The Conservatoire du Littoral has just inaugurated two new hiking trails in the heart of the Orient Forest, in Aube. The King Oak Palace trail, to start, an 800-meter loop specially adapted for people with hearing, mental, motor, and visual disabilities.
And above all, the already famous short hiking trail of the Colossus with Feet of Clay, 7 km long. It is not uncommon to come across deer and other roe deer near the road. The setting is majestic: "It's a very beautiful oak grove," confirms Laurent George, shore delegate for the lakes at the conservatoire. It also includes the Amance and Temple lakes, dug 20 years later for the same reasons. These bodies of water have made it possible here to enrich exceptional biodiversity, a magnificent forest dotted with mushrooms, populated by renowned migratory birds and a very varied fauna in the wetlands, notably numerous amphibians and insects. There is no question here of hiding nature; we intend to show it to the widest possible audience while preserving the environment. The Orient Forest Regional Natural Park is co-managed by the Park and the National Forestry Office. Three gates and five stations decorated with information panels and sculptures are distributed along the trail where works of art mingle discreetly with nature. Since the health crisis and the awareness of climate issues, there have been an ever-increasing number of fans. "There is an increasingly important demand for nature," notes Arnaud Anselin, director of heritage management at the Conservatoire du littoral. "My interpretation is that we enter, but we are not at home', smiles Laurent George, who sums up the action of the Conservatory in three words: "preserve without confiscating." 'My interpretation is that we enter, but we are not at home', smiles Laurent George. 'We will be able to continue to observe it to protect it.'