THE FOREST OF PERSEIGNE

It occupies a detached islet from the Armorican Massif, in its most oriental part, landlocked in the Parisian Basin. In the first century before our era, in the middle of the war of the Gaul, the legions of Julius Caesar stationed in this forest that they named Personia. Ownership of the vicairie of Saosnois became the fief of the Perche counts in the tenth century. In 1130, Guillaume III Talvas founded the Abbey of Perseigne, which is now only a wall of wall. Royal Forest until 1791, Perseigne Forest became state after 1791. It provided charcoal for forges of the Champ-de-la-Pierre and Varenne. Today, it is mainly composed of hardwood (80% of trees). It is mainly planted with sessile oak, hem and Pinus sylvestris, but also Pinus pinaster, laricio pine, sequoia gigantea, Douglas-fir, birch and trembles. The Perseigne Forest also takes place on the villages of Villeneuve-en-Perseigne, Ancinnes and Villaines-la-Carelle, and houses the culminating point of the Sarthe (340 m) piled up by the famous Perseigne lookup, a 30 m observation tower with a panoramic view of the crown. trees and beyond. The 5,000 ha of this forest, an integral part of the regional natural park of Normandy-Maine, is traversed by hiking trails that make it possible to enjoy this wild space.