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May 19, 2013, 11:19pm

Forum :: Bike Tours :: Bike Tours :: Moret-sur-Loing to Grez-sur-Loing Bike Tour

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Topic: Moret-sur-Loing to Grez-sur-Loing Bike Tour (Read 653 times)

French Mystique Tours
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Moret-sur-Loing to Grez-sur-Loing Bike Tour
« Thread Started on Oct 31, 2011, 4:41pm »

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. The destination for today's bike tour is Nemours but our journey begins in the medieval village of Moret-sur-Loing.

I have nothing to do with my time so I thought I'd make you all jealous and torture you with a lovely photo essay about biking through a bunch of charming French villages out in the country. It was an absolutely beautiful fall day with clear blue skies and warm temps and the foliage is just about at its peak right now so I couldn't have asked for more perfect conditions to go biking. I visited Moret on a different day than the other villages so I'll start in Moret and afterwards skip ahead to the day when I visited the other villages on this ride. Here is my entry to Moret-sur-Loing.

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Moret-sur-Loing is classified as one of the ''plus beaux villages de France'' and it is indeed worthy of this designation. It maintains vestiges of its medieval era, as evidencd by the entry gate and wall fortifications shown in the previous photo, as well as a bridge, mill, donjon, church and other edifices and architectural features. It was a residence of the kings of France for a few centuries but it is primarily associated with the Impressionist painter Alfred Sisley who moved to Moret in 1880 and painted numerous works here and in its environs.

An interesting anecdote related to Moret is that it is the home of the most ancient ''bonbon'' in France called Le Sucre d'Orge. A group of Benedictine nuns settled in the village in 1638 and using a secret recipe concocted this tasty goody for the enjoyment of high personages. Whatever the ingredients were they were very particular and the result could not be replicated. The convent was broken up during the Revolution but apparently the recipe was not lost. A certain Sister Félicité, who had formerly resided in the priory, took the precaution before dying of passing on the secret recipe, in writing, to a close friend. Later, when a group of religious persons re-established themselves in the village the close confident of Sister Félicité presented herself to these authorities and divulged her secret. In 1853 a government dignitary of Moret origins retired to his childhood village and undertook to restore the traditional fabrication of this goody. Production lasted until 1972 when the religious order responsible for its production encountered various difficulties and closed their doors. But the story still isn't over. Prior to closing, in 1970 Sister Marie-André confided the Secret du Sucre d'Orge to a local confection maker, Monsieur Jean Rousseau. In the village itself today there are 35 individuals known as the Confrérie du Sucre d'Orge des Religieuses who are united in their passion for the production the local specialty.

I didn't sample any of this local specialty while I was here but apparently the recipe can't be too much of a secret since I found it on the internet. I'll have to try it the next time I go back. Here's a link to a site I found (in French) showing how to make it:

http://www.atome77.com/articles/170/Gast....Religieuses.htm

It is now time for the obligatory photo tour of the village. You might want to grab a snack first and settle in though, 'cuz I took a lot of photos of this pretty little village.

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There are loads of narrow residential side streets and they have made it very bike friendly, as you can tell by the bike lanes painted on the road.

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Here we see the building where Le Sucre d'Orge was crafted.

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« Last Edit: Feb 14, 2013, 11:26am by French Mystique Tours »

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Re: Bike tour - Moret-sur-Loing, on the artists tr
« Reply #1 on Oct 31, 2011, 4:43pm »

The remains of a gallery to a 16th century dwelling.

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I'll break up the photo montage to share another interesting anecdote with you regarding Moret. Sister Louise Marie-Thérèse (1664-1732) was known as La Mauresse de Moret (The Black Nun of Moret). She was the object of a gossip story in the 18th century, where she is pointed out as the daughter of the Queen of France, wife of Louis XIV Maria Theresa of Spain. In 1664 the Queen gave birth to a child who was said to have been ''black as ink'' from head to toe. The Queen was known to be highly pious and some say that her giving illegitimate birth was unlikely due to this and the fact that hiding a pregnancy and giving birth (royal births were public events with witnesses) would have been difficult to say the least. Modern historians say the blackness was due to cyanosis.

Nonetheless, shortly after the birth a grieving king announced the death of the child. Some said the baby was exchanged for another, who was black, to avoid scandal. Adding intrigue to the story, the queen had a page named Nabo, who was her favorite companion. Nabo was a black dwarf taken from his native home of Dahomey in Africa (now the Republic of Benin) and presented to the queen as a gift. Nabo was called for by the king and shortly after disappeared. Cloistered all her life, La Mauresse took the veil in 1695 and retired to the benedictine convent in Moret. Here's where there's a further twist. Several sources attest to her having been visited throughout her life by important personages from the Royal Court including the Queen and Madame de Maintenon, who though they didn't always see her, watched over her welfare. Sister Louise was once known to have referred to the dauphin as ''my brother''. There is even a letter in existence from 1685 stating that she is to be given a pension's patent of 300 pounds by King Louis XIV starting in 1695 for the remainder of her life.

Today in Paris in the library of Sainte-Geneviève hangs a portrait of The Black Nun, dated by those who have studied it to around the year 1680. It is said to have been painted by the same hand that at this time painted portraits of the kings of France from Louis IX to Louis XIV.

When royal bodies were exhumed from the abbey of Saint-Denis in 1793 notes were taken on the state of preservation of the royal corpses. It was said the body of Louis XIII was well preserved and that the skin of Louis XIV was black like ink.

Anecdote over and now to continue with the visit.

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There was another art exhibit going on in Moret today in the old Priory or Abbey so I stopped in for a visit.

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Re: Bike tour - Moret-sur-Loing, on the artists tr
« Reply #2 on Oct 31, 2011, 4:44pm »

Here's the 12th century donjon.

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Here is Alfred Sisley's house. Or at least one of the buildings in the photo is his house. It wasn't clear from the sign on the street. It doesn't matter since as you can see, the wall they are building will soon prevent it from being seen anyway.

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At least I know the street number is 19.

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Now I'll get back to what I saw on today's ride. Leaving Moret is picked up the bike trail that runs along the Canal du Loing. It was cool in the morning and the area was blanketed in a dense coat of fog.

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I left the canal behind and headed inland.

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« Last Edit: Feb 14, 2013, 2:35pm by French Mystique Tours »

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Re: Bike tour - Moret-sur-Loing, on the artists tr
« Reply #3 on Oct 31, 2011, 4:45pm »

Entering the village of Episy.

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And now it's time for the tranquil countryside part of the ride. Leaving Episy we head into the agricultural plains, which are broken up by patches of forest and tiny hamlets.

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Heading into the first patch of forest and approaching the tiny hamlet of Villeron.

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After passing through the patches of forests and hamlets I arrived back to the agriculture.

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Crossing back over the Loing River and arriving in Montigny-sur-Loing.

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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.

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« Last Edit: Feb 14, 2013, 5:22pm by French Mystique Tours »

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Re: Bike tour - Moret-sur-Loing, on the artists tr
« Reply #4 on Oct 31, 2011, 4:46pm »

Heading out of town I moved on to the adjacent town of Bourron-Marlotte. While Montigny was really charming, Bourron-Marlotte could be classified as charming beyond belief. It was even more of an attraction to 19th and early 20th century artists than Montigny. Renoir, Sisley, Pissarro, Monet and Cézanne all visited the village and produced works here. Numerous writers also moved in and a couple of the auberges in town provided residence and meeting space for this Bohemian crowd, as it was known. As in Montigny, the majority of artists and writers that moved here aren't widely known so I'll once again skip the names. You'll learn all about them if you decide to come here. That's all the history so let's visit the village.

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Re: Bike tour - Moret-sur-Loing, on the artists tr
« Reply #5 on Oct 31, 2011, 4:47pm »

I have nothing to say. I'm just interjecting so you can all catch your breath before I continue with the photos. (Insert intermission muzak here). Time's up.

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Re: Bike tour - Moret-sur-Loing, on the artists tr
« Reply #6 on Oct 31, 2011, 4:48pm »

It is now time for the obligatory series of cheesy postcard photos with lots of pretty wildflowers.

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Bourron-Marlotte is actually two joined villages, as its name would imply. I finished with the Marlotte section of town and moved on to Bourron.

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Re: Bike tour - Moret-sur-Loing, on the artists tr
« Reply #7 on Oct 31, 2011, 4:49pm »

Bourron has a late 16th to early 17th century château. Here is one of the associated buildings outside the formal château grounds.

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Unfortunately, the château grounds are only open to the public from July to September so I was unable to visit them. The château is open to goups making reservations year round. The entire grounds were surrounded by a high wall and I rode my bike all over the place trying to find a place to sneak a peak and get a photo of the château. The last place I checked was the front of the château and it too offered no opportunity for a view. I was not going to be defeated after all that searching so I climbed up the château walls and snuck my well deserved photos.

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I took another look around town to finish seeing the streets I hadn't yet explored.

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My exploration of Bourron had reached its conclusion so I moved on to discover who knows what. The next village was a few kilometers away and in the intervening distance I cycled through a stretch of agricultural countryside.

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Next up, Grez-sur-Loing. You've learned about the artist/writer history of Montigny and Bourron-Marlotte and Grez was pretty much the same type of haven for artists as those places.

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« Last Edit: Feb 14, 2013, 11:34am by French Mystique Tours »

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Re: Bike tour - Moret-sur-Loing, on the artists tr
« Reply #8 on Oct 31, 2011, 4:49pm »

I'm being really skimpy on the history in this report I realize but I'm more interested today in just doing a photo essay. I assure you that the places I visited do indeed have some interesting and worthwhile history that you can discover on your own. If you'd like to ask me for more info I can provide you with some sources of information so you'll be well prepared to pay a visit.

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So that finishes up Grez-sur-Loing. Our bike tour day trip from Pairs to go biking in the French countryside is now over. From Grez-sur-Loing we'll backtrack to Bourron and take the train back to Paris. On arrival we'll do some biking in Paris, sort of a mini Paris bike tour, on our way to return the bikes before we part company.

« Last Edit: Feb 14, 2013, 5:27pm by French Mystique Tours »

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