Vallée de l’Eure Easy Scenic · short arc

Waypoint introductions and full write-ups

1. 1. Fuel stop in Voisins-le-Bretonneux

   Voisins-le-Bretonneux is part of Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines, one of the new towns built around Paris from the 1970s onwards, and on first sight it is all office parks, roundabouts and housing estates. But it sits right on the edge of something much older and lovelier: the Haute Vallée de Chevreuse, a regional natural park of wooded valleys, streams, villages and châteaux just south of Versailles.

   Read the complete Fuel stop in Voisins-le-Bretonneux write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Vallée de l’Eure Easy Scenic is where the day begins. Next is Food stop near Saint-Arnoult-en-Yvelines.

2. 2. Food stop near Saint-Arnoult-en-Yvelines

   Saint-Arnoult-en-Yvelines lies on the southern edge of the forest of Rambouillet, one of the largest forests in the Paris region, where the woods begin to give way to the wide, open fields of the Beauce. The village has an old church, a few streets of stone houses and the gentle air of a place where Parisians come for the weekend.

   Read the complete Food stop near Saint-Arnoult-en-Yvelines write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Food stop near Saint-Arnoult-en-Yvelines is where this day stops to eat. Next is Scenic stretch near Nandy.

3. 3. Scenic stretch near Nandy

   Nandy is a small town on the edge of the forest of Sénart, south-east of Paris, on the high ground above the Seine between Corbeil-Essonnes and Melun. From the edge of the plateau, you can look down on the river as it winds through its wide valley, with barges moving slowly along it and the wooded slopes rising on the far side.

   Read the complete Scenic stretch near Nandy write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   about 115 km into the recorded legs you reach Scenic stretch near Nandy. Next is High point near Tournan-en-Brie.

4. 4. High point near Tournan-en-Brie

   Brie is a cheese before it is a place for most people, but the plateau east of Paris that gave the cheese its name is a real landscape: wide, flat and fertile, with huge fields of wheat and sugar beet, scattered farms with walled courtyards and patches of forest. Tournan-en-Brie is a small town on this plateau, with an old church and a railway station that links it to the capital, and it makes a practical stop on the edge of the countryside.

   Read the complete High point near Tournan-en-Brie write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   The high point of this section. Next is Paris / Île-de-France escapes return.

5. 5. Near Pont-Sainte-Maxence, on the way back

   North of Senlis the Oise runs in a broad, flat-bottomed valley between two great forests, Halatte to the south and Compiègne to the north-east. This stop lies in that valley between Verberie and Pontpoint, a few kilometres upstream of Pont-Sainte-Maxence, where barges still push along the river and gravel pits have turned old meadows into chains of lakes.

   Read the complete Near Pont-Sainte-Maxence, on the way back write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Paris / Île-de-France escapes return sits at 224 km, about halfway. Next is Photo stop in Blaincourt-lès-Précy.

6. 6. Photo stop in Blaincourt-lès-Précy

   The Oise valley north of Paris is a quiet, green corridor, and Blaincourt-lès-Précy is one of its villages, a cluster of houses and farms on the edge of the river plain. It is a place where the Paris region fades into the countryside of Picardy, with fields, woods and old stone villages, and it makes a peaceful stop on a ride through the valley.

   Read the complete Photo stop in Blaincourt-lès-Précy write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Photo stop in Blaincourt-lès-Précy comes up about 263 km into the recorded legs. Next is Vallée de l’Eure Easy Scenic checkpoint 8.

7. 7. Le Raincy

   Le Raincy is a small, leafy town on the eastern edge of Paris, a place of large villas, quiet streets and old trees, surrounded by much busier neighbours like Bondy and Montfermeil. It was once part of a vast estate belonging to the Orléans family, and when the land was divided in the nineteenth century, it was laid out as a residential park for the well-to-do. That gives it a calm, slightly old-fashioned feel that contrasts with the motorways a few kilometres away.

   Read the complete Le Raincy write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Vallée de l’Eure Easy Scenic checkpoint 8 closes the day.