A bike trip through authentic France

[French Mystique Tours]

Many visitors to France say they are seeking an authentic French experience on their vacation. One where they will blend in with the locals and live like real French people. The problem for those visiting Paris is that real French people don't live there. Those people are known as Parisians. Real French people live outside of Paris but for the most part they do not confine themselves exclusively to well known touristic regions such as the Dordogne or Provence. The majority of them live in places no tourist will ever visit and since these places outnumber the places tourists do visit then I think they can claim the title to authenticity since they are in the majority. I live in just such an authentic place so we will start today's bike ride in my town of Saint-Maur-des-Fossés, which lies just southeast of Paris, about 10-12km from Ile de la Cité. The destination for today's ride is going to be Brie Comte Robert, which as its name implies is in the Brie region and is really the last large town in the suburbs before you enter rural, agricultural terrain.

One reason I chose Brie Comte Robert as a destination is because it is on the boundary between the suburbs and rural plains. The other reason is because it was the subject of a rather funny sketch on an old French television program called Collaro Show. It was shown on Saturday nights and if you are American you could consider it the equivalent of the program Saturday Night Live (which is a comedy sketch program for you non-Americans). The tv sketch was simply called Brie Comte Robert and it was a spoof of the famous American tv program Dallas. Instead of ruling Dallas, the characters rule the small provincial town of Brie Comte Robert. I found a video clip of one of the sketches on the internet so you can watch it (in French). The theme music to Dallas was different in France so the theme music in the sketch is to the same tune as the French Dallas. Click on the link to watch:

www.dailymotion.com/video/x5ci4x_collaro-brie-comte-robert_fun


Comedy finished, let's start the ride looking down my street.




My town has 7 or 8 villages and each has its own market street and shopping area. Here is my market street, which has delectable food stores that always make my mouth water when I pass by. I simply refer to it as The Street of Deliciousness.




The town hall at the end of The Street of Deliciousness.




I don't know if I consider my town to be a typical or atypical suburb but it has a reputation as a nice and sort of upscale place (although I am rather downscale myself). It has many nice neighborhoods with fine houses and lovely yards but I didn't take any pictures of those. I took a direct route down one of the main streets since the point is to show you what I see on the ride, whether pretty, ugly or just plain. This is a report about real, authentic France after all.




Bikes are great to be riding when everyone else is stuck in traffic. You just scoot up that tiny lane on the right between the cars and the curb.






Here I am arriving in one of the villages in town known as La Varenne. This is their market street and shopping area, which is larger than where I live.




Here is the covered market hall for the twice weekly market. It's a pretty good sized market and the hall was newly built within the last few years.




Moving along I arrive at the bridge that crosses the Marne river.

[French Mystique Tours]

Saint-Maur-des-Fossés is nesteld in an ox-bow of the Marne river and there are walking and biking trails along the full 14km length of the rivers course through town. Here is a sample view of the trail.




Once I cross the river I am in the town of Chennevières and there is a steep hill to climb.








At the top of the hill I arrive in the shopping/market district for Chennevières.






Once you've visited enough small towns in France you realize many of them have existed for the better part of the last 1,000 years. The innumerable 12th-13th century churches one encounters provide testimony to these towns' longevity.




Just across from the church is the Terrasse de Chennevières.



There are excellent distant views of the Paris skyline and surrounding area from the terrasse. There is even an orientation table indicating the direction of points of interest such as The Eiffel Tower, Montmartre etc.










Moving along from the terrasse.




If you are thinking of robbing a bank and need a disguise you can find it here. In Parisian stores you would find elaborate Louis XIV and Marie Antoinette costumes. In the suburbs they've got Wonder Woman.

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After Chennevières I arrive in Ormesson. At this point you start to feel like you are in the suburbs as you encounter more single family homes with private yards as opposed to mid-rise apt. buildings and commercial use.






Moving down the road you arrive at the Château d'Ormesson. The château was originally constructed in 1598 (with later modifications in the 17th and 18th centuries) on top of an earlier château/forteresse dating from medieval times. In 1632 the château came into the posession of André Le Fèvre d'Ormesson, the person from whom the town derives its name. It is suspected the château architecture was designed by a student/disciple of Pierre Lescot (architect at the Louvre) and that the gardens were designed by André Le Nôtre (landscape designer under Louis XIV). The château is still in the possession of the Ormesson family. It is a private château but I think (not sure) it is open once a year to the public during the national Journées du Patrimoine. The château is presently owned by Jean Le Fevre d'Ormesson, a noted journalist/writer/novelist who has several notable distinctions including membership in the Académie française.








Continuing on to the adjacent town of Sucy-en-Brie.




Sucy-en-Brie sits high on a hill and in places offers distant views of the unattractive urban sprawl around Paris.






Like many other towns in France the town hall is housed in a former château.



The château was constructed around 1621. It was often the residence of a young noble orphan, Marie de Chantal, who would later become Madame de Sévigné, the famous 17th century gossip and noted salon hostess.


Sucy has a nice little shopping district.








Here is the 12th-13th century church, which was built on top of another church dated to at least the early 9th century.

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Sucy has two châteaux, this one called the Château de Sucy en Brie. All I can tell you about this château is that it was constructed in 1621, like the other château.




A short distance from the town center I arrived at the Fort de Sucy-en-Brie.




The fort was built between 1879 and 1881 as a result of the siege of Paris in 1870. The siege had exposed the weaknesses in the first line of defense around Paris resulting in the construction of 18 new forts encircling the capital between 1879 and 1881. During WWI it served as a food and munitions depot for the artillery troops stationed in the nearby forests. It was actually already obsolete at this time due to improvements in artillery but nonetheless still served well in its dissuasive role. At the start of WWII it was an anti-aircraft battery until taken by the Germans in 1940. The Germans used it as a munitions depot and upon their departure in 1944 set-off the remaining munitions which exploded continuously over the next 24 hours. The explosions damaged a part of the fort but did not destroy it. Various local associations have been undertaking its renovation and restoration for the past several years. The fort is built into an embankment and is semi-enterred and thus is not easy to present photographically. Here's what I've got.










Moving on from the fort I moved into real suburban territory.












Here is a great photo of ''real authentic France''.

[French Mystique Tours]

Here I am arriving in Marolles-en-Brie. It is a postcard image of a modern suburban utopia one could find anywhere on the planet where such mundane places exist. Manicured hedges bordering sidewalks which meander along the carefully laid out streets lined with rows of similar houses whose design comes from one of five or six standard floors plans offered by the developer. You have the option of adding a garage, or deck, or fireplace or maybe a few extra windows. Following my map I was looking for the voie verte (greenway) which ran through town. Here it is.



Now, how do I find my way to its entrance? They did a nice job giving the town a greenway. If only they had given as much thought to making it easy to access. After pedaling around a few monotonous streets I spied an inconspicuous little path tucked between two houses and followed my instinct. Here I am atop the overpass in the previous photo.






Like most places I bike to in the countryside the place was completely deserted.






Here's the central shopping district. It's got a supermarket, a bank, a post office, a restaurant and a bar/tabac.






Yet again, the presence of myself and my camera are responsible for the successful evacuation of an entire populace from what should be the liveliest place in town, except for those two fearless individuals on the left next to the building.






Not all in town is as new as it first appears. The modern development I had been riding through was merely providing cover for the old village from which the new village had evolved. Another centuries old village complete with an 11th-12th century church. Archaeology dates human presence in Marolles to neolithic times but it is first noted in writing in the time of Charlemagne as he had several farms made there due to its position atop a large natural aquifer (the town still has 35 wells). It often surprises me when I search the websites for tiny towns like Marolles what an extensive history has been posted to the town website. Marolles is no exception. While its history is interesting it's full of all kinds of trivial details which probably hold no interest for the majority of you readers. Things like who held seigneurial rights at what period in time, what religious orders were established there, primary industries, one or two minor historic events and maybe an odd legend or two. The town sits on the edge of a large forest (Forêt de Notre Dame) and there are downloadable itineraries for themed walks through the nearby forest. You know, I think there's enough info on the town website to warrant providing you with the link in case you enjoy engaging yourself in the discovery of worthless places as much as I do. Here it is:

www.mairie-marolles.fr/#


Now let's take a little tour of the old town.

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For the next 7 or 8 photos I just stood still and took photos of what surrounded me.


















I left the pretty little area around the church and started making my way out of the village to the next town.

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Leaving Marolles-en-Brie and entering Santeny.






This is the point at which you start to feel like you have entered the countryside as suburbia yields to nature and agriculture.








Prior to the 11th century Santeny and its environs were the home to an association of thieves who gave themselves the title of Knights. The region was thickly forested at the time and gave them ample places to hide. Out of fear or repentance they submitted the territories under their control to the Archbishop of Paris who in turn gave seigneurial rights to a local abbey who in turn gave over certain rights in the 13th century to The Templars as recompense for their service in the crusades. The Templars built their usual priory, temple, château, church etc. which were handed over to the Knights of Rhodes (who later became the Knights of Malta) when the order was abolished. From the early 18th to late 19th century the Templar buildings were razed as a result of changes in ownership and finally by troops of Bavarians during the siege of Paris in 1871.

The Santeny website was brief enough to provide you with some basics and I picked up a few other tidbits of info about the various historic attractions in town. Let's have a look around town and see what I learned. First up we have the Château de Santeny.



The château was built in 1868 on the site of a 15th century château. It is privately owned and available for wedding receptions, events etc.







At the end of this street you see the church. It was reconstructed in 1878 after having been burned by the Bavarians during the previously mentioned siege of Paris. It dated originally to around the 13th century and during restoration some bits were salvaged, including portions of an original stain glass window.






If you really want to blend in with the locals then head to the bar tabac for a drink in whatever town you are visiting. They are always there.

[French Mystique Tours]

Here we see what is left of some farm buildings, and a colombier, belonging to a former local fiefdom. Sorry I have no info on dates.




I came back in the fall and took a few photos of the colombier when the foliage was just passing its peak. It was so scenic I took several photos and couldn't decide which ones to use in the report so I'm going to let you see all of them.






























Whenever you see a stone wall stretching for an extended distance, such as in the last photo, you can be pretty sure there is a château, manor or otherwise grand residence hiding behind the wall. Here is just such a building.








The rich and fertile soil of the Brie region.




Arriving at the outskirts of Servon.






I read all about the history of Servon on the town website and it was mostly pretty trivial stuff. There was some guy who was an army commander under Louis XIV who is buried in the town church and then there was something else about Anne Boleyn visiting her aunt who lived in the village and another story about some real estate fiasco in the 1930's that led to problems in town planning and development for the next several decades.

But there was one anecdote involving a rather humorous local tradition that I think is worthy of mention. The ''Fête des cocus'' (Feast of the Cuckholded) was an annual event which began at some unknown date in the past and continued until sometime shortly after WWII. Each year the town had its regular village festival in August which was followed by the Fête de cocus. A king and queen were chosen from among the townfolk. Those who were young and newly married had the best chance of being elected. The royal couple was paraded through town led by the mayor, the president of the festival committee, the forest ranger and a person holding the festival banner which was surmounted with two deer horns. There was a traditional route through town with obligatory stops along the way where all involved would burst into song. While in front of the train station they would sing ''He is cuckholded, the station master. If he is cuckholded it's because his wife wanted it so''. And upon commencing to march on the procession would sing ''If all the cuckholded had bells on their heads it would cause such a ruckus that you couldn't hear anything''. When night fell the king and queen would open the ball. Here is an old picture of participants from a past Fête des cocus.

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And now for the ride through town.












It was time to head for my final destination of Brie Comte Robert, which is right next to Servon. I was looking for road signs that would point the way but there didn't seem to be any even though I was right in the center of the village where such a sign is usually located. From looking at my maps beforehand I knew I would likely have to ride on the National road N19, which is a very busy road and not meant for biking. I decided to see if I might be able to find a short-cut and avoid that, although I had no idea where to look. I have a pretty good built-in sense of orientation so I struck out to see what I could find. I ended up riding through a monotony of identical looking suburban streets for about 5 or 10 minutes that all pretty much looked like this.




My directional instinct brought me to a path that led into a field.




I knew the old downtown of Brie Comte Robert was surrounded by a large, modern industrial and commercial zone and it looked to me like I could see it in the distance not far off.




Off I went into the unknown following a cart path through the field.






I was feeling pretty lucky when the cart path led to a pedestrian/cycling path.




The path led me to a paved bikeway bordering a busy road which was going to lead me to I don't know where.




Turns out that the path led me to the industrial/commercial zone.




If you've ever been stuck in one of these zones of development in France then you know you can get lost in these vast commercial wastelands that surround many large towns and most cities, which I did for a short time. To try to find my way out I scanned the horizon above the tops of the buildings looking for the ever present church steeple, the beacon of orientation that would guide me to that which I sought. And what is that I see in the distance?




A closer look.

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Reoriented, I pedaled onwards in the direction of the church steeple. Coming out of the industrial zone you can see the boundary between the old and new by looking at the left and right sides of this photo.




There was even a bike lane.




Which ran for a length of about 50 feet before disappearing.




But no matter, since I had now arrived at the old downtown where the first thing you see are the fortified walls that surrounded the former medieval château.






Brie Comte Robert was once the capital of the French Brie region. Archaeological digs in the industrial zone in 2008 revealed both a prehistoric settlement and a Gallo-Roman settlement. In 1136 Louis VI gave seigneurial rights to his son, Robert I, who built the castle to protect the road to Paris. Several personages linked to the crown took possession of the village over the centuries. During the civil revolt in the 17th century known as the Fronde several frondeurs took up residence in the town and when the town was seiged and partially burned they took refuge in the château. After their defeat the château was razed to prevent its use as a future refuge of rebels. A bunch of other minor historic events and details punctuate its history but none worth mentioning, like a ''Fêtes des cocus''. Let's go into the château.






The château is undergoing renovation and there are signs posted detailing what is being done and noting its history and the various architectural details of the château. Here is a picture from one of the signs of what the château would have looked like in the 14th century.




Another view of the château.




The château is one of three classified historic monuments in town, the other two being the church and the Hôtel-Dieu. We'll look at these two monuments and then take a little cruise through town. Here is the church.

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The church dates from the end of the 12th century. I think that's all you need to know. It's got some pretty cool gargoyles but they don't look very eroded from time so I'm doubting that they are original to the 12th century.












Here's the third and final classified monument, the Hôtel-Dieu.




Well, really all that is left is a portion of the facade although apparently some of the interior has been restored. It dates from the 12th century and served as temporary lodging for travelers coming to the local market.










Time to have a look around town.




















And so it comes to an end, our visit to Brie Comte Robert and today's bike journey. But before you all leave I have one final lesson for you. I think most smart travelers prepare for their trips by buying the appropriate guidebooks, searching the travel forums and doing internet searches to learn all about what they want to see and do on their trip. This is all well and good but you are selling yourself short and missing out on a lot valuable and otherwise undiscoverable information if you do not pay a visit to the tourist office in whatever town you happen to be visiting. In addition to having lots of info on well known sites and attractions, which are also noted in guidebooks and such, there is a wealth of information that you will almost never find in a guidebook or in searching travel forums. Perhaps you might find some of it on the internet but I tend to doubt it. Even if it was available on the internet you would have to know what you were looking for because it would be buried within several links and sub-links. I ransacked the tourist office in Brie Comte Robert, much like all the other tourist offices I visit, and left with about 50 or 60 pamphlets and brochures for every kind of imaginable activity in this and nearby regions. I got 25 pamphlets outlining themed walks in various towns and villages around Paris (maps included), numerous brochures of walking, hiking and biking trails, info on culture and sporting events, local festivals etc., etc., etc. I'm sure the person who took inventory of brochures in the tourist office after my visit must have thought that a months worth of visitors had come by in one day. Here's a picture of what I got.



Now that you have learned your final lesson you are free to go.