Faux de Verzy

The faux are beeches carrying a genetic mutation that makes them grow short and contorted instead of straight: trunks twist, branches weep down and re-root, and crowns spread into domes so dense they can be walked into like a hut. Around a thousand of them stand on the Montagne de Reims, the largest known concentration of the form anywhere. Why they cluster here is unsettled; the mutation exists elsewhere but never in these numbers, and monks from a nearby abbey may have propagated them. Marked paths run through the wood with the oldest specimens fenced, and a viewpoint at the Mont Sinai looks over the Champagne vineyards.

History

The origin of the twisted beeches of Verzy has inspired much speculation. Books written at the abbey of Saint-Basle as early as the 6th century show there were already "faux", Old French for beeches, in the forest, and the monks may have multiplied them by layering and transplanting, perhaps after bringing a prized young tree back from their travels in the east. Legend links the trees to Joan of Arc: a dwarf beech called the tree of the fairies stood near her native village of Domrémy and was discussed by eleven witnesses at her rehabilitation trial of 1450-1456, and she is said to have climbed into the branches of a fau at Verzy when travelling with Charles VII to the abbey of Saint-Basle (Wikipedia, Faux de Verzy).

What's there

• The twisted beeches - contorted, domed and weeping trunks in numbers.
• The fenced elders - the oldest specimens protected from trampling.
• The marked trails - short circuits through the dwarf wood.
• The Mont Sinai viewpoint - vineyards and plain from the escarpment edge.

When to go

April to November; the shapes read most clearly in winter and early spring when bare, while summer foliage hides the structure. Autumn colour is good. Weekends are busy with Reims day trippers.

What to expect

The trees are fenced off to protect their roots, so you look rather than enter. The site is small and walked in an hour. Parking fills at weekends and the paths get muddy.

Nearby

Reims lies northwest; the Champagne villages surround the hill.

Key facts