July 15, 2017
Fontainebleau
Ah, finally on the road! I rose early, excited to finally be going someplace! But sad to leave my family hosts, Florence, Pierre, Antoine, and Marius. But we will see each other again soon!
The plan was to meet Happy and Jerry, who were coming from their hostel four miles away, in Bercy Village, where I had identified a breakfast boulangerie the day before. We were to meet at 9:30, but I arrived at 9:00 and grabbed a table for four. I parked my bike across the way against a closed storefront where I could keep an eye on it. So far, so good!
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Unfortunately, Happy and Jerry did not arrive until near 10:00! Very unlike them. And by then, business was picking up and security guards were making the rounds. "No bicycles allowed," they were told. So no breakfast, at least not with me. Fortunately, they had eaten at the hostel as well, so that would hold them to lunch.
After I had paid up, we hit the trail south for Fontainebleau. Such as it is. It is fairly decent, actually, but the south approach to Paris, at least along the Seine, has a noticeable industrial footprint. Plus a major road into town follows the Seine as well. So the biking was not as pleasant as my entry into Paris, but it definitely met the need. Eventually, we were far enough south that the trail took on a more rustic feel.
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The trail is really more of a hodgepodge of trails connected to each other to form a continuous course into the city. Hence the gate above, which looks fairly old, but was the only such gate we saw. So I took it to be an entry to a park and used to restrict, for example, mopeds. Regardless, our bikes with panniers seem to fit like a glove, so on we went!
It wasn't long after that we hit our first long climb in, where else but Montgeron. The trail had disappeared at an interchange we had navigated earlier, so we were now riding on either streets or sidewalks. For the climb, we rode the sidewalk, mostly because the street was narrow and traffic was heavy. Plus it was our first climbing test.
We were rewarded shortly afterward with a ride through the Forêt de Sénart . . .
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The ride through the forests took us through more of what was probably the least desirable part of the ride, Paris' outer suburbs. We stopped briefly in Lieusaint for lunch and then continued on to a more bucolic setting, Melun, which became basically our gateway into Fontainebleau. Shortly afterward, we crossed the Seine and were in the forests around Fontainebleau, Bois-le-Roi. A very pleasant ending indeed!
Today's ride: 43 miles (69 km)
Total: 66 miles (106 km)
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