Chêne de Saint-Vincent-de-Paul (Lou bielh cassou)

Saint-Vincent-de-Paul

In the middle of the Berceau estate, an enormous and torn pedunculate oak, lou bielh cassou, the old oak, spreads its low branches over the lawns. Its trunk has been hollowed out to save the bark and filled with cement, and in a niche of this block a statue of the Virgin and Child has been placed; a plaque announces twelve metres fifty in girth, the measurement of 2002 gives ten metres forty, and the Œuvre du Berceau estimates that it would measure thirteen without its wounds. Since it cannot be cored, it is given seven to eight hundred years, according to experts cited by the Œuvre du Berceau. Vincent Depaul was born in 1581 in the neighbouring farmstead of Ranquines, at Pouy, and spent his first thirteen years there keeping his father's animals; the tree was then, if the estimate is right, four centuries old. Tradition, which the commune reports, has it that little Vincent kept the flock beneath its branches; the Œuvre du Berceau makes it more soberly the witness of his early years. Nothing attests it. The Berceau is a 19th-century creation: the birthplace rebuilt with its own materials, a great chapel inaugurated in 1864. As a precaution, an acorn from the old oak was planted to the left of Ranquines, around 1864 according to the Œuvre, in 1868 according to Wikipedia; the offshoot today exceeds four metres in girth. Struck by lightning in July 1876, the oak has been a listed site since 24 March 1925 (according to Wikipedia) and is said to have been consolidated in December 1987. It is alive, with a vigour the Œuvre finds astonishing.

Wikipédia — Chêne de Saint-Vincent-de-Paul ↗

Getting there : From Dax, follow the signs for the Berceau de Saint-Vincent-de-Paul (Route du Berceau); car park on the site. The estate, open to individual visitors all year round and every day, can be walked through freely from 9 am to 6 pm, with a welcome by volunteers in the afternoon and paid audio guides. The oak is in the open air, beside Ranquines and the neo-Byzantine chapel.

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

Ambient sound