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The
landscapes
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landscapes shaped by men |
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Man has
always known how to benefit from the natural resources
around him and, for centuries, has modelled these landscapes.
Agriculturists, forestry workers, potters, tile makers,
carpenters... shaped an environment of quality of which
the traditional habitat is its most remarkable illustration
. In effect, half timbered houses, wattle and daub and
imposing tile roofs perfectly integrate in the pleasant
atmosphere of the landscape.
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| The
Champagne drylands |
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| To the East stretches " Chalky Champagne", once named " verminous ", from the name of a small wild plant the so-called " pouliot ", that loved the immensities of moors and woods, where hordes of hungry sheep wandered...
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| Today, only some patches of woods and fallow lands, or old drinking ponds preserved within the villages, reveal this old pastoral activity.
Chalky Champagne became a rich and productive agricultural area, where man seems to have outstripped nature.
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| The
Champagne wetlands |
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The
heart of the Park feeds on clay, born from the
alluvial deposits of a former depression of the
Parisian Basin. Water can be seen on the surface
every where... The ancient Forêt du Der ("Oak
" in Celtic) spread just to here. Cleared progressively,
put in culture or pierced with mysterious ponds
by monks from local abbeys, the forest massifs
and woods still cover close to 20,000 hectares,
where the oak and the hornbeam ally to reign as
masters.
More than 70 ponds still exist, real aquatic gardens
that men sew with carps, pikes and roaches, to
harvest their fruits in the autumn, by the use
of ancestral methods.
In the former glades, stock raising had its golden
age and vast meadows dotted with thickets , pollarded
willow hedges and majestic oaks still line today
rivers and streams, yielding little by little
to the advance of contemporary cultures. The villages,
jewels of traditional architecture, are hemmed
with traditional orchards , real reservoirs of
old local varieties. |
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| The
Valley of the Aube and the Barrois |
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In the East of the Park, the Aube firstly cuts through the slopes of the Barrios plateau, a vast cultivated plateau furrowed with ancient valleys, called " seches ". These small hills accommodate prestigious vineyards with here and there thickets of trees and limestone grasslands. Whilst descending towards the Seine, the Aube winds in loops between wooded banks, with some steep cliffs, then more to the north, crosses calmly the vast alluvial plain near Brienne - Le - Château . |
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