A sunny day without lectures (Toussaint holidays), a perfect day to cycle to Rambouillet.
Cycling
The best exit from Paris is Porte de Versailles, then go all the way through Issy-les-Moulineaux, cycle uphill to Meudon, enjoy the downhill to Chaville (don‘t think you are going to cycle it up too in the way back), cross Viroflay and ,once in Versailles, take the second exit to the left in the big avenue of the tiny Château of the uncle Louisi. Straight ahead to Buc. Then, follow the indications to Saint Rémy la Chevreuse (you will pass the airport of Toussus-le Noble and Châteaufort) and then to la Chevreuse. Afterwards Rambouillet is signposted in all the relevant crossroads and you can’t get lost because D906 leads you there. There is another possibility to join D906, the road to Rambouillet, which is D91, the one I had planned to follow because apparently there is less traffic, but in Buc I found myself in the described one.
From Paris to Buc both traffic and landscape suck. It’s all the time in the middle of traffic jams, traffic lights, and urban areas. Traffic from Buc to la Chevreuse is acceptable and much better from la Chevreuse to Rambouillet. Landscape is nice from Buc, actually, you are cycling along a big aqueduct in its exit.
La Chevreuse and Versailles are good stops, nice houses and plenty of shops.
In Google maps and Michelin is 50km each way, but in my compu 111.25 total km have been registered. I don’t really understand the difference, because I didn’t get lost a lot (only a deviation of aprox 1-2km). It took me 6h 24 minutes (av speed 17,37.. I am not fitted, and I haven’t done anything during the last month). Departure place was Hôtel de Matignon.
In one-way, there are 5 long uphills with a considerable slope (followed by equivalent downhills :D). You may also consider taking the train (avoiding the urban aglo or back home), some of the villages are served by train.
Other attractions
The other main attractiveness that lead me there is the Park of la Chevreuse. A big regionally protected forest, one of the closest to Paris. There are other castles in the way. There are supposed to be some big animals (like the signal warns) but I didn’t encounter any.
The Rambouillet castle
I needed a green and historical destination about 50km from Paris. Rambouillet has all! It sounded me familiar due to “the Accords of Rambouillet” related to the war in Kosovo (it was proposed as a peace agreement between Serbia (named Yugoslavia and still with Montenegro as a satellite) and Kosovo (say Albania). The autonomy of Kosovo and Nato in the area) were unacceptable for Milosevic and his refusal allowed NATO (who drafted it) to start the Kosovo war. The other funny thing is that it was not disclosed till several months afterwards. Other historical events have also taken place there. The castle is incomparable to the one of the uncle Louisi, but nice. It can be visited everyday except today: Tuesday. Anyway, that’s not an excuse, I didn’t brought my lockers and my student card on purpose.
