The forêt de Brotonne (, ''Brotonne forest''), in

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

, is situated to the west of

Rouen Rouen (, ; or ) is a city on the River Seine, in northwestern France. It is in the prefecture of Regions of France, region of Normandy (administrative region), Normandy and the Departments of France, department of Seine-Maritime. Formerly one ...

in a vast

meander A meander is one of a series of regular sinuous curves in the Channel (geography), channel of a river or other watercourse. It is produced as a watercourse erosion, erodes the sediments of an outer, concave bank (cut bank, cut bank or river cl ...

of the

Seine The Seine ( , ) is a river in northern France. Its drainage basin is in the Paris Basin (a geological relative lowland) covering most of northern France. It rises at Source-Seine, northwest of Dijon in northeastern France in the Langres plat ...

, accessible by the pont de Brotonne. It is a part of the Parc naturel régional des Boucles de la Seine normande (''Regional natural parc of Boucles de la Seine normande''), which allows for the safeguarding of a large natural space stretching from the

banlieue In France, a banlieue (; ) is a suburb of a large city, or all its suburbs taken collectively. Banlieues are divided into autonomous administrative entities and do not constitute part of the city proper. For instance, 80percent of the inhabitant ...

of Rouen to the commune of

Marais-Vernier Marais-Vernier () is a commune in the Eure department in Normandy in northern France. It is situated near the left bank of the Seine, at the edge of a wetland (the ''Marais Vernier'') formed by an old branch of the Seine. The wetland was cut of ...

. Today the forest encompasses an area in length and in width, and is divided by multiple forest roads. It contains more than ninety species of trees, notably

oak An oak is a hardwood tree or shrub in the genus ''Quercus'' of the beech family. They have spirally arranged leaves, often with lobed edges, and a nut called an acorn, borne within a cup. The genus is widely distributed in the Northern Hemisp ...

s and

beech Beech (genus ''Fagus'') is a genus of deciduous trees in the family Fagaceae, native to subtropical (accessory forest element) and temperate (as dominant element of Mesophyte, mesophytic forests) Eurasia and North America. There are 14 accepted ...

. The state-owned section covers more than (out of a total ). The forest is one of the largest beech forests in France, with 62% of its area of its surface covered in beech. In addition to beech and oaks, the forest also contains

Scots Pine ''Pinus sylvestris'', the Scots pine (UK), Scotch pine (US), Baltic pine, or European red pine is a species of tree in the pine family Pinaceae that is native to Eurasia. It can readily be identified by its combination of fairly short, blue-gr ...

s and

Hornbeam Hornbeams are hardwood trees in the plant genus ''Carpinus'' in the family Betulaceae. Its species occur across much of the temperateness, temperate regions of the Northern Hemisphere. Common names The common English name ''hornbeam'' derives ...

s. In addition to the trees, the forest also contains a windmill (the moulin-tour de Hauville) and a communal cottage (''four à pain'') of La Haye-De-Routot. The forest's western edge is bordered by the

A131 autoroute A131 may refer to: * A131 road (England), a road connecting Boreham near Chelmsford and Sudbury * A131 motorway (France), a French motorway connecting the A13 and Le Havre * RFA Reliant (A131), a 1976 Royal Fleet Auxiliary helicopter support ...

History

During the Ancient Roman period, the remainder of the primary forests were cleared (as deforestation had already most likely begun during the

Neolithic Period The Neolithic or New Stone Age (from Greek 'new' and 'stone') is an archaeological period, the final division of the Stone Age in Mesopotamia, Asia, Europe and Africa (c. 10,000 BCE to c. 2,000 BCE). It saw the Neolithic Revolution, a wid ...

in order to build large domains consisting of several farms a linked to new cities which were growing along the banks of the

, along with a new palace named le palais dArelaune''. Some of the houses constructed during this period measured up to long and wide and were elegantly decorated. At the entrance of the forest on the other side of the Seine, the Fontenelle Abbey was constructed during the reign of

Clovis II Clovis II (633 – 657) was King of the Franks in Neustria and Burgundy, having succeeded his father Dagobert I in 639. His brother Sigebert III had been King of Austrasia since 634. He was initially under the regency of his mother Nanth ...

, which marked the beginning of evangelicalism in the area. Later, during the reign of Thierry III, Condède, a Breton recluse saint moved to an island by the forest where he lived for fifteen years, attracting a number of pilgrims who continued to come even after his death to visit his tomb. {{DEFAULTSORT:Foret de Brotonne Forests of France Geography of Normandy Tourist attractions in Normandy