Guided
Hiking

A landscape with suggestive names

Let us linger a moment on the landscape around us, this scenery is constantly changing reflecting the history and traditions of the local region.

Near you, old orchards planted with apple trees and plum trees serve as pastures. The presence of furrows lead us to believe that these plots were cultivated in the last century. These furrows named “ados”, made by a tipped plough, were used to drain off the surface water. The old fruit tree trunks like these ones are sought after by certain birds we call cave type birds, such as the small owl, the faci-hoopoe and the torcoli ant, in which they happily make their nest.

Behind Faverolles village, you can see far on your left, the village of Marac. In the background before you, you can make out the cultivated fields and the deep valley in which flows the Suize river towards Villiers-sur-Suize. Further on, you can outline the village of Leffonds on the same level as the bushy forest.

We also notice patches of conifers, man-made plantations which have replaced open areas. In the past, plots were separated by hedges which have mostly disappeared. Also, nature is loosing in diversity. Today for example, the areas of grass, once pasturised by animals led by their owner, are now colonised by conifers and other things. These areas of transition between forests and fields no longer exist.

But this landscape is constantly changing and tomorrow, it will probably be different to what you see now.

Let us now speak of the names of the places and plots that we encounter. These names are like a family name, some sort of heritage left by ancestors; they have impregnated memories and traditions passed down through the ages. For example, the name of the village “Faverolles”, a diminutive of Favière, seems to indicate that small plantations of broad beans could be found on this land.

If you look far on your left, on the outskirts of the village, you’ll notice a particular place. The oldest inhabitants remember when they were young, strolling along this very road. It was then called “Chemin des Fourches” (Fork lane) because it led to a place with the same name which evoked an old execution place.

Now, if we look far to the right, we see a promenade, which the village people on their way there called “on va sur les Napoléons” (we are going on the Napoleons). In fact, this name refers to three linden trees planted there by the community, to celebrate the accession of Napoleon III in 1852, and today they no longer exist.

Continue your walk to the parking below the archeological site of the mausoleum.