48 hours in the heart of the Alpes Mancelles

Centre-Val de Loire - Pays de la Loire/2023

300 million years ago, there were mountains here. Planed down over the millennia, they now bear little resemblance to the Écrins or even the Vercors. But a few ridges punctuate a green nature walk in the heart of the Parc Naturel Régional Normandie Maine, which spans four départements - Orne and Manche in Normandy, Sarthe and Mayenne in Pays de la Loire - and 134 communes. In 2019, the park will also apply to UNESCO to be classified as a Geopark of the World for its geological heritage (there are currently 7 in France).

48 hours in the heart of the Alpes Mancelles

Far from the cities, but also far from the classic tourist sites, this micro-region is a discovery, a peaceful territory as evocative as a postcard from yesteryear. The departmental and regional divisions are quite tortuous, so you won't be able to avoid crossing a corner of Normandy on this walk through Pays de la Loire. If only by choosing Saint-Céneri-le-Gérei as your starting point, a magnificent little village frozen in time, with its tiled roofs and typical stone houses, a jewel listed among Les Plus Beaux Villages de France. If you immerse yourself for three days in this piece of the puzzle, you'll undoubtedly come to appreciate the reality of rural France. A touch of nostalgia in front of these little rural jewels, a smile of wonder in front of these gently sloping green landscapes, farms and bocages for centuries and then these telescopes with the 21st century in these pavillonnaires corners for the residential rest of the urbanites, like this strange gathering of three communes, between recent constructions and old stones, Saint-Martin-de-Connée, Saint-Pierre-sur-Orthe and Vimarcé, become in semantic patchwork the new commune of Vimartin-sur-Orthe... You'll have passed through the charming linguistic beauty of these villages with their flowery, lengthening names, from Saint-Léonard-des-Bois to Sougé-le-Ganelon, Saint-Georges-le-Gaultier, Fresnay-sur-Sarthe (a pretty little medieval heart behind the beautiful church), Douillet-le-Joly and Montreuil-le-Chétif, Pezé-le-Robert and Sillé-le-Guillaume. The last part of the route is not the least unexpected. The Alpes mancelles continue and end with the Coëvrons, the last foothills of the Massif Armoricain and an equally picturesque corner of Mayenne, with Torcé-Viviers-en-Charnie, the beautiful forest, the Tertre Blanc site and the 15th-century church, before Sainte-Suzanne, a children's history book town, with its 13th-century fortifications, 11th-century keep, a place so impregnable that William the Conqueror had to give it up. Sainte-Suzanne is both one of Les Plus Beaux Villages de France® and one of the Stations Vertes, the only one in Mayenne. In the off-season, this charming medieval area is a little deserted, but the "Caf et Couette", open during the day, is sure to please. Évron can be dubbed the "capital of the Coëvrons", a large farming town that is home to one of the production sites of The Laughing Cow ® and has grown over the centuries thanks to its important abbey, listed since 1840. The walk ends as it begins, in the green, with the region of ponds, towards Mézangers. The Montaigu in Hambers is a superb site, with its small 15th-century chapel dominating the region from its coquettish altitude of 291 m.