Well, another day, another rain—or a few rounds of it. Nothing out of the ordinary.
It rained during the night, but the morning was dry, which allowed me to pack up at a relaxed pace.
The first few kilometers I followed La Véloscénie, even though the path wasn’t paved. Still, it was the shortest route. After that, I switched to a custom track I’d plotted myself, designed to avoid the meandering of the official route and get me to Paris a bit faster.
Along the way, I made brief stops in Illiers-Combray, the real-life inspiration for Marcel Proust’s fictional town of Combray in In Search of Lost Time; in Chartres, with its towering, UNESCO-listed cathedral; and in Rambouillet, home to the French president’s summer residence, tucked inside the Château de Rambouillet.
I’d hoped to reach Versailles, but affordable accommodation was nowhere to be found. So I settled for a cheap hotel in Trappes, a dozen kilometers short. Physically, I could have pushed on to Paris, but I’d have missed the last train home anyway. No point pu/ni/shing myself for no gain.
Besides, I want to visit Versailles properly and enjoy some time in Paris—weather permitting, which, based on recent experience, is far from guaranteed.
Today in numbers:
141 km – distance cycled
1971 – the year Illiers was renamed Illiers-Combray to honor Marcel Proust
176 – stained glass windows in Chartres Cathedral
60% – of all French perfume is produced in the Chartres area
~200 km² – the size of Rambouillet Forest (about as big as Liechtenstein)
