Cyprès chauves du Bois de Saint-Denis

Féricy

Round a bend in a path in the state forest of Barbeau, an unexpected sight surprises the walker: twenty-three bald cypresses, natives of the swamps of North America, planted in a circle around a forest pond, the Mare du Merisier. These conifers with their soft foliage, which turns a spectacular russet in autumn before falling (a rarity among conifers), are thought to have been introduced in the early 19th century, when the forest of Barbeau was attached to the imperial domains following a sénatus-consulte of 1810. Adapted to waterlogged soils, the Taxodium distichum here develop root knees that rise out of the ground and the water like vegetable stalagmites, as well as spectacular flared buttresses at the base of their slender trunks. This botanical curiosity, planted for pleasure or for forestry experimentation with a species then exotic in France, has come through more than two centuries without losing its unusual character. Now classed among the remarkable trees of Seine-et-Marne, this little grove offers a complete change of scenery in the midst of a state forest otherwise dominated by oaks, evoking the bayous of Louisiana in the very heart of the Brie.

Getting there : From Féricy or Fontaine-le-Port, follow the forest tracks of the forest of Barbeau to the spot known as the Mare du Merisier; information from Féricy town hall.

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

Ambient sound