Day 2: Le Plessis-Robinson to Chartres

91km, 4 hours 47minutes riding time, average speed 19 kph. Look here if you want to see the route.

A slowish day, partly because on leaving Le Plessis-Robinson I decided to take a short cut through a forest, and, inevitably, got spectacularly lost. The only thing that gave me some idea of the direction I was taking was the position of the sun, and that helped not at all because the tracks simply went in circles. No problem, there was no rush and it was a beautiful place to spend 45 minutes or so looking for the exit. Another illustration, though, that I am not one of the lucky few that are intelligent enough to learn from experience.

And my progress thereafter wasn't especially quick, because the Ile de France turns out to be surprisingly lumpy. Without ever feeling I was in anything approaching challenging terrain, I still accumulated about 700 metres of climbing, almost all of it in the first half of the day.

Getting lost aside, though, this was pretty much an exemplar of how I like to tour. Beautiful countryside, largely quiet roads, doing most of the miles before stopping for a pleasant lunch (beer, croque monsieur et frites and coffee in Rambouillet) leaving just a couple of hours of cycling in the afternoon. Arrived in Chartres at 3pm, plenty of time to find a hotel, get a shower and explore a bit before dinner.

Speaking of Chartres, it's my first time here so it was essential to look at the cathedral.

Chartres Cathedral

It's quite a place. I must confess that being a Durham lad I prefer the Norman to the Gothic, but this is still a building and a half. And if flying buttresses happen to be your field of interest, we have them in abundance:

Extraordinary amounts of carving everywhere, too, the place is festooned with saints. Looking pretty good for their age, considering a fair proportion of them have been up there for over 700 years...

Tonight I am in the Mercure Hotel. The Mercure chain seems to fill the niche that is occupied in the UK by Premier Inns. Mais c'est un peu plus chic, naturellement.