Forêt de Rouvray

The once vast Forêt de Rouvray (French pronunciation: [fɔʁɛ də ʁuvʁɛ], "Forest of Rouvray", from Gallo-Romance ROBORETU “oak wood″ or more probably French rouvre “sessile oak” and old suffix -ey (ill spelled as -ay, modern -aie), meaning a “collection of the same trees”) was a forest that extended from west of Paris in the Île-de-France region westwards into Normandy, virtually unbroken, threaded by the winding loops of the River Seine, traversed by forest traces and dotted with isolated woodland hamlets, as far as Rouen. A rural relict is the 5 100 ha of the protected Forêt Domaniale de la Londe-Rouvray, at Les Essarts, Normandy, near Saint-Étienne-du-Rouvray, south of Rouen, on an upland massif above the left bank of the Seine, which makes a wide arc enclosing it. On the right bank, to the west, is what is left of the Forêt de Roumare (the Rouennais), another former royal forest.