This
is an account of a personal visit to La Brenne, in mid-France. The tourist information
about the ‘parc naturel régional’ says it is the 'land of a thousand lakes' and ‘1001
surprises’. Most accounts say there are closer to 2,000 lakes, fish ponds
created from the Middle Ages and since. These and the quiet country lanes and
tracks are very attractive for wildlife, walking and cycling.
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La Brenne, land of 1000 lakes. |
Our
trip was by train, car hired locally, and bike. Here is the outline itinerary:
20
September: train Norwich to London, Eurostar St Pancras to Lille, overnight
Lille.
21
September: trains TGV to Paris Gare du Nord, transfer to Paris Austerlitz,
Austerlitz to Chateauroux; hire car to a gîte in Mézières-en-Brenne.
22
September: car to la réserve naturelle nationale de
Chérine (several hides). Circular walk from Mézières-en-Brenne following route collected
from tourist information centre.
23
September: hired bikes for route 5, a 43kilometre circuit. Traditional French music
and country dancing at Hegarty’s in Villiers.
24
September: Coffee in Le Blanc, woodland edge walk near St Aigny.
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Cressonière: stone structure once used to grow watercress. Water mill behind, at St Aigny. |
25
September: drive through Forêt de Lancombe,
circular walk around étang Duris, visit to riverside town of Saint-Gaultier.
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Good moaning. We were just pissing by ... in Saint-Gaultier. |
26
September: electric bikes, following parts of three of the marked circuits in
the regional nature park.
27 September: two
triangular walks from Le Blizon, north of Rosnay, refreshments (as yesterday)
at Maison du Parc.
28
September: returned car to Chateauroux, train to Paris Austerlitz, short walk
to Austerlitz metro to go to Gare du Nord, Eurostar to St Pancras, Liverpool Street
to Norwich.
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On one of the circuits from Le Blizon. |
We
loved the area. It’s very rural, very quiet, and wonderfully flat – flatter than
going out from home in the Norfolk Broads – for exploration by bicycle. Mézières-en-Brenne
is the obvious base, a quiet town with enough shops – a small supermarket called
Proxi, boulangerie, a butcher with ready-made meals for sale – and black
redstart singing on rooftops. There is an excellent tourist information office
and the Moulin nearby where bikes can be hired. We also ate out in two
very nice and sensibly priced restaurants: Hegarty’s in Villiers and the all-in-one
café/shop/restaurant in Saint-Michel-en-Brenne called Le Saint Cyran.
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Fried carp, from the local fishponds (étangs), a local speciality, very nice. And good to see LPO (BirdLife France) on the place mat. |
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Quiet roads and well-marked routes for cycling. |
Would
this make a Honeyguide holiday, one without the need for flights? For wildlife
appeal, certainly. For practical reasons, it would be challenging. Transferring
across Paris by train can be tricky. Where we hired a car in Chateauroux, a comfortable
three-quarters of an hour away from Mézières-en-Brenne, they didn’t have
minibuses, so it would mean going somewhere further e.g. Tours. Accommodation
would need to be found: the hotel in Mézières-en-Brenne was shut for
refurbishment. So there’s no easy fix –I like easy – and the 2024 programme is
pretty full already. It’s not ruled out for the future.
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Bikes again. |
With
so many wetlands, what wetland birds were there? Every lake seemed to have at
least one great white egret and grey heron. Little egrets were plentiful, as
were cattle egrets around cattle. We found a nice daytime roost of about 20
night herons, and twice saw spoonbills. It was too late in the year for purple
herons, and too early for wintering wildfowl to join local mallards, gadwalls,
coots and great crested & little grebes, nor had the now regular autumn and
winter cranes arrived. |
Cattle with cattle egrets. |
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Night heron daytime roost. |
On
birds of prey, buzzards were ten-a-penny, plus marsh harrier, sparrowhawk, hobby
and kestrel. There were a few migrants: two pied flycatchers, two wheatears, yellow
wagtail, blackcap, scores of chiffchaffs.
We
found some interesting autumnal flowers, as the photos show.
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Autumn lady's tresses. In the gite's back garden! |
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Goldilocks aster Galatella linosyris. |
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Meadow saffron, a roadside patch. |
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Water primrose Ludwigia grandiflora, known as an invasive alien, from central America, though pretty.
|
Mammals:
roe deer, red deer heard regularly (being rutting season), coypu, red
squirrel, wild boar rootings.
Reptiles/amphibians:
wall lizard, green lizard, grass snake, European pond terrapin, pool frog.
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Wall lizard, pool frog. |
Butterflies:
grizzled skipper sp, small white, scores of clouded yellows, brimstone, red
admiral, great banded grayling, small heath, speckled wood, wall brown, small
copper, common blue.
Dragonflies/damselflies:
thousands of common darters, migrant hawker, willow emerald, winter damselfly.
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Winter damselfly. |
Other
notable invertebrates: three hummingbird hawkmoths on the ‘hot-lips’ Salvia in the
gîte’s garden, aggregations of ivy mining bees, hornets, fire bugs, praying
mantis, red swamp crayfish.
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Praying mantis, red swamp crayfish, European hornet. |
Thanks
to Ian Barthorpe from RSPB Minsmere for lending us his Crossbill Guide to the
Loire and La Brenne.
Chris
Durdin