Hut made from fir and beech branches on the Allee des Geants with the trunk of a very old beech tree as support. Does this hut belong to a Sylvain? You know, those legendary little beings who guard the forest? Also known as "the witches' path", this alley is made up of old, twisted beech trees over four centuries old. These trees have undergone pleaching, which in the Montagne Bourbonnaise is a traditional technique that consists of braiding the branches of trees together and letting them grow in a chosen direction (for example: vertically, horizontally or inclined). In this way, it was possible to delimit an alley, a path or even a piece of land... and in some cases, even to obtain a defensive role. These alleys had another advantage: they protected travellers from the sun in summer and from snowdrifts in winter. Saint-Nicolas-des-Biefs, Allier, France