BOUTISSAINT NATURAL PARK

To experience Boutissaint is to experience a natural immersion unique in Europe! So run off to awaken your senses and create unforgettable memories in this superb 420-hectare Nature Park, home to 400 animals living in total freedom: deer, fallow deer, wild boar, European bison, mouflons in enclosures... A veritable "paradise" to explore freely or with a guide, on foot, by bike or on horseback. Here, each season Mother Nature offers her palette of colors and animal "events" (births, deer bellowing...). Younger children will love to play with the dwarf goats (the cuddle queens!). Or take a pony ride in the park (booking essential). Catering is also available at the Bouti'café. And Boutissaint even offers self-catering cottages in the heart of the park, as well as a motorhome parking area, perfect for overnight stays. Since 2022: every Tuesday evening in summer, a dinner is offered overlooking the great deer plain. And don't miss the "matinales" and "brame" evenings in September and October (reservations are recommended for all these events). As you can see, Boutissaint is an absolute must-see in the Treigny region. A place with a rich history.

Originally, Boticen (as it was then known) was a collegiate church of the canons of Saint-Augustin, dependent on the abbey of Saint-Satur (Cher). In the ^15th century, it became a priory dependent on Saint Amâtre d'Auxerre. It was finally abandoned in the early ^16th century. And so the story goes... Until 1968, when a certain Pierre-Elie Borione created France's first vision park here. Since then, in addition to the animals mentioned above, you can contemplate a wide variety of forest species, including hundred-year-old oaks (such as the Saint-Louis, whose circumference exceeds 4 meters), spruces, beeches, cherry trees, chestnut trees, cypresses... And let's not forget the "ghost" of writer Colette (1873-1954), who reigns here. As a child, the writer who lived nearby loved to come here to lose herself. She even used it as a backdrop for one of her great classics, Claudine à l'école: "I've lived in these woods for ten years of mad wanderings, conquests and discoveries; the day I have to leave them, I'll be very sad", she wrote. How understandable! Because, yes, Boutissaint is an experience not to be missed!