Post by French Mystique Tours on Feb 14, 2011 23:55:28 GMT 1
A bike tour in Paris is great but a bike tour day trip from Paris to go biking in the French countryside is a good choice too. I like doing bike tours in Paris as much as I like doing bike tours as day trips from Paris to go biking in the French countryside. France is full of history but this trip report isn't going to teach you anything about it. Isn't that why they invented Wikipedia? We're not going to learn where the best restaurants are either. You better pack a lunch instead. And don't even get me started on hotel recommendations. The only place I'm staying is on top of my bike seat. Because it's an awesome place to be on a sunny summer day with shocking blue skies when you live in one of the most beautiful countries on the planet (IMO) and are about to embark on a biking adventure into the unknown countryside.
I like exploring new territory and there's plenty of it to choose from around Paris. Using the usual dartboard method that seems to work so well for me in deciding where to ride, I opened my 2007 edition Michelin Atlas Routier to one of the pages around Paris to see what might make an interesting trip. To get into the countryside around Paris (which is really much closer than most people realize) I need to find a destination on a rail line as a starting point and an end destination on a rail line to make the return trip to Paris. I don't like climbing steep hills so another thing I look for is gradient arrows on the map and if there are none then step two of trip planning is accomplished. The next thing to look for is a route that passes through little towns and hamlets, has some designated scenic stretches and maybe passes by some châteaux or ruins or some other marked historic/tourist attraction on the map. The last thing I look for is a couple of highlights to include on the journey, like some well known town or site or attraction that is generally considered ''tourist worthy''.
Just about 80km south and a little east of Paris I targeted an area that looked promising which started in the small town of Montigny-sur-Loing and ended in the small city of Sens. The two places lie about 40km apart in a straight line but the route I planned to take was more like 50-55km. My bike and I hopped on the train and off we went.
That's pretty much it for the talking part of this report. The point of this report isn't to learn about history, but rather, to learn what there is to see on a bike ride into the unknown. Time to make with the pictures. First stop, Montigny-sur-Loing.
Montigny was a village of farmers, fisherman, lumberjacks, quarriers and vineyards through much of the 19th century. With the exception of farming these activities have since ceased but they have left traces as witness of their former prominence. The nearby quarries supplied paving stones to Paris and the nearby forest offered a ready resource for the timber industry. The phylloxera epidemic of the late 19th century wiped out the vineyards. However, the biggest event of the 19th century to occur in the village, and many others nearby, was the arrival of artists. Montigny and its environs attracted the attention of artists, many of them being inspired by or members of the famous Barbizon school of artists. Some of them specialized in ceramics and for a time the town was somewhat noted as a place for the manufacture of artisan ceramics. I learned about many of the painters and ceramics workers who resided in Montigny but they are largely unknown to anyone who isn't an art historian so I'm not going to get into the esoteric details of who they were and what they did. Riding through the village today it almost doesn't appear that much has changed since the 19th century.
I like exploring new territory and there's plenty of it to choose from around Paris. Using the usual dartboard method that seems to work so well for me in deciding where to ride, I opened my 2007 edition Michelin Atlas Routier to one of the pages around Paris to see what might make an interesting trip. To get into the countryside around Paris (which is really much closer than most people realize) I need to find a destination on a rail line as a starting point and an end destination on a rail line to make the return trip to Paris. I don't like climbing steep hills so another thing I look for is gradient arrows on the map and if there are none then step two of trip planning is accomplished. The next thing to look for is a route that passes through little towns and hamlets, has some designated scenic stretches and maybe passes by some châteaux or ruins or some other marked historic/tourist attraction on the map. The last thing I look for is a couple of highlights to include on the journey, like some well known town or site or attraction that is generally considered ''tourist worthy''.
Just about 80km south and a little east of Paris I targeted an area that looked promising which started in the small town of Montigny-sur-Loing and ended in the small city of Sens. The two places lie about 40km apart in a straight line but the route I planned to take was more like 50-55km. My bike and I hopped on the train and off we went.
That's pretty much it for the talking part of this report. The point of this report isn't to learn about history, but rather, to learn what there is to see on a bike ride into the unknown. Time to make with the pictures. First stop, Montigny-sur-Loing.
Montigny was a village of farmers, fisherman, lumberjacks, quarriers and vineyards through much of the 19th century. With the exception of farming these activities have since ceased but they have left traces as witness of their former prominence. The nearby quarries supplied paving stones to Paris and the nearby forest offered a ready resource for the timber industry. The phylloxera epidemic of the late 19th century wiped out the vineyards. However, the biggest event of the 19th century to occur in the village, and many others nearby, was the arrival of artists. Montigny and its environs attracted the attention of artists, many of them being inspired by or members of the famous Barbizon school of artists. Some of them specialized in ceramics and for a time the town was somewhat noted as a place for the manufacture of artisan ceramics. I learned about many of the painters and ceramics workers who resided in Montigny but they are largely unknown to anyone who isn't an art historian so I'm not going to get into the esoteric details of who they were and what they did. Riding through the village today it almost doesn't appear that much has changed since the 19th century.
