Chartres Bike Tour

[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. The destination for today's bike tour is Chartres but our journey begins in the medieval town of Epernon.

Epernon first enters noteworthy history when the sons of Hugues Capet erect a fortress there in the 11th century. On his death in 1060, Amaury de Montfort passed on a monastery he inherited to a monk friend from Chartres who founded a priory dedicated to Saint Thomas. The grounds and a few buildings still remain. In the 12th century the hills around the town were covered in vineyards and wine production became part of the local economy. Somewhere in town there exists the 12th century wine cellar (perhaps in the priory) but I didn't see it. Like every other town of import in France it has an old church, The Church of Saint Peter, which has Romanesque and early gothic origins mixed with 16th century renovation.

Not a whole lot of noteworthy historical events or figures are attached to the history of the town but it does earn prominence in the 15th century for its stone quarries as the quality of the sandstone being extracted was noted for its durability. Remember the aquaduct in Maintenon? If you do then you can probably guess that I was going to tell you that some of its stone was sourced from here. When the railway linking Epernon to Paris opened in 1849, Haussmann became a large consumer of stone from Epernon for use in his Parisian building projects. Today it is a nice little town with some medieval charm and a few restaurants, cafés etc. Not very big but pleasant.

[French Mystique Tours]

After leaving Epernon I pedalled through a combination of litte anonymous villages and countryside on my way to Maintenon.

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i872.photobucket.com/albums/ab289/FrenchMystiqueTours/Epernon%20to%20Chartres

[French Mystique Tours]

Anyone reasonably familiar with the history of Louis XIV's love interests has probably heard of Madame de Maintenon, one of the wives of Louis, and it is this town from which her title is derived. Like about a million other towns in France Maintenon is first recorded historically in the early 12th century when mention is made of a lord of Maintenon. The first fortified castle arose at this time and by the 13th century there was also a keep. In the early 16th century the château comes to the possession of one of the creditors of the lords of Maintenon, who was also the treasurer for Louis XII and finance minister of Francis I, Jean Cotterau. The château is expanded, giving it a square shape with towers at the corners. The next major changes come when the château is purchased by Madame de Maintenon in 1674. Having raised the illegitimate children of the king and his mistress she became the beneficiary of money, property and other rights and privileges sufficient enough for her to purchase the château.

Just beause she's an interesting historical figure and because the towns fame is so inextricably linked to her here's a quick background of the Madame de Maintenon. Supposedly born in a prison to a father of noble stature (her mother was the jailers daughter), in her adolescence relations of her family introduce her to Parisian society where she meets and marries the noted poet, Paul Scarron, whose salon attracted all the bigshots. Scarron was a cripple (rheumatoid arthritis and/or partial paralysis) who had supposedly contracted his infirmity due to an unfortunate bathing experience in the Seine in the winter. Myself, I would think a bathing experience in the Seine would be unfortunate in any season.

Becoming an influential figure at the salon, Madame Scarron (not Maintenon yet) makes friends with all the important ladies (I don't want to name drop), one of whom is Madame de Montespan, the kings mistress. She earns the mistress' trust enough to raise hers and the kings illegitimate children, in discretion of course. For her services the king and his mistress each gave her large sums of money, allowing her the ability to purchase the château. The king falls for her and starts spending much of his time with her, while the royal bastards spent time being raised at the château. Hmmmm, do you think Madame de Montespan is starting to think she made a poor choice for a governess? Shortly thereafter in a secret ceremony Madame de Maintenon married the king and the wedding celebration was held at the Château de Maintenon. The rest, as they say, is history.

The king did frequent the château often to visit the bastards (I love saying that word) and Racine wrote the works ''Esther'' and ''Athalie'' at the château (not that I've read those books) and I'm sure lots of other exciting things must have happened there but I don't know about them. I'm a casual cycling enthusiast, not a Rhodes scholar so my knowledge of literary masterpieces and historical detail doesn't extend much beyond the limits of the widely read classics such as ''Bambi'' and historical intrigue involving things like ''The Bermuda Triangle''. If you'd like to learn more about either of those two topics just ask me.

So, I'm on the bike again and we're going for a cruise through Maintenon. Here's what it looks like.














The château is rather impressive, with large grounds, and is open to the public but I didn't go in. The view is somewhat obstructed from street view by buildings and trees so this is the best I could do.



As you can see, there is renovation of some sort going on.






That's all for Maintenon.




Since I've got pictures from two different rides for the next few photos I'll insert some of the ones from the ride I took in the fall since the colors are nicer and it was a sunny day.














Okay, it's time for the next attraction. The sign in the next picture will explain everything.




If you don't know about dolmens, menhirs and megaliths in general then click on this link:

anyportinastorm.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=france&action=display&thread=4008

[French Mystique Tours]

The dolmens that are on display here are the exposed elements of an archaeological dig, which is ongoing so you can see the various trenches that have been dug and there are accompanying informational signs that explain what you are looking at. On this site were constructd a few dolmens and menhirs. Although the original construction date is not known due to later disturbance, it is likely prior to 1,500B.C. to give a conservative estimate.

What is interesting about the dolmens here is that they were later re-used as a necropolis during Merovingien times, around the end of the 5th to early 6th centuryA.D. Since the end of the megalithic period is generally considered to be around 1,500B.C. it is interesting to see the function of utilizing a dolmen as a funerary monument still being practiced a couple of thousand years after its original construction. Some sort of pagan traditions must have been carried on for many generations prior to the Christianization of France, when many of these remnants of the past were torn down by zealous Christians, as well as others who saw them as handy building material and farmers who saw them as a nuisance in their fields.

Let's have a look at the dolmens and the dig site.





As you can see, this one obviously suffered various levels of destruction over the centuries. There are also informational signs for the visitor.



Often times, local nicknames have been given to megalithic features, many of which refer to the mythical figure in the Gargantua series of works from the 16th century writer Rabelais. That is the case with the menhir nearby.






Sometimes dolmens and menhirs were given nicknames based on their appearance. People sometimes imagined their physical shapes to resemble certain types of animals or saw otherwise fantastic images in their appearance, such as a devils footprint. As the former research director for a somewhat non-mainstream archaeological organization from time to time I used to receive photos from enthused advocates who sent me pictures of rocks in which they saw fantastic images, most of which were penises and vaginas. There were none of those types of images here today but apparently this dolmen resembles a frog.





Does everyone see the frog?





Leaving the megaliths behind I continued on my way. There wasn't much of serious historic significance until I got to Chartres so once again we'll ride through anonymous villages and countryside and if I'm feeling lively perhaps I'll break up the photo montage with a comment or two.

[French Mystique Tours]

At this point in the journey I stumbled onto a dedicated bike path that was supposed to lead me to Chartres, according to what the sign I saw said. I left the little country roads and got on to the bike path, hoping it would lead me to Chartres because this detour was unplanned.

















That's the end of the bike path. I had finally arrived at the outskirts of Chartres and for a brief period had to get on the main road into town, but that doesn't last long before you arrive at the historic downtown.

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Now that I've reached this famous town with its world renowned gothic cathedral I bet you're all expecting a big history lesson. But you're wrong. When you arrive at such an internationally famous place as Versailles or Chartres or the Eiffel Tower what more is there that you can say that isn't already common knowledge, especially if you're just a regular guy like me. There are audio-guided tours available from the tourist office that will lead you through the cathedral and another that will lead you through the town. You'll learn everything you need to know by renting the audio-guides. As much as I enjoy visiting the cathedral I think I enjoy strolling around the old downtown even more. It's got a lot of wonderful buildings and architecture from medieval and renaissance times and if you did nothing but wander through the cathedral and strolled through all its quaint streets you could easily spend a few hours here. I hate trying to desribe in words what can be explained with photos so I'll now take you on a little photo tour of Chartres. I'm sorry in advance for not taking too many pictures of the cathedral because it's so well photographed that I'm not sure any picture I take couldn't be found in a brief on-line search.

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[French Mystique Tours]

So that's all there is to see today. 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.