Chêne Sully

The Fontainebleau forest names its most remarkable trees, and the Sully is among the longest celebrated: nineteenth-century guidebooks already listed it among the handful of trees every visitor should see. It takes its name from Maximilien de Béthune, duc de Sully, Henri IV's minister, who protected the kingdom's forests and encouraged planting. Whether it was planted on his orders or simply named in his honour is unknown, but it has carried the name for generations. As early as 1840, Denecourt's first guide pointed it out in the Gorges d'Apremont, together with the Henri IV oak standing some twenty paces away. It stands in the Gorges d'Apremont, a few hundred metres from the Caverne des Brigands, in the massif where the Barbizon painters came to draw and paint on the motif.