Each of the three main towns of the Marne has at least one fau visible in a public garden. In Reims, two specimens are known: one in the garden of the hotel Le Vergeur and the other in the Pierre-Schneiter horticultural garden.
Transplanted into the park around 1895 from the Verzy forest, the latter has a characteristic: it displays a “retromutation” on a branch. Understand that it has been made up of a non-mutant part, therefore not tortuous, for around fifteen years. Another distinctive sign: since the felling of the Boulingrin paulownia in 2019, it is the only Reims tree labeled “Remarkable Tree of France”.
More recently, in agreement with the National Forestry Office, a fau was transplanted in 2007 in the small Jard of Châlons-en-Champagne, in the same place as a first fau, more than 100 years old, which had been vandalized.
In the Horticulture garden in Épernay, labeled “Remarkable Garden”, a large fau also passes peaceful days. It would have been planted when the garden was created in 1910. It comes from the Verzy forest. At the moment, he is completely bald! The City of Épernay preferred to surround it with a small chestnut fence to prevent toddlers, who can play a few meters away, from climbing on it. Because it’s an ideal playground. Joachim Verdier, president of the Épernay Horticultural Society, recalls that taking a cutting is prohibited. “The fau does not require any particular maintenance, you just need to lighten it with a few branches from time to time“. And the man added with a smile: “Otherwise, it wears like a charm!“.
#French
