Vallée de l’Eure Easy Scenic

A 334 km loop

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Why this ride

Built for flow, views and useful stops rather than navigation busywork. Out of Voisins-le-Bretonneux and back again: 334 km, roughly 6 h 11 in the saddle. On the way it passes near Saint-Arnoult-en-Yvelines, Scenic stretch near Nandy and Pont-Sainte-Maxence. The climb of the day is near Tournan-en-Brie.

Roadbook

1. Fuel stop in Voisins-le-Bretonneux fuel

   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.

   A few minutes away, in Magny-les-Hameaux, lie the remains of the abbey of Port-Royal des Champs, the centre of the Jansenist movement in the seventeenth century. The playwright Racine was educated here, and Pascal had close links with the community. Louis XIV, suspicious of the Jansenists, had the abbey destroyed in the early eighteenth century, but the ruins and the museum in the old buildings are atmospheric. The Vallée de Chevreuse itself, with the castle of La Madeleine above Chevreuse and the gorges of the Vaux de Cernay, is a favourite escape for Parisians.

   As a start and fuel stop, Voisins is practical. There are service stations and supermarkets close by, and the roads into the Vallée de Chevreuse start almost immediately. The routes down into the valleys and up onto the plateaux are winding and pleasant, with short climbs, tight bends in the woods and some lovely stretches along the streams. Surfaces are generally good, but expect cyclists in large numbers on weekend mornings, and speed limits are strictly enforced.

   Get here early on a Sunday and you will have the valley largely to yourself, with mist in the hollows and the forest smelling of damp leaves.

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

   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.

   Its best-known landmark is the Moulin de Villeneuve, an old mill on the Rémarde river that was the country home of the writers Louis Aragon and Elsa Triolet. They bought it after the war and lived here for many years, and they are buried together in the garden. The house is now a museum, with their furniture, books and paintings, and the garden is a peaceful place to wander.

   The forest of Rambouillet surrounds the area, with oak, beech and pine woods, ponds and clearings. It was a royal hunting forest for centuries, and the château of Rambouillet, a former royal residence and later a presidential retreat, lies a short ride to the north. The forest is home to deer and wild boar, so be careful on the roads at dawn and dusk.

   As a food stop, Saint-Arnoult has bakeries, cafés and restaurants, and the nearby towns offer more choice. The riding around here is relaxed, with roads winding through the forest and across the fields, good surfaces and generally light traffic. Fuel is available in the area. After a meal, the roads south into the Beauce offer wide horizons and long straights, a change from the enclosed forest roads.

3. Scenic stretch near Nandy scenic

   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.

   The forest of Sénart is one of the great green spaces of the Paris region, a large expanse of oak and hornbeam woods, ponds and open heath. It was a royal hunting forest, and Louis XV is said to have met Madame de Pompadour here, when she arranged to cross his path during a hunt. Today it is a popular place for walkers, cyclists and horse riders, and its paths and clearings are busy on weekends.

   The riding here is gentle. The roads through the forest are straight or gently curving, with good surfaces, and the routes down to the Seine offer a bit more variety, with short descents and bends. Traffic can be heavy on the main roads around Melun-Sénart, a large new town, but the roads along the river and through the smaller villages are quieter.

   Fuel and food are available in Nandy and the surrounding towns. As a scenic stretch, the view over the Seine valley from the plateau is the highlight, and the forest provides welcome shade on hot days. The river towns of Saint-Fargeau-Ponthierry and Seine-Port are pleasant places for a short break.

4. High point near Tournan-en-Brie pass

   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.

   The plateau may look monotonous at first, but it has its own charm. The skies are huge, the light changes constantly, and the villages, with their stone churches and farmhouses, have a quiet dignity. Nearby, the château of Ferrières, built in the nineteenth century for the Rothschild family, is a spectacular piece of Second Empire architecture set in a large park, worth a detour if you have time. To the south, the forests of Armainvilliers and Crécy offer shade and quiet roads.

   Roads are straight and wide, linking villages across the plateau, with occasional curves around forests and valleys. Wind can be a factor on the open fields, and tractors are common, especially at harvest time. Traffic is moderate, but the roads near Paris can be busy at rush hour.

   Tournan has fuel, supermarkets, bakeries and cafés. A slice of Brie de Meaux or Brie de Melun, the two protected versions of the cheese, with a fresh baguette makes a perfect picnic. Beyond, the ride heads west towards the Eure valley, gentler and greener, with rivers, mills and châteaux.

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

   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.

   The area has a deep royal past. Verberie was a residence of Merovingian and Carolingian kings, and the forests were royal hunting grounds for centuries. At Pontpoint, the ruins of the abbey of Le Moncel, founded by Philip the Fair in the early fourteenth century, stand in a park by the river, with a huge Gothic roof structure that has survived the centuries. Compiègne, with its palace and the clearing where the 1918 armistice was signed, is a short ride away.

   For a swim, the Oise itself is not an option: it is a working waterway with currents and boat traffic. The flooded gravel pits along the valley are tempting on a hot day, but most are private or used for fishing, and some are dangerous because of steep, unstable banks and very cold water at depth. Only swim where bathing is clearly allowed and supervised.

   The riding is pleasant rather than thrilling. The roads along the valley are flat and fast, while the forest roads through Halatte and Compiègne are straight, shaded and often lined with beech and oak. Expect deer crossings, especially at dawn and dusk, and heavy traffic on the main roads at weekends.

   Fuel is no problem in Pont-Sainte-Maxence, and Verberie has the bakery-and-bar basics. Senlis, twenty minutes south, is the better dinner: a cathedral, crooked medieval lanes and more good tables than a town that size deserves.

6. Photo stop in Blaincourt-lès-Précy photo

   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.

   The area is rich in history. The town of Précy-sur-Oise next door has a fine Gothic church, and the river was an important route for trade and travel for centuries. To the south lies the great forest of Chantilly, with its château, home of the Condé princes, whose stables are among the most magnificent in Europe and now house a museum of the horse. Chantilly is also the home of the famous cream and of French horse racing. To the east, Senlis, with its Gothic cathedral and Gallo-Roman walls, is one of the best-preserved medieval towns near Paris.

   From the saddle it is pleasant and relaxed. Roads follow the river and wind through the forests, with gentle curves and good surfaces. The forests are cool and shady in summer, and in autumn, the colours are spectacular. Traffic can be heavy around Creil and Chantilly, especially at weekends, but the minor roads are generally quiet.

   Blaincourt has few services, so fuel and supplies are best found in Précy, Creil or Chantilly. A stop in Chantilly for a coffee and a taste of the famous cream is a classic treat. Beyond, the ride heads back towards Paris through the Chevreuse valley, or west towards the Eure, depending on the day's plan.

7. Le Raincy finish

   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.

   The town has one building that architects travel to see. The church of Notre-Dame du Raincy, built by Auguste Perret in the early 1920s, was one of the first churches made entirely of reinforced concrete, with walls replaced by a continuous screen of coloured glass. It was revolutionary at the time and is now considered a landmark of modern architecture. If you finish early enough, it is well worth a look.

   The forest of Bondy, nearby, is a remnant of a much larger forest that once stretched across this part of the Île-de-France, famous in the Middle Ages for its brigands. Today it is a pleasant area of woods and ponds, popular with walkers.

   The ride into Le Raincy is all about the eastern suburbs, with busy roads, traffic lights and roundabouts. The A3 and A86 are close, and the N3 heads east towards Meaux and the Marne valley. Expect heavy traffic at rush hour and speed cameras on the main roads.

   Fuel is easiest on the arterial roads of the neighbouring towns. The little centre of Le Raincy itself has a handful of terraces, and after the N3 a quiet table under plane trees feels like a reward earned.

8. Back to Vallée de finish

   Planned in the 1960s and built over the following decades, it is a district of roundabouts, cycle paths, office parks and lakes, sitting on the plateau west of the Chevreuse valley, and the people who live here are mostly commuters to Paris and La Défense.

   The ride to this point has come out of the Chevreuse valley, so the contrast is sharp. Here the roads are wide, smooth and well signed, which makes them easy but not exciting, and the many roundabouts are best taken with care, especially in wet weather. But a short ride south brings you into old Trappes and the forested side valleys, where the lanes narrow and the villages have kept their stone churches and farms.

   The most interesting thing nearby is natural. The Étang de Saint-Quentin, a large artificial lake on the town's edge, is a nature reserve for birds, with reedbeds that attract herons, grebes and, in winter, many wintering ducks. A cycle path runs round the water, and benches along the bank give you a good view. The national velodrome, built for track cycling and used in the 2024 Olympic Games, is also just beside the lake, and visitors can sometimes watch training sessions.

   Versailles, with its famous palace and gardens, is only a few kilometres to the north-east, and it is easy to visit if you have time and energy. Fuel and food are no problem: the town has large stations and shopping centres, and many chain cafes and restaurants. A bakery in the old village of Voisins offers a sandwich and a coffee, and the lake is a pleasant place to eat it.

   At the end of a dawn loop, this is a quiet and orderly place to finish, with a little nature and a hint of history to round off the morning.

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