If millénaire de Jauzé

Jauzé

Amid the graves, the yew of Jauzé raises a trunk of 5.70 m in girth, measured at 1.30 m from the ground, beneath a dark crown that dominates the little church of Saint-Barthélemy. It is a common yew with male flowers, Taxus baccata, the only one of its species to bear the label in the department, and it passes for the oldest tree in the Sarthe. Nobody knows its age: the regional press gives it 850 to 900 years, the Société d'étude et de protection de l'environnement du Nord et Est Sarthe, which keeps the departmental inventory for the A.R.B.R.E.S. association, speaks of seven to nine centuries, and the regional tourist board of 800 to 1,000 years. The epithet of thousand-year-old, which has stuck to it, is therefore a high estimate. Its presence in the churchyard is nothing exceptional: throughout the West, the yew has accompanied churches and burial enclosures since the Middle Ages, an evergreen tree, poisonous and almost immortal, which has been read as a symbol of eternity. A local legend, reported by the regional tourist board's website, has it planted by the Vikings; no document supports this, and the date it supposes, between the 9^th and the 10^th century, exceeds all the naturalists' estimates. It is alive, and the commune holds it as its emblem. In 2001, it was among the very first trees awarded the Arbre remarquable de France label.

Wikipédia — Jauzé ↗

Getting there : The village of Jauzé is some twenty kilometres north-east of Le Mans, between Bonnétable and Marolles-les-Braults. The yew stands in the churchyard, around the church, freely accessible at any hour. A walking loop of about 7 km, starting from the church of Terrehault, reaches Jauzé by earth tracks lined with pollarded trees.

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

Ambient sound