The Beeches of the Bretèque

Trees usually turn colour at their own speed. This lot does it together, because the register describes them as beeches of the same age standing as one bouquet, and a same-age stand is a forester's signature: one patch of ground that regenerated in a single go, so the whole group leafs out, turns and drops in step. In late October the effect is a block of copper against a mixed forest that is still arguing about it. They are 120 to 150 years old and around 110 centimetres across the foot of the trunk, roughly three and a half metres of circumference down there. Underneath them is the other beech signature: almost nothing. A closed beech canopy is the deepest shade any European tree casts, so the floor is leaf litter and smooth ground rather than brambles, which is why beech woods are the ones that feel like rooms. This is the least effort of the Foret Verte trees. Park at the Grand Canton car park at the exit of la Breteque, cross the D3, take the footpath directly opposite into parcelle 46, and the group stands a little further on the right near the forest edge. Free, no gate, no hours.