Andaine Forest, forest in France

Andaine Forest is a large wooded area in France featuring diverse tree species such as pines, spruces, oaks, and beech trees that form a thick canopy. The landscape is shaped by gently rolling terrain, winding trails, small ponds, and rocky outcroppings that punctuate the woodland.

In 1944, during the Battle of Normandy, German forces set up supply depots across the forest, including one north of Perrou near Domfront and another between the Épinette crossroads and the Hippolyte oak, levelled by Senegalese prisoners held at a camp at the Épinette crossroads. Traces also remain at the Garde Général crossroads on the Gué Besnard forest road and in the Viktor sector north of Bagnoles. These depots were heavily bombed; a reconnaissance photo shows the bombing of the Pépinières crossroads on the RD 908.

The forest's name may come from one of the local legends tied to it, which tell of renewed vitality through Bagnoles' thermal waters, of mermaids as at Carrouges, and of witches' sabbaths on Mont Margantin near Domfront. At the Chapelle Saint-Antoine, below the Gourbe river, walkers still leave a cross made of branches in the wish well.

The forest lies in the Orne department, in the Normandie region, within the Normandie-Maine Regional Natural Park. Long-distance footpaths GR 22, GR 22b and GR 22c, running from Paris to Mont-Saint-Michel, cross it. The rock faces of the Vallée de la Cour, Roc au Chien, Roche aux Dames, Roche aux Loups and Rochers de l'Ermitage have been equipped for climbing since the 1970s and 1980s.

The forest holds hidden World War II remnants including buried bunkers and trenches concealed beneath leaves and soil that visitors can discover while exploring. These historical structures offer a tangible connection to the region's past that many travelers overlook.