Verson, the baobab and the apple tree

Parking is available in the car park behind Saint-Pierre Cemetery on Rue du Viquet in Bretteville-sur-Odon.

(S/E) With your back to the Baronnie and the cemetery on your right, leave the car park and take the small road on the left, crossing the bridge. You are now on the^GR®221C; the signposts will guide you.
Turn right and follow the course of the Petit-Odon (Chemin du Moulin d'Ardennes), go under the second bridge (the old Caen-Vire railway line) and use the footbridge over the Odon. Take the wide path on the right and, via the footbridge, cross over the ring road.

(1) Follow the path to the right. At the bend, turn right and continue alongside the ring road, then turn left onto the small footbridge and follow the meandering course of the Odon.

(2) Cross the road with care, continue straight ahead and cross the stream. Head left along the stream (a branch of the Odon) and along the edge of the woods. Cross the footbridge on the left, go up into the woods and take the path on the right.

(3) Leave the^GR®221Cand head down the small road to the right (Route d’Éterville), take Rue du Bois-de-l’Île on the left and then Rue des Jardins on the right. Turn right onto the path through the Odon Departmental Nature Reserve, which follows the river, then continue keeping right along Rue des Jardins, which you’ll reach at the end of the path.

(4) Take the road on the right (Rue aux Hervieu – D147A), cross the three bridges over the Odon and follow Rue des Monts to the right. Opposite the retirement home, climb four steps between two walls, go down the path on the right towards the Petit Odon and follow the river before heading back up to the left via a path in Verson Town Hall Park (19th-century castle; monument in memory of Léopold Sédar Senghor: the theme of this sculpture evokes the fact that Léopold Sédar Senghor, who was president of Senegal, the land of the baobab tree, died in Normandy, the land of the apple tree).

(5) Head right towards the park exit and, at the gateway, turn right onto Rue de l’Église.
The cul-de-sac on the right before the church and opposite Rue du Moulin Latour leads to the banks of the Odon (old mills).
Head towards the church and then the crossroads. Continue straight on along Rue de l'Église (on the right, a Renaissance manor house, private property).

(6) Take Chemin des Ruettes on the left (one of the oldest streets in Verson; on the left, Rue de la Dîme, the private cemetery of Captain Gautier de Villiers, an officer in Napoleon’s cavalry). Cross Rue du Général-Leclerc with care and continue straight ahead along Rue Godard. After the remains of an old farm (buildings covered in corrugated iron, partly rusted), enter the new housing estate via the path on the right and pass a crossroads.

(7) A little further on, before a large white building, take the small path on the right which descends alongside a riding club. Keep going in the same direction until you reach the plateau. At the end of the path, turn right.
Cross the D675 with extreme caution, turn left until you reach the steps and go down the Chemin du Rocreuil on the right.

(8) Turn left into Impasse des Jumeaux. Head up to the left along the steep path at the corner of a house and running alongside a wall; at the top, turn right and walk along the verge, taking extreme care on the D675. Go round the roundabout, cross over the ring road and follow the pavement on the right, running alongside the cycle path.

(9) At the entrance to Bretteville-sur-Odon, take the path on the right (the old Caen-Vire railway line). Just before the first bridge, go down the steps on the left, continue left along the Chemin du Bas-Manoir. Walk past the equestrian centre, continue straight on along Rue du Viquet, walk past the cement works and carry on to the end of the square. At the corner of the Baronnie wall, turn right to go down Rue de la Baronnerie. On the right, you can visit the Baronnie courtyard (gatehouse and the Grange aux Dîmes building). Leave the courtyard, turn right and follow the Petit-Odon stream to the right. Turn right to go up the small road (Rue du Viquet) then turn right immediately to return to the car park behind Saint-Pierre cemetery (S/E).

The Barony
In the early 11th century, Gonnor, widow of Richard^I, Duke of Normandy, donated her estate at Bretteville-sur-Odon and the rights attached to it to the Abbey of Mont-Saint-Michel. Her son, Richard II, supplemented this donation by adding the parish of Verson. The estate took the name of the Barony of Bretteville-sur-Odon, a seigneury of the Abbey of Mont-Saint-Michel. The grange was at the heart of the estate’s economic activity. It was here that the tenants brought their share of the harvest and the tithe. During the Revolution, the buildings and lands owned outright by the abbey were sold as national property. Since 1989, they have been owned by the municipality of Bretteville-sur-Odon and form an exceptional architectural ensemble.

Senghor, the baobab and the apple tree
Born in Senegal in 1906, the young Léopold learnt French at a Catholic mission. For a time, he considered becoming a priest, but his rebellious spirit forced him to abandon the idea. Continuing his studies at a secular secondary school, he passed his A-levels and secured a scholarship to continue his studies in France. At the Lycée Louis-le-Grand, he met Georges Pompidou and later became friends with Aimé Césaire, the Caribbean poet. He failed the entrance exam for the École normale supérieure but obtained his agrégation in grammar. Having been granted French citizenship and becoming a teacher in 1935, he was called up in 1940 and taken prisoner. Released in 1942 on health grounds, from 1945 onwards he became involved in politics both in France and in Africa, where he campaigned for the independence of African states. Alongside Edgard Faure in France, he became Secretary of State. In 1960, he was elected the first President of the Republic of Senegal and remained in office until 1980, the year he retired from political life. The author of numerous works celebrating Negritude, he was elected to the Académie française in 1984. He subsequently spent much of his time in Normandy, his wife’s home region, where he owned a property in Verson. He died there on 20 December 2001. A monument in his memory has been erected in the town hall gardens: a metal sculpture by Anne Deshaies, combining an apple tree and a baobab.