Walks in the Oise: the Old Oak Circuit

All year long

Local history.

Walk starts at the Muirancourt church car park, rue de Marais Gillon. Go to the right of the cemetery and go down the path towards the sports pitches. Go straight after the basketball pitch and alongside the football pitch. Turn to the left at the end of the stadium to go back onto the road.

Take rue de Magny to the right and at the roadside cross head straight towards Guiscard. You can also take the link to the Verse circuit to the right. You will arrive at point no. 5 on the description of the circuit (see circuit no. 1). At the Muirancourt exit on the D91, turn left just as you get to the cross.
At the end of the rue de Hauvillé turn right to head back up the rue des Planquettes until you leave the village. Take a right after the last farm.

At the end of the path, turn left. You can also turn right to join the Magny circuit. (1.5km) You will arrive at point no. 5 on the description of the circuit (see circuit no. 3).
Cross the D 552 (be careful) and continue until the village of Rézavoïne.
On your right you should see the Fretoy observatory.

At the crossroads with the rue du Marais-de-Chevoyeux (D 76), take rue de la Garenne, straight ahead of you.

At the bottom, head left along the road and the turn left along the next path (when the road bends at a right angle to the right).

Once you have seen the old oak, head straight until Muirancourt.
At the end of the road, turn left onto the rue de Siècourt (D 91) and continue straight until you get back to the church.


Don't miss :

The observatory of Frétoy-le-château :
The 14m brick tower was a geodesic point for topographical research.
Built by local craftsmen for the army in the 1920s, it was used to produce sketches for maps.

The old oak at Muirancourt :
Over three centuries old, the metallic bars joined to the trunk bear witness to its role as a look-out point by the army in the First World War.
Despite its poor condition, the oak has resisted everything nature can throw at it and has become a symbol for the village of Muirancourt.

Beets :
Until the beginning of the nineteenth century, sugar came from sugar cane, imported first from Asia and then from the Tropics.
In 1792 war broke out between the French and the English.The British flotilla prevented the merchant ships from American colonies coming into port in France. Sugar was rationed and cost 10 times more than it had before the Revolution.
Napoleon only made the situation worse with a continental block on trade coming from England.
In 1812, Benjamin Delessert managed to produce large quantities of sugar from sugarbeets. Napoléon promoted the cultivation of huge quantities of the plant.
In 1890, three-fifths of sugar came from sugarbeet. The sugar mainly came from Picardy, where sugar production boomed.