Chêne Fauteuil

This oak grew its own armchair. Five trunks rise from a single stool, and the hollows between them make a seat, which is how the Chêne Fauteuil got its name. The foresters here call it the King of the Forest. The measurements hold the nickname up. The cluster runs 6.8 metres round at chest height, and the tree was recorded at 285 years old in 1980, which puts its first season somewhere around 1695, in the closing years of Louis XIV. A plaque read on site in 2011 gave roughly 310 years. The two readings agree within a decade, so call it 300 to 340 years old today. It is not ageing quietly. There is dead branchwood in the crown, open holes in the stems, and a marked safety zone on the ground around the base, which visitors are asked to stay outside because pieces come down. You look at this one from a few metres back rather than sitting in the chair. It stands in state forest between three named road junctions, the Rond de Condé, the Rond de Monsieur and the Rond des Ruelles, on the 11.6 kilometre loop the forest signs as its venerable trees. The same walk takes in a three-stemmed oak by the D941, a lone sweet chestnut and a ring of Californian sequoias. Park at the Rond de Monsieur and give it ten to fifteen minutes on forest tracks.