Category: Local hikes in the Ile-de-France

Early morning hike through the forest and along the river in the pretty village of Thomery. Another angle on a landscape that I only usually see from a kayak. http://www.komoot.com/tour/231206405

July 22nd was a beautiful day in Paris, cool in the morning and warm to hot in the afternoon, but without the mugginess that all too often characterizes the city in summer. As I had to be in Malakoff (a southern suburb just outside the city) at 9:30 am, I took an early train and… Continue reading Paris from station to meetings to station

A quick 8.5-km afternoon hike over pleasantly undulating terrain. We returned with 1.5 kilos of delicious blackberries for a crumble and enough green walnuts to make liqueur. http://www.komoot.com/tour/212148757

An easy, 10-km hike on very sandy terrain in a far-flung corner of the Fontainebleau Forest that we have never explored before. We saw only one other hiker on a sunny Monday afternoon and it was incredibly peaceful. A fairly unusual area for the forest because it is mostly flat. But very pleasant walking all… Continue reading Les Platières des Béorlots & la Mare des Couleuvreux

An easy and very pleasant 16-km hike starting from the village of Paley and going through woods, fields and along the Lunain valley in two long loops, just a 15-minute drive from our house. There are a couple of old churches, some very beautiful houses, nicely undulating fields and even one working watermill (unfortunately barely… Continue reading Around the Lunain

I found the Château-Landon loop trail on the local tourist office website. We had visited this pretty town a couple of times when we first moved to this part of France but hadn’t been back for over twenty years. On a sunny Ascension weekend Sunday when the local forest was likely to be packed with… Continue reading Château-Landon

  Number 23 in the book of local hikes, taking in four villages, Ville Saint-Jacques, Dormelles, Flagy and Noisy-Rudignon, in a 16-kilometre loop through fields and woodland. The walking was easy, the mosquitoes were vicious in the woods, the poppies in the wheat-fields were in full bloom and it was a great way to spend… Continue reading Four villages of the Seine-et-Marne

A 14-km hike on a sunny afternoon in May, starting from the Sorques nature reserve car park. This trail follows the edge of the reserve along the banks of the Loing, past some beautiful meadows, before heading into the woods to lead uphill and across the main road and the railway line. It then reaches Montigny-sur-Loing… Continue reading Sorques and Montigny-sur-Loing

In this blog, when writing about my hikes in the Fontainebleau Forest, the name Denecourt crops up frequently. But who was Denecourt? Claude-François Denecourt (1788-1875) was a geographer and a veteran of Napoleon’s army who was named caretaker of a barracks in Fontainebleau in 1832 before being dismissed for his republican ideas. He subsequently devoted… Continue reading Who was Claude-François Denecourt?

On Sunday May 17th, after an early-morning visit to the market in Fontainebleau to stock up on  veggies and fruit, followed by a picnic breakfast of croissants and good coffee on the banks of the Seine opposite the (sadly closed) kayak club, we set off for a hike that took us along the river, past… Continue reading Banks of the Seine and Denecourt trail 13