Four regions, eight départements, three parcs naturels, four Unesco world heritage sites and, if you’re lucky, one wannabe Marcel Proust … Welcome to the Véloscénic, the long-distance cycleway from Paris to Le Mont Saint-Michel that opened in 2013 and now, at last, has its very own guidebook in English.

Richard Peace’s slim volume, Veloscenic: Paris-Versailles-Mont Saint Michel By Bike, came out in March and splits the 281-mile route into 10 easily rideable sections. Along with detailed mapping and directions, it includes photographs and useful information on bike hire, attractions and accommodation, such as the boutique Hotel Jeu de Paume (doubles from €85 room-only) just around the corner from Versailles, where I spent my first night.

At Paris’s Gare du Nord, I picked up a hybrid hire bike, and headed for the starting point at Notre Dame cathedral. With some help from the guidebook, I eventually found the Véloscénic route, a largely traffic-free greenway snaking south-west through the suburbs towards the château at Sceaux.

I’d given myself six days to get to Mont Saint-Michel, covering nearly 50 miles a day. That may seem quite a distance, but the course the Véloscénic charts across north-west France is not just picturesque but remarkably flat and cycle-friendly. A full 115 miles of it is on traffic-free greenways, including two extended lengths of disused railway line on which the miles flew by. (Even the most challenging section – a 15-mile stretch between Alençon and Carrouges, which I tackled on day four – is little more than a series of gentle inclines culminating in the very pleasing Château de Carrouges, where I ate a picnic lunch on the terrace.)

My second day was spent under a broiling sun amid arable farmland, woods and hamlets. I replenished my dwindling stock of water by working a little rotary pump by the crumbly stone church at Choisel; and indulged my inner-schoolboy at Rambolitrain, the wonderful little model railway museum in Rambouillet, where over a quarter of a mile of tiny track passes through lovingly handcrafted scenery recreating the local area in the 1930s.

I still had enough time in the day to fall in love. The Château de Maintenon is on a more human scale than Versailles and was my favourite of the many imposing chateaux on the route. It was built by Madame de Maintenon with the spare change given to her by her lover, Louis XIV. The lush gardens include the picturesque remains of a stone aqueduct, a folly that was intended to take water 50 miles from the Eure river to Versailles but managed only 32 before the Sun King’s finances dried up.

The Véloscénic traces a long-established pilgrimage route and, sweeping around a corner, I experienced something of the shock the medieval faithful must have felt at their first sight of Chartres cathedral, a colossus dominating the landscape for miles around.

It was a pleasant contrast to find myself in the rather humbler surroundings of La Maison de Tante Léonie, 17 miles south-west of Chartres. Léonie was Marcel Proust’s aunt, and her home in the small town of Illiers-Combray features heavily in A la Récherche du Temps Perdu, the author’s wistful exploration of the mysteries of memory. The museum is a little piece of lost time itself: filled with furniture and objects that Proust himself would have known.

The small towns along the Véloscénic all offer good-quality hotels, pensions and chambres d’hôtes. In the village of Thiron-Gardais, for example, I had a room at L’Auberge de l’Abbaye (doubles from €75 room-only) overlooking a delightful walled garden with an abbey behind it. My dinner included some combinations I’d never experienced before: beetroot, crystallised orange and spring onions on pearl barley may never become the new avocado-on-toast but it was surprisingly tasty.

At Nogent-le-Rotrou, former capital of the Perche region, Château Saint-Jean is a hulking great Norman affair presiding over a town whose Saturday market I plundered for fresh produce to eat on the banks of the Huisne. Surging into Normandy on quiet country lanes, my way was garlanded with bluebells, cowslips and purple orchids. I scooted through the Andaines forest to spend the night in Bagnoles de l’Orne, where the French come in droves to improve their physical wellbeing in the town’s spas while risking their financial health at its casino.

The sight of orchards near Domfront reminded me that the guidebook had promised some time in perry and cider country. The Musée du Poiré is in a former perry-producing farm, and after I’d gawped at some fantastical contraptions from days of yore, I enjoyed a little dégustation. Then came the difficult task of choosing just one bottle from the vast range of local perry, cider and calvados to pack into my pannier.

And so to Mont Saint-Michel. Or nearly, anyway. Having ridden 280 miles from Paris, I was defeated on the last stretch. In summer, bicycles aren’t allowed on the controversial new(ish) bridge to the tidal island, so I had to park my steed and walk the final mile. This “Marvel of the West” is more than a tad touristy, but the abbey that dominates the little hill is still something else: a writhing mass of medieval chapels, cloisters and crypts, balancing precariously on each other’s shoulders. I drank in the view of the immense sandy bay from on high as the afternoon sun bathed the entire scene in glory. From somewhere deep within the complex came the timeless sound of nuns singing a mass.
• The trip was organised by La Véloscénic. Bike hire from around €95 for a week with one-way service from companies listed at veloscenic.com. Rail travel was supplied by OUI.sncf; from London to Paris, returning from Pontorson, tickets start at £89.50

Looking for cycling holiday inspiration? Browse The Guardian’s selection of cycling holidays on the Guardian Holidays website