An easy walk to (re)discover the Faux de Verzy.

This is an easy, semi-sporting hike (if you walk at a good pace on the first part) and a semi-cultural one, offering beautiful views of the Champagne plain and a natural curiosity of the region: trees that grow in a twisted manner, the Faux de Verzy.

Details

3215632
Creation:
Last update:
Last review:
  • Walking
    Activity: Walking
  • ↔
    Distance: 7.03 km
  • ◔
    Average duration: 2h 10 
  • ▲
    Difficulty: Easy

  • ⚐
    Back to start: Yes
  • ↗
    Ascent: + 53 m
  • ↘
    Descent: - 48 m

  • ▲
    Highest point: 287 m
  • ▼
    Lowest point: 232 m
  • ⚐ Country: France
  • ⚐ District: Verzy (51380)
  • ⚑
    Start/End: N 49.142445° / E 4.155043°
  • ❏
    IGN map(s): Ref. 2812E, 2813O
  • Hour-by-hour weather

Photos

Description of the walk

Start from the Mount Sinai car park.

(S/E) At the far end of the car park, take the path through the undergrowth on the right and join a good gravel path, which you take on the left.

(1) (Once you reach this good path, you can take the path opposite to go to the Mont Sinaï Observatory and then return to the main path to continue the walk).

(2) At the fork, turn left onto Chemin de la Serre.

(3) Turn left again and begin a long descent along the Route Forestière des Batis.

(4) Continue on the right path and begin the climb back up to the road, which is gentle at first and a little steeper at the end.

(5) Follow the road on the left for about 100 metres before turning right at the hairpin bend and taking a small (not very visible) path that runs alongside the woods.

(6) Turn left after about 100 metres and continue straight on for about 800 metres until you reach Route Forestière des Pins, where you turn right.
From the point where you leave the road until you reach Route Forestière des Pins, the path can be muddy in wet weather.

(7) Turn left onto Chemin des Faux.

(8) Discover two remarkable scythes, then continue on to discover the many scythes along the rest of the marked trail, which turns left to reach the Mount Sinai car park (S/E).

Waypoints

  1. S/E : km 0 - alt. 280 m - Mount Sinai car park
  2. 1 : km 0.18 - alt. 279 m - Possible fork towards the observatory - Observatoire du Sinaï
  3. 2 : km 0.59 - alt. 275 m - Fork to the left
  4. 3 : km 0.74 - alt. 280 m - On the left, downhill
  5. 4 : km 2.16 - alt. 276 m - Start of the climb
  6. 5 : km 3.77 - alt. 270 m - Junction D34
  7. 6 : km 3.99 - alt. 272 m - Fork to the left
  8. 7 : km 4.8 - alt. 278 m - Chemin des Faux
  9. 8 : km 5.38 - alt. 286 m - Chemin des Faux
  10. S/E : km 7.03 - alt. 280 m - Mount Sinai car park

Notes

A Fau de Verzy (Fagus sylvatica var. tortuosa) is a twisted beech tree that grows in the Forest of Verzy near Reims in France (source: Wikipedia).

Except for a small section, the entire walk is on a well-paved and even tarmac path.

Worth a visit

(1) At Mont Sinaï, a World War I bunker and panoramic view of the Champagne plain.
(8) And in the second part of the walk, a regional natural curiosity: the Faux de Verzy.

Reviews and comments

4.6 / 5
Based on 11 reviews

Reliability of the description
4.8 / 5
Ease of following the route
4.6 / 5
Route interest
4.6 / 5
curutchet
curutchet
• Edited:

Overall rating : 3.7 / 5

Date of your route : Oct 29, 2024
Reliability of the description : ★★★★☆ Good
Ease of following the route : ★★★☆☆ Average
Route interest : ★★★★☆ Good
Very busy route : No

An average start to find the beginning
A very beautiful, easy hike on a lovely sunny afternoon, with magnificent autumn colours in the fields.

Machine-translated

CESTAC46
CESTAC46

Overall rating : 4.7 / 5

Date of your route : Nov 27, 2023
Reliability of the description : ★★★★★ Very good
Ease of following the route : ★★★★★ Very good
Route interest : ★★★★☆ Good
Very busy route : No

We drove the route during the week. As indicated, the ground was muddy for 700 to 800 metres at the location indicated.

Machine-translated

chipie33290
chipie33290

Overall rating : 5 / 5

Date of your route : Nov 07, 2023
Reliability of the description : Not used / Not applicable
Ease of following the route : ★★★★★ Very good
Route interest : ★★★★★ Very good
Very busy route : Yes

A magnificent hike surrounded by autumn colours.
Discover the Verzy wooden sculptures.
On the way back, instead of taking the road, we took the discovery trail, which is a path through the forest.
The area where the tree trunks are located is quite busy.
Thank you for this trail.

Machine-translated

maicha
maicha

Overall rating : 4 / 5

Date of your route : Aug 28, 2023
Reliability of the description : ★★★★☆ Good
Ease of following the route : ★★★★☆ Good
Route interest : ★★★★☆ Good
Very busy route : No

Very beautiful walk, path a bit bumpy in places due to large ruts, but very interesting route and detouring via Mount Sinai at the start is a plus in my opinion. The ferns are magnificent.

Machine-translated

marlant
marlant

Overall rating : 5 / 5

Date of your route : Jul 19, 2023
Reliability of the description : ★★★★★ Very good
Ease of following the route : ★★★★★ Very good
Route interest : ★★★★★ Very good
Very busy route : No

Very nice walk.

Machine-translated

eric51420
eric51420

Overall rating : 4.3 / 5

Date of your route : Sep 12, 2022
Reliability of the description : ★★★★★ Very good
Ease of following the route : ★★★☆☆ Average
Route interest : ★★★★★ Very good
Very busy route : No

still the problem of markings in some places

Machine-translated

Patsou91
Patsou91

Overall rating : 5 / 5

Date of your route : Mar 18, 2022
Reliability of the description : ★★★★★ Very good
Ease of following the route : ★★★★★ Very good
Route interest : ★★★★★ Very good
Very busy route : No

A beautiful hike, with the first part on a clear forest road, beautiful trees, and no one around except for a walker and his dog.
The second part is very interesting, with a multitude of scythes, well protected from children climbing on them by a barrier, which also serves as a landmark for the visually impaired. There are said to be a thousand of them scattered throughout the Verzy forest, many of which are several hundred years old, making it the largest concentration of scythes in the world, no less!
I will come back when the ferns have their leaves, it must be even more spectacular.

Machine-translated

pphilippe
pphilippe

Overall rating : 5 / 5

Date of your route : Dec 16, 2021
Reliability of the description : ★★★★★ Very good
Ease of following the route : ★★★★★ Very good
Route interest : ★★★★★ Very good
Very busy route : No

A pleasant walk – wide, deserted forest paths for the first part – and interesting for the last third with the Verzy fau trees. After seeing the two remarkable fau trees (the Fau de Saint Basle and the Fau de Saint Basle), you can follow the path that runs alongside the "fau reserve" (protective barriers surrounding the area) rather than following the straight forest path. The two paths run parallel anyway. This allows you to see many other tree stumps, which are less remarkable than the previous two but numerous. And it doesn't change the length of the route (or very little...).

Machine-translated

BrunoFlyman
BrunoFlyman

Hello,
Thank you for your feedback.

Machine-translated

Payster
Payster

Overall rating : 4.3 / 5

Date of your route : Apr 05, 2021
Reliability of the description : ★★★★★ Very good
Ease of following the route : ★★★★★ Very good
Route interest : ★★★☆☆ Average
Very busy route : No

Nothing to say about the description and the map, they're great...
The first part is only moderately interesting: long forest roads that are a bit boring, but there's no one around...
On the other hand, the second part is very interesting, even in early April, like me... but there are lots of people!
Thanks to the mapmaker.

Machine-translated

BrunoFlyman
BrunoFlyman

Hello,
Glad you enjoyed the walk.

Machine-translated

virgule
virgule

Overall rating : 5 / 5

Date of your route : May 20, 2020
Reliability of the description : Not used / Not applicable
Ease of following the route : ★★★★★ Very good
Route interest : ★★★★★ Very good
Very busy route : No

A pleasant walk, especially since there is never anyone on the west side of the road.

Machine-translated

BrunoFlyman
BrunoFlyman

Hello Francis,
Thank you for sharing your walk with us.

Machine-translated

Francis BUREAU
Francis BUREAU

Overall rating : 5 / 5

Date of your route : May 31, 2020
Reliability of the description : ★★★★★ Very good
Ease of following the route : ★★★★★ Very good
Route interest : ★★★★★ Very good
Very busy route : Yes

A very pleasant walk.
From point 1, if you decide to go to Mount Sinai, instead of retracing your steps, it is better to continue along the path on the left which leads to point 2 and allows you to see the "buried" casemate on the way.
Indeed, after point 5, the "little path" (which is actually a trail) is very poorly marked at the start.

Machine-translated

Other walks in the area

For more walks, use our search engine .

The GPS track and description are the property of this route's author. Please do not copy them without permission.