the fields are a constant presence. This is the Plaine de France, a flat, open country north-east of Paris where large-scale farming mixes with logistics parks, motorways and suburban towns. It is not a place you come to for scenery, but it is a practical gateway for riders heading out of Paris towards the north or the west.
Read the complete Fuel stop near Mitry-Mory write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Next is Food stop near Mouy.
Mouy is a small town in the valley of the Thérain, in the Oise department, about sixty kilometres north of Paris, halfway between Creil and Beauvais. The valley is green and pleasant, with water meadows, poplars and old mills along the river, and the town has a modest centre with a church and a market square.
Read the complete Food stop near Mouy write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Food stop near Mouy is where this day stops to eat. Next is High point near Persan.
Persan sits on the river Oise, about thirty-five kilometres north of Paris, facing Beaumont-sur-Oise across the water. The two towns have grown together along the river, and the old part of Beaumont, with its church and remains of a castle, stands on a hill above the valley.
Read the complete High point near Persan write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
This is where the road stops climbing. Next is Scenic stretch in Élancourt.
Élancourt is part of Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines, one of the new towns built around Paris from the 1970s to absorb the capital's growth. Its landscape of housing estates, business parks and roundabouts is not the stuff of dreams, but the town has two surprises. One is France Miniature, a theme park where the country's monuments are reproduced at small scale. The other is the Colline d'Élancourt, a man-made hill built from construction spoil and landscaped into a park, offering one of the widest views in the west of the Paris region.
Read the complete Scenic stretch in Élancourt write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Scenic stretch in Élancourt, about halfway. Next is Paris / Île-de-France escapes return.
West of Rambouillet forest the land loosens up into a patchwork of wheat, copses and small river valleys, and this stop sits in that gentle seam between the Yvelines and the Eure-et-Loir. Épernon is the nearest proper town, a few kilometres off, built where the Guesle and the Drouette meet before they wander on towards the Eure. It is quiet country, and after a day on the Seine loops it feels like the ride is exhaling.
Read the complete Near Épernon, 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 sits at 206 km, about halfway. Next is Photo stop in Boissy-le-Cutté.
Boissy-le-Cutté is a small village in the Essonne, south of Paris, sitting on the edge of the Juine valley in the Gâtinais français regional park. It is a place of quiet streets, stone houses and fields, far from the bustle of the capital even though it lies only an hour away. The surrounding landscape is a mix of farmland, woods and river valleys, with sandstone outcrops scattered across the hills.
Read the complete Photo stop in Boissy-le-Cutté write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Photo stop in Boissy-le-Cutté comes up about 267 km into the recorded legs. Next is Seine Loops and Roche-Guyon checkpoint 8.
Enghien-les-Bains is the only town in the Paris region that feels like a spa resort, and that is exactly what it was built to be. The town grew up in the nineteenth century around sulphurous springs and a lake, and the Parisians who came to take the waters left behind villas, promenades and a casino. This finish puts you right on the lake shore, with Montmorency forest on the hills behind.
Read the complete Enghien-les-Bains write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Seine Loops and Roche-Guyon checkpoint 8 closes the day. Next is Back to Seine Loops.
East of Paris the land flattens into the Brie plateau's margin, and the towns here run together in a belt of low houses, retail parks and market gardens. Mitry-Mory is the nearest place of any size, with about 18,500 people, and Claye-Souilly and Villeparisis lie a little further along. It is not scenic in a postcard sense, yet it has a quiet logic: this is where Paris has always fed itself, and farmland still survives between the suburbs.
Read the complete Seine Loops write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Back at Back to Seine Loops. That is the ride.
Food stop near Mouy → High point near Persan is the logistics leg. Watch junctions, villages and speed changes, then let the roadbook do its job: move you out of the clutter without spending your best attention too early.
High point near Persan → Scenic stretch in Élancourt rides best with patience. Coastal roads change character with wind and visitors; keep overtakes boring and take the photo from a proper stop.
Scenic stretch in Élancourt → Near Épernon, on the way back is the reward section in Paris. Look through the bends, use legal pull-offs for photos and keep a little margin for tractors, cyclists and damp shade. The best ride here is smooth, not noisy.
Photo stop in Boissy-le-Cutté → Enghien-les-Bains 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.