Day 84: Maisons Laffitte to Giverny

April 30, 2024

(Special Note: half of yesterday's blog disappeared in mid-sentence, probably as Dodie was doing some spelling edits overnight. Sorry! I will try to rebuild it sometime in the coming days.)

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I plotted a route from Maisons Laffitte to Giverny using cycle.travel. This route planner is unique in offering an option for paved surfaces only. This time forgot to ask for that. As a consequence we got a more interesting route, but one that we had to ultimately abandon.

The route we started with, rather than crossing the river and going around its bend on road, took off straight through the forest (Forest of St Germain). This provided the first interesting bit, because between the river and the forest had been built the Maisons Laffitte chateau. This was built around 1640, and was designed to be suitable for receiving visits from a king. Louis XIV did for example visit. The chateau was eventually sold and resold, and was bought by a banker, Jacques Laffitte in 1809. So it was only then that the Laffitte name got attached to the former "Maisons" chateau. There were further sales, until the place was finally taken over by the state. We don't know if it is possible to visit it now - it is under some kind of renovation and looks rather empty.

Facing the chateau is a long and rather impressive strip of grass and trees, that eventually leads to the forest. Clearly somebody is mowing the lawn, anyway.

We got onto a path, that we see is also favoured by runners. A tree across the path held us up for a bit, but we were quite happy to cruise along at this point.

As seems to always happen, things deteriorated from there, with the path narrowing, and getting rougher.

Our yellow clothes do not stand out but are more like camouflage when deep in the forest.

Still, we hung in there, because it was clear that we were on the Avenue Verte - the Paris to London greenway. So this was the second interesting part of the cycle-travel route.

Along about here Dodie remarked that it was good we had the GPS, if we were going to ass through a big forest. I joked that yes, we would not like to get lost and wander for a long time, until eaten by the sangliers (wild boars). Very shortly thereafter, Dodie announced that we were indeed lost.

You might wonder, how can people with a GPS get lost? The answer lies in the degree of zoom. Often, at some "reasonable" zoom, subtle sidetracks or hard to spot turns are just not obvious onscreen, and it can take a while to realize that one is off track. But this forest happens to be insane, with a webwork of criss crossing trails.

We did use the GPS to make our way to a road, though we were hemmed in by a stone wall for much of the way. We reached a break in the wall, but had to heave up bikes up a steep ledge.

I lifted Dodie's bike out, but she took the panniers off my bike, so as not to press our luck with back strain in lifting my bike out.

In thos way we reached Conflans, the place where the river Oise joins the Seine. Conflans is rather famous for us for having figured in rides by David and Maun Alston, some years ago, and in our own rides, some years ago too. The Alstons, I think, went up the Oise.

Lots of very long bulk carriers could be seen parked at Conflans.

There is a McDonald's at Conflans, that we looked over at in passing. They had a sign our front advertising three bargains menus for Mondays and Tuesdays. What looks like a Big Mac, fries, and soft drink are on offer for 20 euros. That seems outrageous, about twice the U.S. price, but in some states (like Connecticut) some much higher numbers have been seen.

We continued with our not necessarily paved, or marked, route, but were getting increasingly frustrated with it.

Finally, when we got to stuff like this, Avenue Verte or not, we programmed our way onto some real roads!

Thanks, but we're going straight, out of this muck.

We stopped in a bus shelter to eat something, and were immediately aware of loud squawking from the trees opposite. They were full of birds, that turned out to be nesting Rooks. A Rookery, no less. It wasn't possible to photograph all the nests and birds, but the shot below does show one nest and three bird. I had thought of the word "rookery" in relation to seals, but in fact the origin is with these Rooks.

It had taken 20-25 km to leave the influence of Paris, and to return to the countryside. We had gotten so used to Paris, that it took a while to realize that we were now in a really different place. That place featured open fields of grain and rape, but also self-contained real villages, with no lurking car dealerships or box stores.

... and places with stone buildings, flowers, and narrow roads:

I really liked this one - stone building, blue shutters, and bakery!

We still had forests, but we observed them from paved roads!

One town seemed to specialize in donkeys. That's where we found the sign below. Anyone who has travelled in France will get the pun. In France, every level train crossing has the warning "Un train peut en cacher un autre" - one train can hide another.

In Vigny, we noted this beautifully castle-like chateau:

And here is the strangely named village of Wy-Dit-Joli-Village

There are guest rooms at the Chateau of Maudetours

Is this, one the gate, decorative or aggressive?

Approaching Giverny, we could look down at loops in the Seine. The fact that we are looking down shows that we did quite a lot of climbing on this ride.

So weird, only two flowers for one of the most floral and beautiful villages we have seen in France.

After having ridden in total peace for most of the day, it was a bit jarring to run into the moderate crowds at the Monet house

.But the village is gorgeous, and we soon found our chambre d'hotes, Au Bon Marechal. It's a historic house, as described in the sign. (The translation of marechal as blacksmith, though, is a new one on us. How about "forgeron"? Any comment from our French friends?)

Our spot is in this ivy covered cottage!

Our cottage is in a protected courtyard. It's great for the bikes!

24200 This White Barbary Dove lives in the courtyard. We are claiming him as a bird we spotted.

We dropped our stuff and went out for a quick look at the town, which right now seems to only have one basic street - Claude Monet street.

This place, now a restaurant, was the hotel where Monet's impressionist friends hung out.

The Monet street is lined with flowers, and the Impressionist Museum has a nice formal garden. You almost do not have to go into Monet's place to have a calm an beautiful floral walk. Still, we are really looking forward to it.

In the meantime we ducked in to some gift shops, like the one below with all the floral stuff.

Here, at the Impressionist Museum gift shop, Monet socks - of which I got a pair!

Giverny has a half dozen, not very cheap, restaurants, and no grocery stores. We will have to choose wisely to avoid being too hungry tomorrow. But we have a gorgeous room in a heritage house, and we are really pleased to be in this beautiful and interesting place!

Today's ride: 65 km (40 miles)
Total: 4,089 km (2,539 miles)

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Carolyn van HoeveHi Steve & Dodie, I believe you're arriving in Boubiers tomorrow! Say hi to Ian & Clare from us ... and our bikes waiting patiently for our return in September. Sadly you'll be stealing our glory with your 4000 km's. Ian and Clare were so impressed that we had achieved a paltry 1500 kms. This will blow them away. I enjoyed following your journey and what a great trip you had.
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4 months ago

Steve Miller/GrampiesTo Carolyn van HoeveWe will assure your bikes that they are not forgotten and will be on the road again soon.
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4 months ago

Carolyn van HoeveHaha, thank you!
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4 months ago