Cycling from Paris, France to Montargis, France
Another fine day of cycling in France!
Looking at
last year's trip, I was determined to get the most cycling days in this year, so out of
Orly, the first night in France was planned for Montargis, to the southeast. Our flight
landed early and by 9AM I had retrieved my ride and found a spot to the right just after
you pass through customs and are free to roam the airport. Here it is almost always pretty
deserted
and there are some white steel benches to lean and set things on. In this quiet spot my
bike came back to life. Just before we landed I had put on my cycling shorts under my
pants and, leaving the box, I packed my street clothes and was headed outside into the
sunshine by 10AM.
Not sure where exactly to go I went to the police station
just to the east of the main circle and got directions on exiting Orly to the east over local airport roads. With
quite a bit of difficulty, I finally did make it over to the D32 at
Villenueve-le-Roi, crossing the
Seine and cycling on the N6 for a short while at
Villeneuve-St.
Georges, then riding the D50 south to the Forêt de
Sénart. Here I was able to follow a white
road through the fôret down to St. Germain-les-C. This was
the first stretch away from the urban congestion, what a relief. Very flaky from being up
so long, I passed up the chance for a good white road following the Seine and instead
hraded east for 6.5 km on the
D947 and D402 to get the D50 again south through
Corbeil-Essonnes. Climbing here a little, then a nice shady
downhill through Seine-Port to cross the Seine again at
Ponthierry.
Ponthierry was pretty much
the end of the red and yellow roads and the beginning of some excellent
cycling as the
D50 headed south to join the D64 through a part of the Forêt de Fontainebleau, climbing to 121m,
crossing the Autoroute and cruising down to la Chapelle-la-Reine. Using these two
forests soon put me out of metropolitan Paris and I
was able to ride some small roads over the gently rolling terrain to the southeast.
Here a short stretch on the D16 hooked up with the
D52 for a long, rolling ride south to Château Landon on the
Fusain.
In one small town I chatted briefly with another biker
headed east. By this time it was late afternoon and we both had to continue our rides.
By now it was getting pretty late and, fading fast, took the D40 highroad south for a while then bailed on to the
D440 down to Cepoy on the Seine then the last
bit on the D740
down to Montargis.
It was a long day, but I pulled into to hostel
around dusk. The hostel is in an old building very close to the center. I had missed the
repas, so walked around the corner to a very nice restaurant and had a rather expensive
meal with a demi-carafe. By this time it had been over 24 hours since I'd slept, so my
comfortable bed looked real good. It felt good to know that the first day was one of fine
riding and I was really on my way! This route south out of Orly, although a little confusing in the
beginning, was far preferable to the bleak haul paralleling the N7 that I had followed last year. Of course
this route did not end at the hostel in Beaugency either, so a tradeoff.
69 miles today.
Cycling in France from Paris, France to Montargis, France
