Chartres / Illiers-Combray

After a last look back at luminous Chartres Cathedral, this stage leads you on towards the Loir (without an 'e') Valley and Illiers-Combray. This place is devoted to memory of the great novelist Marcel Proust. Around Illiers, the countryside begins to change from the Beauce Plain to the more undulating landscapes that typify the Perche area.

Itinerary

You leave Chartres following the Eure Valley west. You rejoin the Beauce Plateau, where a network of cycle tracks leads to Fontenay-sur-Eure. Then you continue on quiet roads through cereal-farming country down to Illiers-Combray. Note that there are few facilities for cyclists along this stage of the route.

Railway station

Chartres station : many Express Rgional Transport (TER) from and to Paris-Montparnasse

Illiers-Combray station : many Express Rgional Transport (TER) from and to Chartres

Tourism Offices

• Chartres : +33 2 37 18 26 26
• Illiers-Combray : +33 2 37 24 24 00

Not to be missed

Chartres : the cathedral - The International Centre of stained glass, +33 2 37 21 65 72 - The fine arts museum, +33 2 37 90 45 80 -  The picassiette house – parks and gardens

Illiers-Combray :  Aunt Léonie's House (A la Recherche du temps perdu - Marcel Proust) – wash house