Forêt des Bertranges

The lungs of the Nièvre, the Bertranges forest has a special place in the hearts of the people of this country, providing them with work but above all comfort.
Second largest oak forest in France, the Bertranges forest is above all a love story..

In the year 1121, the very pious Ermengarde de Narcy died. On her deathbed, she vowed to donate all her possessions to the Virgin, including the "Grande Bertrange", the forest belonging to her seigneury. Respectful of her wife, her husband Hugues Dulys, complied and left this enormous wooded patrimony fallen from heaven to the Benedictines of La Charité. In 1253, Etienne de Blancafort gave them the last third of the forest. The ecclesiastics thus found themselves at the head of this immense expanse of oak trees.

For centuries, the Benedictines were to control the woods until the Revolution when the Priory's property was nationalised and the forest became state-owned.


Friends walkers, there are places in this wooded area full of flavors that will spice up your oxygenated walks.