Immeuble locatif à la Porte Molitor and Provins

Scenic road chapters

Waypoint introductions and full write-ups

1. 1. Immeuble locatif à la Porte Molitor

   Le Corbusier lived at the top of this building for more than thirty years and, in the end, swam away from it for the last time. The block at the Porte Molitor, on the edge of Paris where the sixteenth arrondissement meets Boulogne-Billancourt, was designed in the early 1930s as a set of apartments, and the architect kept the two top floors for his own flat and studio. It has a glass-and-steel facade, an open plan and a curved roof, and it was one of the first buildings to show that the white geometric language of modernism could work in a Parisian street. UNESCO listed it in 2016 as part of his body of work, and the apartment can be visited on guided tours, so check the opening hours before turning up.

   Read the complete Immeuble locatif à la Porte Molitor write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

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

   Planning note

   Immeuble locatif à la Porte Molitor is where the day begins. Next is Palace and Park of Fontainebleau.

2. 2. 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

   Palace and Park of Fontainebleau comes up about 68 km into the recorded legs. Next is Provins.

3. 3. Provins

   Provins rises out of the wheat fields of the Brie like something from a film set, and the odd thing is that it is almost entirely real. In the twelfth and thirteenth centuries this was one of the four great fair towns of the counts of Champagne, where merchants from Flanders, Italy and beyond met to trade cloth, spices and money. When the fairs declined, Provins simply stopped growing, and so its ramparts, its gates and its medieval upper town survived the centuries more or less intact. UNESCO listed it in 2001 as a rare surviving example of a medieval fair town.

   Read the complete Provins write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

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

   Planning note

   about 123 km into the recorded legs you reach Provins. Next is back through Palace and Park of Fontainebleau.

4. 4. back through Palace and Park of Fontainebleau

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   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

   back through Palace and Park of Fontainebleau, late in the day. Next is Immeuble locatif à la Porte Molitor.

5. 5. Immeuble locatif à la Porte Molitor

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   Read the complete Immeuble locatif à la Porte Molitor write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

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

   Planning note

   Back at Immeuble locatif à la Porte Molitor. That is the ride.