The Rock of Oëtre is situated in the middle of Swiss Normandy

Swiss Normandy

Swiss Normandy is a part of Normandy that bestrides Calvados and Orne.Its name comes from its rugged and verdant relief resembling the Swiss Alps, with gorges carved by the Orne River and its tributaries, and by erosion in the Armorican Massif between Putanges-Pont-Écrepin and Thury-Harcourt...

, in the commune of Saint-Philbert-sur-Orne

Saint-Philbert-sur-Orne

Saint-Philbert-sur-Orne is a commune in the Orne department in north-western France.-References:*...

, not far from the border between the départements of Calvados

Calvados

The French department of Calvados is part of the region of Basse-Normandie in Normandy. It takes its name from a cluster of rocks off the English Channel coast...

 and Orne

Orne

Orne is a department in the northwest of France, named after the river Orne.- History :Orne is one of the original 83 departments created during the French Revolution, on March 4, 1790. It was created from parts of the former provinces of Normandy and Perche.- Geography :Orne is in the region of...

, and almost equidistant from Thury-Harcourt

Thury-Harcourt

Thury-Harcourt is a French commune in the Calvados department in the Basse-Normandie region in northwestern France.Situated in the Orne valley, its surroundings are much like Clécy, but the Rock of Oëtre contrasts with the plateau of Caen to the north....

 and Écouché

Écouché

Écouché is a commune in the Orne department in north-western France.-Introduction:Écouché stands out today for the monumental church, a very rare Republican altar, several medieval merchants' houses, a number of original towers, a network of well-conserved lanes and – a reminder of the ordeal of...

. It is one of the most prestigious lookout

Panorama

A panorama is any wide-angle view or representation of a physical space, whether in painting, drawing, photography, film/video, or a three-dimensional model....

s in the west of France.

Etymology

Locally called "Oître", its name appears to be of Greek origin: "Oëtre" means an arid, strong, southerly wind.

Geology

The reputation of this precipice is founded on its breathtaking sheer drop: 118 metres (387 ft). Neither tourists nor locals expect this kind of natural feature in Normandy

Normandy

Normandy is a geographical region corresponding to the former Duchy of Normandy. It is in France.The continental territory covers 30,627 km² and forms the preponderant part of Normandy and roughly 5% of the territory of France. It is divided for administrative purposes into two régions:...

. It is considered the most mountainous part of the region, even though not the highest, and it has become, over time, one of the main attractions in Normandy. It is also a popular lookout that gives a broad survey of the wooded groves of the Rouvre

Rouvre

The Rouvre is a river in Lower Normandy, in the Orne département, a tributary of the Orne.The river's source is in the commune of Beauvain, a few kilometres to the east of La Ferté-Macé. After crossing the Pays d'Houlme, it turns in a north-westerly direction to re-enter the Swiss Normandy, and...

, the fast-flowing river in the valley, which can be reached by steps hewn from the rock. The natural surroundings are full with granite

Granite

Granite is a common and widely occurring type of intrusive, felsic, igneous rock. Granite usually has a medium- to coarse-grained texture. Occasionally some individual crystals are larger than the groundmass, in which case the texture is known as porphyritic. A granitic rock with a porphyritic...

 rocks, ravine

Ravine

A ravine is a landform narrower than a canyon and is often the product of streamcutting erosion. Ravines are typically classified as larger in scale than gullies, although smaller than valleys. A ravine is generally a fluvial slope landform of relatively steep sides, on the order of twenty to...

s, heath

Heath (habitat)

A heath or heathland is a dwarf-shrub habitat found on mainly low quality acidic soils, characterised by open, low growing woody vegetation, often dominated by plants of the Ericaceae. There are some clear differences between heath and moorland...

 and thicket

Thicket

A thicket is a very dense stand of trees or tall shrubs, often dominated by only one or a few species, to the exclusion of all others. They may be formed by species that shed large amounts of highly viable seeds that are able to germinate in the shelter of the maternal plants.In some conditions the...

. Many visitors come to find a calm place for their contemplation

Contemplation

The word contemplation comes from the Latin word contemplatio. Its root is also that of the Latin word templum, a piece of ground consecrated for the taking of auspices, or a building for worship, derived either from Proto-Indo-European base *tem- "to cut", and so a "place reserved or cut out" or...

 and meditation

Meditation

Meditation is any form of a family of practices in which practitioners train their minds or self-induce a mode of consciousness to realize some benefit....

.

On arriving at the summit of the Rock, facing the precipice, one must advance 15 metres (49.2 ft) or 20 metres (65.6 ft), to see, on the left, the peculiar feature of the site: the resemblance of a human face in profile. This figure has been characterised as being many different people. One can argue whether it is the rock that forged the character of people over generations, or conversely if the people came to permeate it with the spirit of their nature. The surrounding area served as a natural hiding place for outlaws of all kinds: the "Fairy's Cave" was one of the most secure hiding places for Chouan

Chouan

Chouan is a French surname. It was used as a nom de guerre by the Chouan brothers, most notably Jean Cottereau, better known as Jean Chouan, who led a major revolt in Bas-Maine against the French Revolution...

s and highwaymen.

The rock stands proud proof that the Basse-Normandie

Basse-Normandie

Lower Normandy is an administrative region of France. It was created in 1956, when the Normandy region was divided into Lower Normandy and Upper Normandy...

 region is Armorica

Armorica

Armorica or Aremorica is the name given in ancient times to the part of Gaul that includes the Brittany peninsula and the territory between the Seine and Loire rivers, extending inland to an indeterminate point and down the Atlantic coast...

n, at least in its western half. The Armorican Massif

Armorican Massif

The Armorican Massif is a geologic massif that covers a large area in the northwest of France, including Brittany, the western part of Normandy and the Pays de la Loire. Its name comes from the old Armorica, a Gaul area between the Loire and the Seine rivers...

 does not stop at the border with Brittany

Brittany

Brittany is a cultural and administrative region in the north-west of France. Previously a kingdom and then a duchy, Brittany was united to the Kingdom of France in 1532 as a province. Brittany has also been referred to as Less, Lesser or Little Britain...

, the neighbouring region, but extends to the départment of Manche

Manche

Manche is a French department in Normandy named after La Manche , which is the French name for the English Channel.- History :Manche is one of the original 83 departments created during the French Revolution on March 4, 1790...

, south-west of Calvados and west of Orne. Swiss Normandy is to the eastern end of the Armorican Massif, with the Rock at its centre,.

Natural history

Thanks to the environmental awareness of the Orne

Orne

Orne is a department in the northwest of France, named after the river Orne.- History :Orne is one of the original 83 departments created during the French Revolution, on March 4, 1790. It was created from parts of the former provinces of Normandy and Perche.- Geography :Orne is in the region of...

 département, the Rock of Oëtre harbours numerous species of plants and animals rare in France: the spring spergula

Spergula

Spergula is a genus of about five plants belonging to the family Caryophyllaceae. Their usual English name is spurrey. Commonly found in grassland, the genus originated in the Northern Hemisphere, but is now found worldwide....

 or spurrey (small white flower), the European green lizard

European green lizard

The European Green Lizard is a large lizard distributed across mid European latitudes from the north of the Iberian peninsula to as far east as Ukraine. It is often to be seen sunning itself on rocks or lawns, or sheltering amongst bushes.- Description :The lizard reaches up to 13 cm in length...

 and many species of lichen

Lichen

Lichens are composite organisms consisting of a symbiotic organism composed of a fungus with a photosynthetic partner , usually either a green alga or cyanobacterium...

. These are very prone to being trampled, so visitors should keep to the marked trails.

Museum

At the site's summit, around 35 metres (114.8 ft) from the edge, a new wooden pavilion was opened in May 2006. It offers visitors regional tourist information, a museum, library and shop, and a bar-restaurant. The museum space will be used to let visitors discover the Mountains of Normandy with an interactive landscape, legends and items about the long geological history of the oldest mountains in Europe, the Armorican Massif, from how, two thousand million years ago, they were more than 5 kilometres (3.1 mi) above sea level, to their present 417 metres (1,368.1 ft).

External links

• Website of normandie-montagnes.fr' (Mountains in Normandie) (in French)
• Swiss Normandy Tourism Office (in French and English, requires JavaScript)
• Description of the Rock, on the website of the General Council of Orne (in French)
• Website of the Maison de la Rivière et du Paysage (Museum of the River and Countryside) (in French)