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Ile-de-France near Paris
Sharon and I had several fun days of riding our tandem in the Ile-de-France
region which surrounds the city of Paris. On previous trips to France, we somehow thought we needed to go to some outlying area to find the world-class riding of France: Dordogne + Lot, Loire valley, Alsace, Bourgogne. But now it's seeming like some of the most fun riding in France for us is close by Paris. We tried riding around Giverny + Vetheuil (75 km / 47 miles to the northwest of Paris), Chantilly + Neuilly-en-Thelle (38 km / 24 miles to the north), and Fontainebleau + Milly-la-Foret (57km / 36 miles to the southeast of Paris). This is good for us, since it means we can combine countryside bicycle rides with evening visits to the city of Paris. All three of those rides are near train service to Paris. And the riding in Ile-de-France is much closer to major international airports which we can conveniently fly to. On our rides we like variety, so in the countryside, we like seeing multiple kinds of animals, different kinds of fields and forests and gardens, different kinds of houses and building architecture, villages with multiple food + drink options which tend to be open for business when we ride through, a couple of historic sites which we could visit (but often don't). 3 out of 3 rides, the Ile-de-France region delivered on most of those. And the city of Paris delivered on its special qualities. So now we've bought the L'Ile-de-France a Velo map by IGN 1:100000 with 100 loop routes. Though actually the 1:200000 Michelin or Blay-Foldex maps with scenic roads highlighed in green have been plenty useful for planning rides for us. The original stimulus for trying out more riding in Ile-de-France (and many of the roads for 2 out of the 3 rides) was the "Cycling France" guidebook by Sally Dillon and others (Lonely Planet, 2001) -- still the best English-language bicycling guidebook for France I know of. Ken P.S. My theory of why the countryside near Paris is often more interesting than the farther provinces . . . The problem with truly rural areas is that they tend to focus on agriculture as a _business_, which tends to imply that they focus growing one or two things which optimize profits (or subsidized losses?) for the soil and weather of that area. Like the Alsace region has lots of vineyards and orchards, but not many cattle or animals. Like the Bourgogne region has lots of all-white Charolais cattle, but not many other animals. And business agriculture tends to have lots of large open fields, but not many farmhouses. Also not as many (non-migrant) people are needed to make modern business farming work, so lots of villages we ride through don't have any shops open to purchase food or replacement hydration more on lots of days and hours. What's interesting for us in the region closer around Paris is that there's still farming, but it seemed to us like some of is "gentleman" farming, or "semi-hobby" farming -- perhaps supported by a family member with a good-paying job in Paris, or retired from a good job in Paris. Semi-hobby farming implies non-optimized farming, which implies _variety_: Different vegetable crops, more over-sized gardens, horses, cows, sheep. It implies more farm-houses, since part of the idea of a hobby is to get your hands on the growing stuff (when you choose to). Money from good-paying jobs implies multiple bakeries open in the quaint little village. Implies money to renovate old stone houses. Money to widen roads and pave them better. And lots of people out riding nice bikes on those roads (? perhaps to work off some stress from those good-paying jobs + commutes ?) |
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#2
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Ile-de-France near Paris
Ken Roberts wrote: Sharon and I had several fun days of riding our tandem in the Ile-de-France region which surrounds the city of Paris. On previous trips to France, we somehow thought we needed to go to some outlying area to find the world-class riding of France: Dordogne + Lot, Loire valley, Alsace, Bourgogne. The Loire Valley is boring cycling. I've done it. The others are great. The coast of Brittany is also interesting as are the Auvergne, Provence, Haut-Provence, Savoie, Pays du Doubs etc. |
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Ile-de-France near Paris
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#4
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Ile-de-France near Paris
Ken Roberts wrote: wrote The Loire Valley is boring cycling. I've done it. The others are great. The coast of Brittany is also interesting as are the Auvergne, Provence, Haut-Provence, Savoie, Pays du Doubs etc. But the subject is "Ile-de-France". Have you ridden _there_ ? No, apart from cycling from Paris south to Nice. |
#5
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Ile-de-France near Paris
In
http://www.mdb-idf.org/asso/balades/...mme/index.html there is a list of "balades" organized by the MDB (parisian association) in the past. Most of them are in IDF. They are really good. If you want to know more about them, then subscribe "Roue Libre", MDB review (in french). Complete details in http://www.mdb-idf.org Enjoy Ken Roberts wrote: Sharon and I had several fun days of riding our tandem in the Ile-de-France region which surrounds the city of Paris. On previous trips to France, we somehow thought we needed to go to some outlying area to find the world-class riding of France: Dordogne + Lot, Loire valley, Alsace, Bourgogne. But now it's seeming like some of the most fun riding in France for us is close by Paris. We tried riding around Giverny + Vetheuil (75 km / 47 miles to the northwest of Paris), Chantilly + Neuilly-en-Thelle (38 km / 24 miles to the north), and Fontainebleau + Milly-la-Foret (57km / 36 miles to the southeast of Paris). This is good for us, since it means we can combine countryside bicycle rides with evening visits to the city of Paris. All three of those rides are near train service to Paris. And the riding in Ile-de-France is much closer to major international airports which we can conveniently fly to. On our rides we like variety, so in the countryside, we like seeing multiple kinds of animals, different kinds of fields and forests and gardens, different kinds of houses and building architecture, villages with multiple food + drink options which tend to be open for business when we ride through, a couple of historic sites which we could visit (but often don't). 3 out of 3 rides, the Ile-de-France region delivered on most of those. And the city of Paris delivered on its special qualities. So now we've bought the L'Ile-de-France a Velo map by IGN 1:100000 with 100 loop routes. Though actually the 1:200000 Michelin or Blay-Foldex maps with scenic roads highlighed in green have been plenty useful for planning rides for us. The original stimulus for trying out more riding in Ile-de-France (and many of the roads for 2 out of the 3 rides) was the "Cycling France" guidebook by Sally Dillon and others (Lonely Planet, 2001) -- still the best English-language bicycling guidebook for France I know of. Ken P.S. My theory of why the countryside near Paris is often more interesting than the farther provinces . . . The problem with truly rural areas is that they tend to focus on agriculture as a _business_, which tends to imply that they focus growing one or two things which optimize profits (or subsidized losses?) for the soil and weather of that area. Like the Alsace region has lots of vineyards and orchards, but not many cattle or animals. Like the Bourgogne region has lots of all-white Charolais cattle, but not many other animals. And business agriculture tends to have lots of large open fields, but not many farmhouses. Also not as many (non-migrant) people are needed to make modern business farming work, so lots of villages we ride through don't have any shops open to purchase food or replacement hydration more on lots of days and hours. What's interesting for us in the region closer around Paris is that there's still farming, but it seemed to us like some of is "gentleman" farming, or "semi-hobby" farming -- perhaps supported by a family member with a good-paying job in Paris, or retired from a good job in Paris. Semi-hobby farming implies non-optimized farming, which implies _variety_: Different vegetable crops, more over-sized gardens, horses, cows, sheep. It implies more farm-houses, since part of the idea of a hobby is to get your hands on the growing stuff (when you choose to). Money from good-paying jobs implies multiple bakeries open in the quaint little village. Implies money to renovate old stone houses. Money to widen roads and pave them better. And lots of people out riding nice bikes on those roads (? perhaps to work off some stress from those good-paying jobs + commutes ?) |
#6
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Ile-de-France near Paris
c wrote
http://www.mdb-idf.org/asso/balades/...mme/index.html there is a list of "balades" organized by the MDB (parisian association) in the past. Most of them are in Ile-de-France. Looks like it would be lots of fun to join in one of those rides. My understanding of the French language is not strong, but the "balades" on that website seem to be mostly riding events, not detailed routes or maps. (One surprising result from many days of bicycling in France is how little my French language skills have improved.) One thing I notice is how many of the rides are connected to train stations -- a great idea (which also can work around around New York City: http://roberts-1.com/bikehudson/r/a/trains). My problem with doing that around Paris and Ile-de-France is that Sharon and I are usually riding on our tandem, and I normally guess that most trains do not permit tandem bicycles. Recently I noticed a big difference between France versus riding in Switzerland and southern Germany -- the others have lots more "signed" bicycle routes -- with the turns maked by special signs on sign-posts alongside the road -- sometimes so many signed routes we were confused if we were still on the right one. France seems to me more like the Hudson valley in New York, where there's only a few signed routes and only a few off-road asphalt bicycle trailways, so I feel comfortable riding these as a sort of different and better version of the Hudson valley. Ken |
#7
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Ile-de-France near Paris
The road network in France is one of high density. There exists not
only a primary network of roads (highways, routes mationales, routes departamentales) but also a secondary (chemins vecinaux), and even a terciary: chemins forestiers, chemin ruraux, sentiers de grande et de petite randonnée, sentiers, etc., etc. You can find most of them in the maps 1:25000 (but these maps are really cumbersome). In fact it is possible to ride between any two points in France taking mostly routes through the terciary network. Of course in these roads there are very few cars or no cars at all (and the scenaries are gorgeous). If you come to Ile-de-France to ride with the MDB may be a good initiation to the problem. The usage of train allow to do a big variety of differents itineraries for day trips. But the choice of a tandem is to look for difficulties in trains. Ken Roberts wrote: c wrote http://www.mdb-idf.org/asso/balades/...mme/index.html there is a list of "balades" organized by the MDB (parisian association) in the past. Most of them are in Ile-de-France. Looks like it would be lots of fun to join in one of those rides. My understanding of the French language is not strong, but the "balades" on that website seem to be mostly riding events, not detailed routes or maps. (One surprising result from many days of bicycling in France is how little my French language skills have improved.) One thing I notice is how many of the rides are connected to train stations -- a great idea (which also can work around around New York City: http://roberts-1.com/bikehudson/r/a/trains). My problem with doing that around Paris and Ile-de-France is that Sharon and I are usually riding on our tandem, and I normally guess that most trains do not permit tandem bicycles. Recently I noticed a big difference between France versus riding in Switzerland and southern Germany -- the others have lots more "signed" bicycle routes -- with the turns maked by special signs on sign-posts alongside the road -- sometimes so many signed routes we were confused if we were still on the right one. France seems to me more like the Hudson valley in New York, where there's only a few signed routes and only a few off-road asphalt bicycle trailways, so I feel comfortable riding these as a sort of different and better version of the Hudson valley. Ken |
#8
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Ile-de-France near Paris
Hi,
I am looking to do a day trip this weekend from Paris of about 60km. I would like to head towards Champagne. I can either do it as a loop or return via train if possible. I have found a route however it stops in Souilly. Can someone tell me how to get there or if maps exist on the internet as i have not found any. Thank you! Also, it is Ok to just bring the bike on the train? julie c wrote: The road network in France is one of high density. There exists not only a primary network of roads (highways, routes mationales, routes departamentales) but also a secondary (chemins vecinaux), and even a terciary: chemins forestiers, chemin ruraux, sentiers de grande et de petite randonnée, sentiers, etc., etc. You can find most of them in the maps 1:25000 (but these maps are really cumbersome). In fact it is possible to ride between any two points in France taking mostly routes through the terciary network. Of course in these roads there are very few cars or no cars at all (and the scenaries are gorgeous). If you come to Ile-de-France to ride with the MDB may be a good initiation to the problem. The usage of train allow to do a big variety of differents itineraries for day trips. But the choice of a tandem is to look for difficulties in trains. Ken Roberts wrote: c wrote http://www.mdb-idf.org/asso/balades/...mme/index.html there is a list of "balades" organized by the MDB (parisian association) in the past. Most of them are in Ile-de-France. Looks like it would be lots of fun to join in one of those rides. My understanding of the French language is not strong, but the "balades" on that website seem to be mostly riding events, not detailed routes or maps. (One surprising result from many days of bicycling in France is how little my French language skills have improved.) One thing I notice is how many of the rides are connected to train stations -- a great idea (which also can work around around New York City: http://roberts-1.com/bikehudson/r/a/trains). My problem with doing that around Paris and Ile-de-France is that Sharon and I are usually riding on our tandem, and I normally guess that most trains do not permit tandem bicycles. Recently I noticed a big difference between France versus riding in Switzerland and southern Germany -- the others have lots more "signed" bicycle routes -- with the turns maked by special signs on sign-posts alongside the road -- sometimes so many signed routes we were confused if we were still on the right one. France seems to me more like the Hudson valley in New York, where there's only a few signed routes and only a few off-road asphalt bicycle trailways, so I feel comfortable riding these as a sort of different and better version of the Hudson valley. Ken |
#9
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Ile-de-France near Paris
I don't completely understand what you are asking, but
for maps try www.viamichelin.com, you can zoom in to any level. And for bikes on trains, try www.voyages-sncf.com. BW "Julie" wrote in message ups.com... Hi, I am looking to do a day trip this weekend from Paris of about 60km. I would like to head towards Champagne. I can either do it as a loop or return via train if possible. I have found a route however it stops in Souilly. Can someone tell me how to get there or if maps exist on the internet as i have not found any. Thank you! Also, it is Ok to just bring the bike on the train? julie |
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