Stage Étampes - Angerville

The stage between Étampes and Angerville marks the farewell to the Île-de-France. It is a day of easy walking with two clearly distinct halves: the first, cool and wooded, follows the Juine valley; the second already runs across the Beauce plateau, the great cereal plain that will accompany the pilgrim to the gates of Orléans.

Leaving Étampes, the way settles beside the river and advances among water meadows, poplar groves and old mills. Ormoy-la-Rivière and Boissy-la-Rivière are small stone hamlets tied to the water; in Saclas, crossed by the Juine, an old wash house and the church of Saint-Germain survive. For centuries the valley was watercress country, a traditional crop still grown in a few flooded beds beside the path.

Méréville is the highlight of the day. The town preserves a large timber market hall and, above all, the estate of its château, whose park was transformed at the end of the eighteenth century for the Marquis de Laborde, with the involvement of the painter Hubert Robert, into one of the most ambitious romantic gardens in France: grottoes, bridges, sham ruins and the course of the river reshaped like a landscape painting. It is a good place for a long break before the more exposed stretch.

From Méréville the route leaves the valley floor and climbs gently to the plateau. The landscape opens out suddenly: fields of wheat, rapeseed and sugar beet to the horizon, with a few silos and distant bell towers as the only landmarks. There is neither shade nor water on this stretch, so it is wise to leave the valley with enough to drink.

Angerville, at the southern tip of Essonne, is a quiet town with basic shops and accommodation, laid out around its church and the old road from Paris to Orléans. Arriving here opens the crossing of the Beauce, one of the most singular sections of the whole Via Turonensis for its sheer bareness.