The Chéran is a river which flows into the Oudon. It bypasses Renazé and crosses the slate quarry site, open all year round, but not the slate and geology museum during this late season. The Chéran has a very nice name that we find in anthroponymy, for example with Chérancé. Latin origin is carus translated into dear or darling. So, we can cherish the hiking trails of Renazé. The one who will appear in the guidebook the Mayenne of sunken lanes does 18 km and maybe you will wait until spring to visit it. Visit the Longchamp website for shorter circuits which are signposted by numbers with distances. I suggest you stroll on the slate site in the center of the extraction basin closed in 1975. It includes old buildings, in particular the headframe of the extraction shaft which retains an astonishing machine room.
– FFRandonnée in Mayenne
In Mayenne, most of our old houses, like the new houses, are covered with slate. It is the opposite of our Sarthe neighbors who have kept a tradition of tile roofing that we will also find on the eastern edge of our department. The bluish color of our roofs gives a lot of soul to our villages and an identity that flatters our department.
Stroll in the Longchamp park, discover the great menhir of Roche Poulain near the main road, cross the Chéran on a main road whose origin is Neolithic. It is therefore more than 5000 years old and was taken over by the Gauls and then the Romans, finally partly abandoned by new roads traced from village to village. But it is kept for the happiness of hikers.