The best traffic-free bike rides around Billy

Here, too, almost directly on the river, you'll find inexpensive drinks and snacks. There's even a picnic area where you can eat your own food for free at tables and benches (under beautiful trees).

Small castle away from the crowds in a small sleepy town.

Located in the heart of the Loire Valley, the castle of Fougères-sur-Bièvre built at the end of the 15th century is the image of the ideal fortified castle with its keep, its machicolated entrance curtain and its fortified postern. Built by Pierre de Refuge and modified by Jean de Villebresme around 1520, the castle acquired its definitive appearance in three generations and will retain it. A castle designed for entertaining, its defensive Gothic architecture allows Pierre de Refuge to assert his social status and his belonging to the French nobility. Acquired by the Lambot family in 1738, René Lambot had the idea of creating a spinning mill in the castle from 1813 to 1901. This made it possible to largely preserve it from revolutionary damage and to maintain life and activity there. Classified as a historic monument in 1912, put up for sale after the stock market crash of 1929, the castle of Fougères-sur-Bièvre was acquired by the State in 1932. The castle of Fougères-sur-Bièvre has a double face: an entrance facade with a particularly defensive Gothic appearance and a courtyard facade decorated with Renaissance decorations. Particularly well preserved, the castle today remains very close to that of 1525-1530 with its military exterior facade, the civil and domestic architecture of its interior courtyard and its medieval interior plan with rooms in a row without distribution corridors. The castle of Fougères-sur-Bièvre stands out from the great castles of the Loire by its sober and powerful architecture, very little altered over the centuries. It illustrates the art of building in the region with its walls made of limestone rubble from Beauce and its sculpted parts in tuffeau from the banks of the Cher. Young and old alike will easily find all the military attributes and the interior layout of a particularly well-preserved small castle from the end of the 15th century.

Benedictine abbey of the Congregation of Saint Maur, founded in the 11th century. The abbey church was built from 1040. It was destroyed by fire around 1262. At the end of the 13th century, a new church was built and the monastery enlarged. The abbey was ruined before 1391 by the English. In 1468, a church larger than the previous one was built. In 1837 the riding school was built on the site of the abbey house. For more information: https://www.abbayedepontlevoy.fr/

This castle dates from the 11th century. The castle cannot be visited because it is private property, but you can admire it from the outside.

Small Church ⛪️, very pretty interior

Pretty village of Saint Aignan, the Domaine de Saint Aignan located on the banks of the Loire, houses a park and a castle dating from the end of the 19th century. This superb private property belongs to the Beaucorps family. The castle is available for rental.

I ordered drinks here and asked if I could eat my own baguette on their terrace. They didn't find that a problem at all! There is also a tap for drinking water a little further away.