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It's a tradition to sleep in the open sky during the mating season of the great antlers. The Office National des forets organizes night excursions for the family, but certain even dare to go alone in one of the numerous hunting relays, all over this COMPIEGNE AND RETZ FOREST.
Located north of Paris, along the Oise, a ring of green forests surrounds the region: Chantilly, Halatte, and Compiègne more to the East. Only fifty km from Paris, this al all what is left of an immense forest of ancient times called "foret de Cuise" wher the Merovingian kings came hunting the wolf and wild boar. The prince de Conti was urged to build some wall of 26 km long to protect its villagers, which shows us that in c very harsh and cold winters these wild animals dared even to enter Paris when they were very hungry.
These are royal forests, confirmed by the fact that they are delimited by two grand chateaux: the princely Chantilly) (see my web site at C:\Documents and Settings\Jack\My Documents\My Webs\Jack\IledeFrance\html\DaytripsParismain.htm and link to Chantilly) and the chateau de Compiegne, where Napoleon gave his last greetings to his soldiers before going into exile.
And two grand abbeys: the royal abbey of Chaalis, founded by Louis VII in 1200, and the abbey of Moncel, 1309, by Philippe le Bel.
Let's not forget the impressive chateau de PIERREFONDS, "reviewed and corrected" by the inevitable Viollet-le-Duc in the foret de Compiegne.
And Rethondes?? Does that ring a bell? The armistice clearing with the famous train wagon, twice the witness of very important wartime events. ON 8 Nov 1918, two train convoys stopped there and one had the entire German staff in it. The other, with general Foch, presented the German with the armistice conditions to maker peace. In 1940, the parts were played differently. To humiliate the French totally, Hitler demanded that the French surrender would be signed in the same wagon. Supreme vengeance!! The bastard. Two steles mark the location of the wagons, ad a museum reminds these historical days.
A lot of sinister legends and stories circulate about these forests. Special shaped rocks started that kind of talk. But what is most interesting for the occasional visitor are the possible encounters with the great mammiferous: majestic deers (weighing sometimes 400 pounds), wild boars and roe-deers. You can participate in special observation walks and you will also be happy to discover some "smaller wild animals like rabbits, hares and red squirrels (unfortunately menaced in their existence by the import of gray American squirrels, which have no tail with some panache), field mouse and voles.
Without forgetting the fox, furtive night hunter for birds and small mammiferous, the weasels, ermines with their with winter fur ended by a black tail, the marten and the ferret. Finally the insectivore night porcupine, unfortunately a victim of cars because its attraction for highways and poachers who see in it a delicious diner. Let's finish wit the numerous birds you can watch: finches, blackbirds, thrishes, tits, woodpeckers, cuckoos, screech and wood owls.
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