The Leaning Hornbeams of the Boscs

These two made an official remarkable-tree register on the strength of a pose. They are 8 to 10 metres tall, 75 to 90 years old, with trunks somewhere between 44 and 68 centimetres through at the base, which in a forest full of beeches twice their height is nothing at all. What they do is lean. Both hornbeams grew out over the Mare des Boscs and hold themselves at an angle above the water, and the register says so in plain words: le lieu et la forme des troncs en font un endroit superbe, the place and the shape of the trunks make this a superb spot. Hornbeam is the hardest timber in these woods, dense enough that it was the traditional choice for mill cogs and butchers' blocks, and it takes a lean like this without snapping. The pond sits inside a wider wetland the region lists for its nature value, so the walk in is quiet and wet underfoot in places. It is the longest approach of the Roumare trees on this page. Park at the rond-point de la Martel, follow the a la Biche forest road, then a small dirt path on the left opens into the meadow and the pond.