Bike tour of the countryside in/near Fontainebleau

[French Mystique Tours]

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. I like mixing up my bike rides with a blend of known and unknown places and Fontainebleau is one of the well known towns near Paris where I had yet to get myself lost in the countryside. It was a royal town for centuries and is best known for the château from which it derives its name. The town itself is surrounded by a large forest which was once part of the royal domain. The forest now is well known for hiking, biking and also rock climbing, due to its geological oddities in the form of gorges, unusual boulder formations and bedrock outcroppings. It's a beautiful forest but it surrounds Fontainebleau for several kilometers on all sides so getting in and out of there means a lot of biking through forest. I like to bike through small unknown villages so I had to scour out some good routes to work my way around the forest. The bike and I took the RER D to Melun and started there. Melun has a nice little vieille ville in the central part of town but I bypassed that to get on with the ride into the unknown. Heading south from Melun I approached the first village.




Well, I saw a sign for a village but as you can tell by the picture it's nowhere to be seen. I bet it's such a great village they need to warn you in advance, lest its greatness overwhelm you with shock and awe.




Woah! Did you see that? Good thing I was warned.




But like most towns and villages I stumble into it reeked of rural tranquility and the stone houses and barns evoked images of older times when peasants herding animals and going to and from the fields would have been a daily scene. Animals and peasants have been replaced by people, who as you can see now busy themselves hiding from my camera lens.








The next town I entered was Barbizon. The sign/painting at the entrance to the village hints at its prior notoriety as a gathering place for painters, specifically landscape artists.




With the creation of the art prize the Prix du Rome in 1815 and being inspired by English painters such as Constable, Bonington and Turner art students in Paris began leaving their indoor urban workshops to work in the open air of the country, rejecting academic tradition and abandoning theory in an attempt to achieve a truer representation of life in the countryside. With the town of Fontainebleau nearby, good proximity to Paris and a location on the edge of forest and plains providing the subject matter all that Barbizon needed to attract artists was cheap food and accommodation. A local couple opened an auberge in 1834 and with cheap food and lodging secured the stage was set for the village to play its crucial role in the Realist art movement of the time. The Barbizon School of artists was established in the 1830's and continued until the 1870's. The artists were primarily landscape painters but gradually extended their subject matter to include peasant figures and scenes of peasant life. Several members of the school were central to the French Realist movement and many of their works can be seen in The Louvre and The Musée d'Orsay. Notable among them were Theodore Rousseau and Jean-François Millet. Millet's house is a prominent attraction within the town. The Impressionist painters who arrived on the art scene later in the century drew their inspiration from the Realist movement and Monet, Sisley and other artists did come to Barbizon briefly to work. However, the effects of tourism were intruding on the sense of tranquility in the area as the nearby Forest of Fontainebleau had many newly created pedestrian trails drawing the crowds so the artists went elsewhere to seek inspiration.

Much like in the 19th century, there is one primary road in Barbizon running from the main arterial road in the west into the nearby forest to the east and all the action in town takes place along this road, with a few residential streets branching off of it. It is a popular place and is usually pretty active on warm and sunny days from the spring through the fall. Art galleries abound throughout the village and there are numerous restaurants and cafés catering to all tastes.

Let's have a look around town.






Table for two anyone?

[French Mystique Tours]

And moving along through the village there is the ever present monument to the war dead..












Artists weren't the only ones who found their way to Barbizon. Robert Louis Stevenson also passed through and stayed at this hotel.




And while here he wrote.... well, the sign will tell you.




Here is Jean-François Millet's house.




Okay, you've all seen enough of Barbizon. No, really, I'm not going to show you any more so don't even ask me. I think you all need something more scenic....



…..like this huge barren field, for example. That's nice, isn't it?


I was heading next to Fontainebleau and there is a paved trail that runs through the nearby forest to Fontainebleau but I'll get to that later. For now I wanted to take a different route just for the sake of curiosity. I passed through a little village shortly after exiting Barbizon.






After the village I only took one photo before reaching Fontainebleau. The reason for that is because one photo pretty much sums up what that stretch of road looks like.




The town of Fontainebleau sits like an island surrounded by a sea of forest stretching anywhere from 5-15+ kilometers from the town depending on which direction you go. I'm from New England where we are just inundated by trees which prevent any sort of distant scenic view. While I'm sure the locals are bored to tears by wide open agricultural vistas I find the lack of trees in the area refreshing. Where I come from you could never see more than a few hundred yards without some stupid tree getting in the way. It made me want to just cut them all down sometimes (sorry tree huggers). Who cares if they help reduce carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. They make oxygen masks if you really feel that strongly about being able to breathe. Although I do like this particular forest, in general I'm bored with bike rides/drives through most forests.

Fontainebleau reminds me of other royal towns near Paris such as Compiègne and Saint-Germain-en-Laye, with an impressive château in the center of town and numerous buildings from the 17th to 19th centuries in close proximity and comprising what is the core of the downtown. Obviously the wealthy suck-ups who came seeking favor with the royals weren't lodging in shacks and the architecture reflects the size of the wallets of the original inhabitants.

Judging by the look of the town some of the present inhabitants of these buildings appear to have wallets as big as the original owners.

It's a very pretty town and there are several nice streets to stroll boasting cafés, shops, restaurants, pastry/cheese/charcuterie vendors and of course all the places selling delicious goodies you can grab to eat on the go. The grounds around the château are immense and beautiful and they are open to the public at no cost. Even if you don't go into the château (which I didn't today) there is enough sensory stimulation to keep you strolling around for a few hours of leisure time.

The first thing I pulled up to in the center of town was the château.




It's so big it doesn't all fit in one photo.

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The château has been a place of royal residence for 8 centuries with it's first written mention being in 1137. At that time the château was essentially a walled fortress with a large central coutyard. As time passed the various royals who took up residence here each made their own additions and modifications as they saw fit so that the château continued to grow outward from its original structure. The first major changes to the château came under Francis I, who brought the Renaissance back with him from his war campaigns in Italy. He also brought lots of Italian artists with him who elaborately decorated this and other châteaux. A place he referred to as home, he visited often and liked wintering here to hunt boar and other game in the nearby wood. The next major changes came under Henri IV, who in addition to expanding the château had a new canal dug and gardens laid out. The château as we see it today is largely a product of the works undertaken by Henri IV but successive monarchs still added their own touches through to Louis XV. Napoléon had it restored, as it suffered neglect during the revolution and most of its collections were broken up and sold off. During the restoration of the monarchy and through the Second Empire the ruling class continued to take up residence here.

For visitors today in addition to the gardens, there are 4 museums, chapels, galleries, theaters and apartments to visit and various masterpieces of art, architecture and furniture exhibibited, such as Marie Antoinette's bed and Napoléon's throne. Lots of historic or quasi-historic events occurred here including births, marriages, deaths, royal and papal visits, performances, parties etc., etc. I won't bore you with the esoteric details of figures and/or events of which you may or may not have heard.

History lesson is now over. Class dismissed. Time for a look around town, the gardens and the rest of the château..

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Having finished up in Fontainebleau my next destination was the town of Moret-sur-Loing but to get there I had to ride through more forest. Which looked like this.




And then I had to ride through a rather plain looking suburban town. Which looked like this.




But it was all so I could get to something that looked like this.



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 monks 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 monastery 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:

www.atome77.com/articles/170/Gastronomie/Fabrication-Sucres-Orge-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.
















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.






Here we see the building where Le Sucre d'Orge was crafted. I can't recall if there is a museum there now or if it was being used for present day production, or maybe it's a restaurant. There is a museum devoted to it somewhere in town. But you'll find out when you visit and then you can tell me all about it.

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
















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.




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
















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.




At least I know the street number is 19.










So I finished in Moret-sur-Loing and kept moving along. I think you'll have to agree that it's a pleasant little place. Doing not much of anything except dawdling around on my bike I'm sure I easily spent well over an hour here.

The next town on the agenda was Saint-Mammès. The canal of the Loing river opened here in 1726 and due to its location at the confluence of the Loing and Seine rivers it became an important place for barge traffic. Saint-Mammès has also caught the attention of many artists, Sisley and Poussin among them. It's a pleasant place and there are little pathways here and there leading past private gardens.

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The last few pictures were from Champagne-sur-Seine and below I am in Thomery. Thomery had been famous for centuries for its Chasselas de Thomery. Chasselas is a variety of wine grape and in Thomery it was grown in a particular manner (high on walls) and according to certain rules and traditions.

When harvested the grapes are put in special bottles, filled with water and a piece of charcoal. They were stored and ready for use between Christmas and Easter. The tradition and the drink were popular until the early 20th century and now only a few wall vineyards remain with only enough production for locals. Some of the wall vineyards are classified as historic monuments. Sorry I don't have any pictures though. Here's what I've got.


















The day was getting late so after Thomery I headed back to Fontainebleau to catch the train back to Paris. Took one last cruise through town before heading to the train station in the adjacent town of Avon.

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Normally the end of the day would be the end of one of my trip reports. But since I came back on another day to explore some more villages in the area you'll have the pleasure of accompanying me on another days journey. Lucky you. You've already seen Fontainbleau so I'll skip more pictures of that and we'll get onto that paved bike trail from Fontainbelau to Barbizon I was telling you about earlier. The Forest of Fontainbleau covers an area of 108 square miles and is criss crossed by 300 kilometers of trails the width of cart paths. It is part of the national park system and is a reserve for birds, mammals and butterflies. Due to its geologic oddities (gorges, cliffs, boulder fields) it is very popular with rock climbers and is the biggest developed area in the world for this type of sport. Hikers, bikers, people on horseback and casual strollers and picnickers also fill the forest. So let's get on the trail.






My approach to a scenic viewpoint over the Gorges d'Aprémont.
















The trail ends in Barbizon, which you've already seen, so I'll start with photos after leaving Barbizon.




The first anonymous village I rode through was Saint-Martin-en-Bière. If there were some notable event that had occurred in this town I would share it with you. But like most villages with a population of eight or nine hundred there's not a whole lot of history with which to engross the reader. Let's see if I can find something worth telling you about.



Bingo, history discovered! I'm pretty sure there's going to be a menhir (ancient standing stone) on this street. If you are unfamiliar with menhirs and megaliths in general you can read my report about them here: tinyurl.com/3597brp


Here's the menhir.




And here's the menhir and the church it sits next to.



It's not that unusual to find a menhir or some other pagan site in or near church property since early Christians generally took over sacred pagan space when building monuments to their god, thereby merely resanctifying the space.








And on to the adjacent villages of Forges, which has no discernible history.




Forges whizzes past you in about a minute before you enter Fleury-en-Bière.






Hey, I think there's some history here. Check out that château up ahead on the left.




The origin of the Château de Fleury-en-Bière dates to the 12th century but what exists today is from the 16th and 18th centuries. It is classified as a historic monument but is privately owned. Its appearance dates mostly from 1550+- when one Côme Clausse, Contrôleur des Guerres for King Henri II, took up residence here and employed most of the workers from nearby Fontainebleau to undertake its renovation. The architect of the château was Pierre de Lescot, architect of The Louvre.The park of the château is open to the public in September during the Days of Patrimony, should you be in the area that time of year. I had to settle for the view from outside the fence.





As you can see, it's very huge.

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Now for a look around town to see if we can find any of its 619 inhabitants (2006 census), or perhaps some history.












I didn't find any of Fleury-en-Bière's 619 inhabitants, nor did I find any history other than that involving the château, but I did find this dog on a roof.




And then I found the road leading out of town.....



….....and into a vast agricultural plain for about the next 6 kilometers.










After the vast expanse of agriculture I arrived in Courances.

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The 353 inhabitants of Courances make nearby Fleury-en-Bière a veritable metropolis. If you remember our old friend Côme Causse (the château owner in Fleury-en-Bière) then you know what a big fan he was of very huge châteaux. He liked them so much that in 1552 he acquired another one only 9+- kilometers away in Courances. This one is open to the public but I didn't have time for a visit. In the late 19th century it was restored to a Louis XIII style.






Courances has been acclaimed as "the epitome of the French formal garden style in which château and environment form a whole". I only got a chance to peek through the fence at some of the gardens but they did indeed look lovely.






I saw everything there was to see in Courances and rode a few kilometers down the road to Milly-la-Fôret.






The fame of Milly-la-Fôret dates to the middle ages when knowledge of new plants and herbs for aromatic, culinary and medicinal purposes brought back from the crusades made its way to Milly. Christian Dior and Jean Cocteau made their homes in the village. Cocteau spent the last several years of his life here and his house is now a museum. You probably know the designer Christian Dior but if you are unfamiliar with Cocteau he is ubiquitous among French artists circles from the mid 20th century. He was a poet/painter/film director/all-around artist. If you see a photo of famous artists of the mid 20th century chances are you will see Cocteau sitting among them. Milly is one of the larger villages in the area and has the most commerce and services and likely is the central service village for all of the smaller surrounding villages. It appears to have always been one of the important villages in the area and records and archaeological discoveries reveal that it was situated along a Gallo-Roman road. It was later one of the first stops for kings leaving from Paris and heading to Lyon. Lots of other minor events dot its history but don't merit full recollection here. How about some pictures?

The old colombier (pigeon loft).




The old covered market hall, which dates to 1479.






The old church, which dates to sometime.

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Here's the home/museum of Jean Cocteau.










The old lavoir (wash house).










Here's a little chapel from the 12th century which was decorated by Cocteau and is where his tomb lies today. There was an admission to go in so I didn't bother.




The chapel attracted lepers in the 12th century, who came to pray to Saint Blaise the Healer. The garden on the chapel grounds recalls the tradition of growing medicinal plants in Milly. These plants, called ''Les Simples'', were used to relieve the suffering of lepers.









I finished up in Milly and started to make my way back to Fontainebleau. Since the most scenic route back there was the way I came I just backtracked my route. And since you've already seen everything there is to see on that route there's no need to continue with the photos. So this is the end of the report. Our bike tour day trip from Pairs to go biking in the French countryside is now over so that is all there is to show you today. Hope you enjoyed the ride. We'll head back to do some biking in Paris, sort of a mini bike tour in Paris, on our way to return the bikes before we part company.