Chartres Cathedral and Palace and Park of Fontainebleau

Scenic road chapters

Waypoint introductions and full write-ups

1. 1. Chartres Cathedral

   You see Chartres from miles away across the wheat. The Beauce is a vast, flat plain, one of the great granaries of France, and the cathedral rises out of it with two mismatched spires, like a ship on a green sea. After a fire in 1194 destroyed most of the earlier church, the townspeople rebuilt it in about thirty years, a remarkable pace for the time, and as a result the building has a unity that few Gothic cathedrals can claim. It was one of the first sites to be added to the UNESCO list, in 1979.

   Read the complete Chartres Cathedral write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

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

   Planning note

   Chartres Cathedral is where the day begins. Next is Palace and Park of Versailles.

2. 2. Palace and Park of Versailles

   Louis XIV wanted a stage on which the whole French nobility would have to perform for him, and Versailles is what that ambition looks like in stone, gilt and gravel. His father's modest hunting lodge on a damp plateau west of Paris grew, over decades of building, into the palace you see now, and in 1682 the court moved out here for good. The Hall of Mirrors, the chapel, the endless enfilade of state rooms: all of it was designed so that a duke had to queue to watch the king get dressed. A long way from the Paris mob, too, which was rather the point, until the mob walked out here in October 1789 and fetched the royal family back to the city.

   Read the complete Palace and Park of Versailles write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

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

   Planning note

   Palace and Park of Versailles comes up about 78 km into the recorded legs. Next is Palace and Park of Fontainebleau.

3. 3. Palace and Park of Fontainebleau

   Fontainebleau is the palace French kings actually lived in, as opposed to the one they built to impress, and for that reason it feels more human than Versailles. Almost every monarch from the Middle Ages to Napoleon III added a wing, a staircase or a garden, so the place is a jumble of styles, held together by its forest and its long ponds. Napoleon called it the true home of kings, and in April 1814 he said goodbye to his Old Guard in the courtyard that is still known as the Cour des Adieux, at the foot of the horseshoe staircase.

   Read the complete Palace and Park of Fontainebleau write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

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

   Planning note

   about 150 km into the recorded legs you reach Palace and Park of Fontainebleau. Next is back through Palace and Park of Versailles.

4. 4. back through Palace and Park of Versailles

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   Read the complete Palace and Park of Versailles write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

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

   Planning note

   back through Palace and Park of Versailles, late in the day. Next is Chartres Cathedral.

5. 5. Chartres Cathedral

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   Read the complete Chartres Cathedral write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

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

   Planning note

   Back at Chartres Cathedral. That is the ride.