Chêne d'Oxford
Forêt de Réno-Valdieu
Seasons1 of 4
The storms of December 1999 took down the tall stand around this oak and left it standing. The waymarked route through the forest names it and one neighbour, the Congrès oak, as the survivors of the grande futaie, the high forest that used to fill this corner of the Gautrie. Everything that made those two remarkable before the storm is still true, and now they are also the last of their cohort. The name came from further off. This is the Chêne d'Oxford, dedicated to the university, one of four oaks in the série artistique de la Gautrie carrying the names of foreign institutions: Oxford, Aberdeen, the British Forestry Commission and a world forestry congress. The grove was set aside for its looks rather than its timber, and France's national forest office traces that designation to the reign of Louis XIV. This tree's own on-site ONF panel, photographed in 2010, is more specific than the série-wide figures: 360 years as measured in 2006, a girth of 3.43 metres and a total height of 43 metres, putting it at roughly 380 years today. It is the easiest of the four to reach. It stands at the Carrefour Degraine itself, which has picnic tables and the forest office's information panels, directly on the 10.5 kilometre Les vieux arbres loop.
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Getting there
Forêt domaniale de Réno-Valdieu, 'série artistique de la Gautrie', at Carrefour Degraine, Feings / Saint-Mard-de-Réno, Orne
One of the two big oaks at the Carrefour Degraine, left standing after the 1999 storm: this one carries a 3.43 metre girth and 43 metres of height per its own ONF panel, though which of the pair it belongs to is settled only on site.
Free, no permission needed. State forest (forêt domaniale de Réno-Valdieu), on the waymarked 'Les vieux arbres' loop (10.5 km) at the Carrefour Degraine, which has picnic tables and ONF information panels. The grove is visited on foot only (bikes are not allowed there).
No public transport to the forest interior; Carrefour Degraine is reached on forest tracks from the Chartreuse du Val-Dieu trailhead (car-accessible). Nearest towns are Feings and Saint-Mard-de-Réno.
In fruit
The line is our estimate of how much there is to see, not a measurement. Typical for this species where this tree stands; exact weeks shift with the year.
Sources
Where the facts on this page come from. The story was written with AI from these sources, and readers who know the tree correct it.
