Forêt de Bondy, Forest in Seine-Saint-Denis, France

The Forêt de Bondy is a forest in Seine-Saint-Denis, spanning the towns of Clichy-sous-Bois, Coubron, and Montfermeil in northern France. It is made up of wooded areas, ponds, and open meadows, and it runs alongside the Dhuis aqueduct route and the Poudrerie Forest Park.

The regional forest is a remnant of the old Forêt de Bondy, which covered much of the pays d'Aulnoye east of Paris and had a bad reputation tied to legendary brigands; Childéric II is said to have been murdered there in 675. Overexploited in the Middle Ages for timber and firewood for Paris, it was fragmented in the 16th century by cultivated plots and cut down in the 19th century for housing. In August 2022 its 202 hectares gained protected-forest status.

The name Bondy lives on in this patch of trees, even though the original forest it referred to has nearly disappeared. Along the Dhuis aqueduct trail and around the ponds, local walkers, joggers, and families treat the forest as a natural extension of their everyday routines.

The Forêt régionale de Bondy covers 170 hectares on a plateau about 100 metres high above the pays d'Aulnoye, with five central ponds ringed by reed beds. It is the most visited forest in the Île-de-France region after the Poudrerie park of Sevran, receiving around a million visitors a year, up to 2,000 an hour. Access is from Coubron, Montfermeil, Clichy-sous-Bois and Livry-Gargan; the Raincy-Villemomble-Montfermeil station (1856) and the Coquetiers line (1875) pass along its edges.

The forest's bad reputation gave French a phrase: "la forêt de Bondy" still means a shady, dangerous spot. Legend says Childéric II, grandson of Dagobert, was murdered there in 675. Today about a quarter of the nesting bird species of the Paris region breed in this small wood.