The Oak of Madame

over 150 yearsPedunculate Oak

Pedunculate OakNobody has published a photograph of this tree under a licence we can use. Send us yours and it goes on this page.

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This oak's story exists in exactly one place, and it is bolted to a post beside the trunk. The forest register mentions it in a single line, ce chene a une histoire locale a decouvrir sur le pupitre, this oak has a local history to be discovered on the panel, and then declines to repeat it. Which Madame the tree is named for, and what she did here, we cannot tell you. If you walk out and read the panel, photograph it and send it in, and this paragraph gets better. The measurable part: a pedunculate oak of more than 150 years, 105 centimetres across the foot of the trunk, which is around three and a third metres round down there. On the ages we have, that makes it the oldest tree we have mapped around Rouen, in a city whose registered trees are mostly a century or so old. It stands on the Petit-Essart circuit in the Foret de La Londe-Rouvray, a waymarked loop rather than a forest track, about 11 kilometres south of the city. Park at the Jean Coiffier centre in Les Essarts, or walk up from Oissel through the Vallee du Catelier. The path climbs and drops, so take real shoes.

Been here? Worth the visit?

The button above opens directions in your maps app. No public transport reaches the tree directly, though it sits on a signed walking circuit reachable on foot from Oissel via the Vallee du Catelier. By car: park at the Jean Coiffier leisure centre in Les Essarts and follow the waymarked 'Le Petit-Essart' circuit; sturdy footwear needed, the path climbs and descends.

Species: Pedunculate Oak (Quercus robur)
Age estimate: over 150 years
Location: On the waymarked 'Le Petit-Essart' circuit, parcelle 604, Foret domaniale de La Londe-Rouvray, near Oissel (Foret de La Londe-Rouvray, near Oissel / Les Essarts)
Access: Free, public ONF-managed forest, no restrictions. Waymarked as part of both the official 'arbres remarquables' trail and the local 'Le Petit-Essart' walking circuit (interpretive panel on site telling a local history).
Getting there: No public transport reaches the tree directly, though it sits on a signed walking circuit reachable on foot from Oissel via the Vallee du Catelier. By car: park at the Jean Coiffier leisure centre in Les Essarts and follow the waymarked 'Le Petit-Essart' circuit; sturdy footwear needed, the path climbs and descends.

Trees nearby

The Beeches of Roche Fouetroughly 40 to 60 years · 4.0 km away The Ladder Beechroughly 75 to 90 years · 8.1 km away The Leaning Hornbeams of the Boscsroughly 75 to 90 years · 8.2 km away

Curious what else is standing in Rouen? See all 12 remarkable ancient trees in Rouen or find out what the oldest tree in Rouen is. It is a Pedunculate Oak; see every pedunculate oak on the site.

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This page was researched from a distance. If you know this tree, you know things we do not: the species, the age, the size, whether the photo shows the right tree, or that it is gone. Every field on this page can be corrected.

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