Day 82: Rambouillet to Maisons Laffitte

April 28, 2024

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Our hotel happened to be right beside the Rambouillet chateau, and it turned out we could just cycle onto the grounds. So we started off with a quick circuit. Unlike some of the chateaus, which have elaborate gardens, this one was nicely landscaped, but plain. The surrounding water is the main thing for this one.

The chateau is from the 14th century. Francois I (of Ambroise fame) died here.

This great looking building was a stable!

We could cycle daily, if we lived in the chateau.

The Canada geese. Are these the same exact ones as elsewhere?

We are temporarily back on the street at Rambouillet. Hey, I see a Paul bakery in the photo. Had missed that!

We now set out on the track to Maisons Laffitte, that we got from cycle.travel. It looks like a pretty straight shot when zoomed out, but it actually had a huge number of turns and wiggles. Quite disconcerting was the fact that there was no consistency or pattern to the type of places we were passing through. Sometimes it was like suburbs - with a lot of having to cross at crosswalks, or cycling along de facto sidewalks, even if the may have had some bicycle signage. Other times, we were in a bit of car dealership/big grocery store stuff, and then suddenly, seemingly in the middle of a traditional old town.

At one point we came to this puzzling gate, that turned out to be the entrance to a sort of gated community/golf course. We could have squeezed through on one side with difficulty, but a lady in a car came and pushed her button for us to open the gate.

Most houses in the "gated community" were hidden behind high shrubs. But this smaller one could be seen.

We leaked out the other side, with no gate!

A few times we passed through "dominiale" forests.

So as you see, we have no consistent story or account of this trip around the outside of Paris. The city must have grown, swallowing towns and farms, in a haphazard way. And it is so huge, that we can't get a mental image of all we passed through. We do know that as usual with old cities, the historic core is much more integrated and possible to appreciate. Tomorrow we will go there and meet up with Susan Carpenter. There is no sightseeing "plan" to this, but we know it will be great. The interesting core of Paris is way bigger than most old cores, and we just love being there.

Didier is an old friend, that we always come to touch base with. This time we were telling the exciting story of the Nexus hub, and showed in the blog Dodie lighting a candle, partly for it, in the Cathedral. This spurred Didier to open his drawer filled with candles of all types, and suggest that we might take some in case of further mechanical problems. (More gallows humour!) We thanked him, but we think candles must come from the Cathedral to have any chance of mechanical effectiveness at all.

Today's ride: 57 km (35 miles)
Total: 4,012 km (2,491 miles)

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Ben ParkeRambouillet actually has genuine cycling significance. Every 4 years Paris-Brest-Paris starts there at the chatea. It is the crowning event for Randonneuring. Randonneurs have to do a series of increasingly longer distance rides under a certain time cutoff in order to qualify. However, it is not a race. More of a very large group ride. It’s not my cup of tea, but I have several friends involved in it who are quite passionate about it. There seems to be an appealing sense of community about it.
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6 months ago

Steve Miller/GrampiesTo Ben ParkeWow, Rambouillet is considered Paris in Paris-Brest, but Rambouillet to Paris was a whole day odyssey for us!
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6 months ago