Plan your visit
Forêt de Retz is one of France’s great natural sites — bring good shoes and a camera. Locate it on the map, book a room nearby in a click, or add it to your travel list to build your itinerary.
About Forêt de Retz
Curving in a great crescent around Villers-Cotterêts in the Aisne, the Forêt de Retz is the largest forest in the Picardy region, a magnificent domain of towering beech and oak long used as a royal hunting ground. This is the country of Alexandre Dumas, born in Villers-Cotterêts, whose ramrod-straight rides and grand crossroads inspired generations of writers and painters. Walkers, cyclists and riders explore its shaded avenues, ruined abbeys and forester's hamlets, while deer and wild boar move through the undergrowth. Close to the château of Villers-Cotterêts — birthplace of the French language decree of 1539 — the Forêt de Retz combines noble woodland, literary history and quiet, and remains one of the loveliest forests of northern France.