From Paris to Briare

by Daniel Heesch

With a little more than 150 kilometers, the first stage is the second longest of the trip. We say goodbye to Paris and its river Seine and dive into the French countryside, traverse a large and famous forest, and come out a good deal further south at the Loire river. This first section of Paris-Nice is pretty easy and at the same time quite varied. A great way to get going!

All routes from Paris to other destinations in the country start in the city's historic centre, precisely at an octagonal star that is inconspicuously placed on the ground right in front of the Notre-Dame on the Ile-de-la-Cité. It's with reference to this place that all distances are measured, and it's fittingly known as 'le point zero'. For me it means the beginning of a trip that would take me over three days and nights to the other end of France.

Perhaps the best way to leave Paris is through the "Porte d'Italie" in the south. These Portes of which there are around 33 denote major exits of the "Périphérie", the ring road around Paris, and it is here that all the major roads originate which radiate out from Paris on all sides.

The easiest route from the Notre-Dame to the Porte d'Italie is to follow the Seine upstream for around one kilometer until you reach Gare d'Austerlitz on the right river bank. Turn right onto the "Boulevard de l'Hôpital" which leads you straight up to the "Place d'Italie". Here you will have the choice of six outgoing roads. Take the "Avenue d'Italie" on the opposite side. This is a busy road in the (late) morning hours but also the quickest way to get you out of Paris - and you don't want to get stuck in the first city. The frequent references to "Italy" are suggestive: indeed, soon the "Avenue d'Italie" changes its name to "Avenue de Fontainebleau" and a moment later to the "Route National 7" with destination Southern France (that is, almost Italy). The Porte d'Italie is in fact the only porte that is named after a foreign country. The N7 is one without equal.

A peculiar observation I only made on a subsequent ride from Paris to Marseille were the large number of traffic lights, with two characteristics that made them especially annoying: they abound on main roads, and they are consistently out of sync - there is no such thing as a "vague verte". As a Parisian cab driver explained to me, they exist not so much to coordinate intersecting streams of traffic but to curb the French tendency towards reckless driving. They are the French version of speedbumps. Once past the Porte d'Italie, the road gets wider to match the heavy traffic of the Parisian rush hour. The traffic lights, meanwhile, continue.


The first memorable landmark after the Porte d'Italie is the airport d'Orly-Sud which opened in 1961 and resulted in a major rebuilding of the N7. The four lanes of the N7 approach the airport's wide terminal building head on before going under ground. The tunnel is pretty long and though well-lit not the most pleasant experience as cars clearly don't seem to expect any cyclists down there and drive accordingly. After Orly-Sud, the N7 continues its meandering course through the Parisian outskirts. At Vitry sur Seine, with houses already beginning to be more scattered, platany trees provide shelter from the morning sun.

Finding your way is easy enough. You simply need to keep to the main road, which, for most parts, is easy to spot. Ironically, at the very few junctions that do exist, the signage can be thoroughly misleading. One such place is towards the end of the village of Corbeille, at the end of a sweet little climb. It took me about ten kilometers before realising that I was on my way back to Paris. A sign pointing to the right reads "Fontainebleau Etampes", whilst to the left it goes, on the A6, to Paris among other destinations. Yet, although Fontainebleau is our next major point on the itinerary, one actually needs to take the left road which soon leads you out of Corbeille, and, with every meter, a bit closer towards Nice.

Soon you find yourself enveloped by the French "champagne" with seemingly endless fields on both sides of the road. In Chailly-en-Bière, a little village at around KM 40, Paris already seems far away. Chailly-en-Bière is also the last village before the fields suddenly stop and, at KM 50, you are swallowed by the "Forêt de Fontainebleau", a fairly large and impenetrable expanse of oak and beech trees. A dense carpet of sappy green and thick undergrowth on either side makes it impossible to see very far but every now and then small dirt tracks branch off from the main road leading right into the forest's dark interior. Only a few kilometers into the forest and the road suddenly goes into a bit of a climb, just when I was beginning to think that it's about time for the Loire to appear at the horizon. The climb isn't actually very steep or long, just enough of both to remind you that it's probably not going to be fun all the way to Nice.

In the very centre of the forest, around 10 kilometer inside lies Fontainebleau. It would make a perfectly hidden town were it not for the N7 and a small lathmus of urbanisation reaching out on its east side down towards the river Seine, connecting it with the open countryside that surround the forest. The N7 cuts rather conveniently along the west side of Fontainebleau. Should one care, one needs to make a small detour to see the castle. Fontainebleau is also home of the INSEAD (Institute d'économie et d'administration), a decent MBA school, and positioned much more conveniently than the Chateaux right next to the N7 in the outskirts of Fontainebleau.

In Fontainebleau we reach a major junction: The N6 splits off the N7 leading east into the Bourgogne. The N7 continues its southernly direction towards the Loire. Only a few kilometers later, at around KM 60, the road gets into another notable climb before dropping off towards Nemours at 62 meters altitude and thus 50 meters below Fontainebleau. Nemours is a lovely city at the river Loing. The N7 shrinks here to one small lane for each direction, nothing here betrays the road's former significance. We are now at KM 73 and so about half-way of the first section. Half-way through Nemours and one is forgiven for missing the right turn to Montargis - though the signs are unambiguous, they are also rather small. The turn comes right after the bridge over the Loing river.

The next 33 kilometers between Nemours and Montargis closely follow the Loing with the towns Bagneux-sur-Loing, La Madeleine-sur-Loing, Souppes-sur-Loing, Fontenay-sur-Loing, Châlette-sur-Loing (spot the pattern!). The river feeds a number of lakes to the right of the N7 and seems to greatly add to the recreational value of this area. The river is only a few hours old with its origin only a stone's throw south of Montargis. For the first time since I left Paris in the morning, I began to imagine how pleasant it would be to shorten the route somewhat and spend the rest of the day sunbathing down at the banks of the river. I would have such and similar thoughts many more times during the next 70 or so hours.

Shortly after La Boussière, the N7 for the first time touches the new motorway built to divert much of the long distance traffic from the N7. This has the clear advantage that the N7 is in fact not as heavily used as it would otherwise be. The 38 odd kilometers from Montargis to Briare are good to ride and not overly eventful.

Little can be glimpsed of Briare, and less still of the Loire let alone the famous construction that spans it since 1905: a curious hybrid between a canal and a bridge, a "Pont-Canal" as the French say, with 663 meters the longest in Europe. The elegant construction was conceived by the same Gustav Eiffel whose second pastime was to build towers in the capital. Its purpose was the following: by 1650 there had already been a canal connecting the Seine with the Loire, in fact two, the Loing canal and the Briare canal. But the Loire proved a most promiscuous river and frequently changed bed, so that around 1830 a canal was built that ran parallel to the Loire, the lateral Loire canal. But the canal happened to be built on the south side of the Loire so when at the turn of the century it was decided to connect the Briare canal with the lateral Loire canal, one had to build a bridge over the Loire.

In any event, you won't see the canal, since the N7 turns left shortly before reaching Briare, and then, very gradually, converges with the river Loire to take you into the second stage.