FEATURED

Perhaps France’s best-kept secret, the La Brenne regional park has existed since 1989, featuring a wide variety of forests, marshes and a network of copses and hedgerows. This area is at its best early in the year, as spring slowly awakens, the morning mist still hangs in the valleys and a thousand ponds shine like mirrors in the sun. One glance at an aerial photo or a topographical map speaks volumes and shows just how large the ponds’ surface is.

These ponds were created in the Middle Ages for fish farming. From the French Revolution onwards, the profession died out. The ponds dried up, the dams and locks fell into disrepair. Fish farming was restored only from the 1950s onwards. Today there are at least 1200 ponds, from which nature also benefits. Many offer coveted habitats for aquatic plants, birds, reptiles, amphibians and invertebrates. Large parts of the area are now protected.