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FONTAINEBLEAU, la "grande verte" as they call it in France. Regulated since 1,000 years by human hands, exceptional natural reserve and conservatory, it is nevertheless a fragile forest. Also outraged……
For sure, it is a forest that speaks, not only the "silence zones"(600 hectares stolen from car traffic in the north) but also everywhere the last bell toads compete with the delicate cry of the gray woodpecker. So near and so different, "the lung of Paris" breathes a unique atmosphere. Other forest around Paris are all "daughters " of this sea that sifted, millions of years ago, a very fine sand, forming sandstone, called "platières". But nowhere it is so white as in the "Bleau", and its purity is used to make corposants of solar batteries and microprocessors. Worked over by erosion, the platieres tumble down and from the chaos of the fallen rocks labyrinths appear, fantastic and troubling landscapes. Musset and George Sand had picnics here, at the sounds of a harmonium. At the same time, Millet and his followers received 1,000 hectares of artistic reserves, valleys cut by profound ravines. A legend says that the Parisian criminals went to these forests to hide. And that's normal, seen there are no clearings, no houses.
The variety of landscapes favorises an incredible of bio diversity of species. Southwards we find a proliferation of Mediterranean micro fauna and north we change into a world of moors, where shrunk birch trees imitate a boreal steppe. Thousands of vegetal species, of which numerous flowering plants, a fauna (reptiles, amphibians)
Human intervention always had its influence in this forest. From 1219, when a first official "Maitre des Eaux et Foret" is appointed. Louis XIV loved oak. So he gave the order to plant a hundred hectares only with oak trees. The black pine tree was introduced during the Second Empire, since it -is a tree that can easily grow on poor ground.
Exceptional natural conservatory of nature, this forest is also one of the most artificial and fragile of France. Should it be surrounded by a brick wall, like certain ecologists pretend? Or should it be left open and free to respect the UNESCO criteria?
Make a better acquaintance with the foret de Fontainebleau: this marvelous haven of peace and wild life, the second largest domanial forest in France is still a riddle for most visitors. More than one year after the disastrous tornado, roads and oaths have been securized. But beware! Panels (on a yellow background) indicate potential dangers. And for heaven's sake, don't get near the woodcutter's work places.
Any escapade through the "Bleau (nickname for Fontainebleau forest), should be preceded by a visit to the "CENTRE D'INITIATION DE LA FORET DE FONTAINEBLEAU, tel 0164227259, at the center de la Faisanderie, 3 minutes from the boulevard Constance. Free documentation on the spot.
The AMIS DE LA FORET DE FONTAINBLEAU, 26 rue de la Cloche, 77300 Fontainebleau tel 0164234645 can give you books and works and a captivating program of hikes and walks in the forest.
A pleasant Auberge is the "BOIS ROND", 2.5 km from Fontainebleau on the D 64, tel 0169207328
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