The Parc de Sceaux

The island of l’Île de la Cité in the heart of Paris is your starting point. Setting off on your cycling adventure, you’ll pass some of Paris’s most iconic sites: the banks of the Seine, the Latin Quarter, Saint-Germain-des-Prés, Saint-Sulpice Church and Tour Montparnasse. Then continue along the Promenade des Vallons de la Bièvre, a 12km-long green and shaded ‘‘corridor’’ conceived for cyclists and walkers, away from motorized traffic. Our tip – set aside time to visit the estates of Sceaux and La Vallée aux Loups in the département of Hauts-de-Seine, both a delight to explore.

Onwards to Louis XIV’s dazzling château at Versailles, following the Bièvre Valley, enjoying an almost rural atmosphere. The wooded hills, streams and grazing cows in their meadows tend to make you forget you’re so close to Paris. A lack of tricky slopes, plus stretches along quiet little roads shared with motorized traffic or then along cycle paths, make this a pleasing stage accessible to all.

Leave the urban world behind you! This stage leads you to the densely wooded slopes of Rambouillet Forest. Half-way along, you cross the little Yvette Valley via the Fauvettes Viaduct, an historic piece of railway engineering reaching 34m in height. A few kilometres on, follow the old line of the Aérotrain, a bold experimental hovertrain track dating back to the 1960s and 70s. Make time for a detour to the well-named Château Saint-Jean de Beauregard.