The mancelles Alps

The the mancelles Alps constitute a small well individualized natural area department of the the Sarthe, pertaining to the Armorican Massif.

Physical environment

The mancelles Alps correspond to the broken reliefs of the North-West of the the Sarthe in opposition to the very plane topographic forms of the remainder of the department, of high Maine in particular. They extend on a surface from 355 km ² and overflow on the departments of the Orne and the Mayenne.

The mancelles Alps, of an altitude ranging between 140 and nearly 220 meters (203 m with the Mounts of Narbonne, 217 m with the Mounts of the High-Fork), are made up of fragments of sometimes abrupt plate and hills to the slopes. The landscape is very raised: hedges, orchards, glazing bar, scraps of the forests of Sillé, Pail, Perseigne and Multonne, formerly very wide. The steepsided and sinuous valleys of the the Sarthe and its affluents of Right Bank have sometimes the aspect of narrow and encumbered throats rocks; sometimes still they widen and describe meanders with the profile dissymmetrical and bordered of terraces; it maintained its layout old, fixed as of the tertiary , and was on the spot inserted in the primary rocks of the end Is Armorican Massif, whereas a North-South flow of Alençon to Piacé had been much easier. The two brothers became Ermite S, a Monastère was built after their death on the current commune of Saint-Céneri-the-Gérei but it was destroyed by the Norman ones at the beginning of the 10th century.

To discover

High points and circuits make it possible to discover beautiful landscapes: rocks of the High-Fork and Narbonne, fall, fords and chains of blocks in the the Sarthe, cliff of the Eyes dominating the circus of Saint-Céneri, stripped valley of Misery which owes its name with the sorry character of the landscape made up of fall of rocks and a thin vegetation of Genêt S and Bruyère. Part of the territory of the mancelles Alps is integrated into the Regional natural park Normandy-Maine.

Courses of Canoe-kayak and VTT make discover this preserved part of the valley of the the Sarthe, particularly the villages of Saint-Céneri-the-Gérei (classified among the most beautiful villages of France), Saint-Léonard-of-Wood and the small medieval city of Fresnay-sur-Sarthe.

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