Forêt régionale de Bondy (secteur de Coubron)

Coubron (forêt partagée avec Clichy-sous-Bois, Montfermeil et Vaujours)

Only 185 wooded hectares remain today around Coubron, Vaujours and Clichy-sous-Bois, but in the Middle Ages the forest of Bondy covered more than 20,000 hectares east of Paris, across no fewer than thirteen present-day communes. This immense canopy had a fearsome reputation: a legendary den of brigands, it gave rise to an expression still alive in the French language for an ill-famed place, a veritable cut-throat's den. A local tradition tells that three merchants, attacked in the depths of the forest, were saved in extremis by the apparition of an angel – a miracle at the origin of a pilgrimage devoted to Notre-Dame-des-Anges. Gradually eaten away by timber and gypsum extraction, then by cultivation and the suburban housing of the 19th century, the forest came close to disappearing altogether. Yet in the Coubron sector a preserved woodland survives, classified as a protection forest since August 2022, where remarkable trees still bear witness to the former extent of the woods. To walk there today, far from the bustle of urban Seine-Saint-Denis, is to follow in the footsteps of a cut-throat legend that has become, against all expectation, a sanctuary of biodiversity in the heart of the Paris suburbs.

Getting there : Walking paths with free access, managed by Île-de-France Nature; RER E "Le Raincy-Villemomble-Montfermeil" then bus, or direct access from Coubron and Vaujours

Opening times and access details are given as a guide only: check before you set out.

Ambient sound