Chêne de Montravail

Pessines

Famous since the publication of a drawing in the Magasin Pittoresque in 1850, the Montravail oak then ranked among the most impressive trees in France with a girth of 14 m, which had led some 19th-century observers to credit it with between 1,800 and 2,500 years. Its hollowed trunk housed a veritable "parlour" carved out of the dead wood, where a circular bench allowed a dozen guests to sit under shelter. Sorely tried by storms, notably that of December 1999, it has lost most of its main limbs and its measured girth was only 8.68 m in 2002, but the tree turns green again every year. Local legend, collected by the naturalists of the association Nature Environnement 17, who recorded more than 650 remarkable trees in Charente-Maritime, has it that cats gather at its foot on the nights of the witches' sabbath. It can be visited today via the "Circuit des Chênes" of Pessines.

Getting there : private property at the hamlet of Montravail, Pessines (Charente-Maritime), 8 km west of Saintes; visible from the "Circuit des Chênes" (Oak Trail)

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

Ambient sound