version anglaise du site principale

Ille-et-Vilaine has a wide range of different landscapes and natural environments.
Flanked by the sea, watered by the Rivers Vilaine and Couesnon and crisscrossed by countless smaller waterways, Ille-et-Vilaine has a huge diversity of natural heritage.

Its ?natural areas? are ideal walking country and they provide an opportunity to find out more about 14 different types of natural environment.
The scenery, flora and fauna are all different and specific to the one area.

Rocky headlands jutting out into the sea, battered by the winds and salt spray, are covered with long grasses and bare moorland.
In the less exposed areas, there are thickets that are home to perching birds, insects and mammals.
Sheer cliffs are the favourite nesting places of numerous seabirds.

There are three types of dunes in Ille-et-Vilaine:
- dune ridge (a single ridge of sand),
- perched dunes (a sandy terrace backing onto an ancient cliff)
- tombolo (a sand spit formed by the waves and connecting the coast to an island).
Vegetation on the dunes has to be able to withstand wind and drought, be salt-tolerant and be resistant to accumulations of sand.

An estuary is a coastal inlet at the mouth of a river, where fresh water and sea water combine. Located in the north of Ille-et-Vilaine, the Rance Estuary is a ria i.e. the sea flows into it at high tide. It is here that continental and maritime areas meet, a place where salt seawater combines with the fresh water from the river. In fact, the Rance Estuary has become a manmade basin since the construction of the tidal power station across its mouth (1961-1966).

A marsh is a low-lying area filled with stagnant pools of water. Marshes are usually shallow and filled with vegetation. In the south of Ille-et-Vilaine, the Gannedel Marsh was formed at the confluence of the Rivers Vilaine and Canut. It is a major site and one of the largest marshes in Ille-et-Vilaine. Its preservation lessens the risks of flooding.

A peat bog undergoes constant change. Over the millenia, mosses create a thick organic carpet. Piles of dead plants build up without totally decomposing, producing peat. Gradually, the basin is filled and dries out; the peat bog then becomes convex in shape. The water and organic matter in a peat bog (the organic matter is not particularly nutritious) help to develop specific vegetation.

Lakes constitute a highly diversified, often marshy environment. They are very popular with nesting and migratory birds. Aquatic plants and small green algae provide an abundance of food for numerous animals which are themselves eaten by other creatures, from insects to fish, shellfish, frogs etc. Birds draw attention to lakes thanks to the sight of them wheeling and gliding above the water, the sound of their splashing and their calls.

Located in the meanders of the Vilaine, the gravel pits were traditionally the places in which sand and gravel were quarried. When they fell into disuse, they gradually became covered with dense, highly-diverse vegetation that provides a wonderful environment for nesting, migratory or wintering birds.

Crisscrossed and gouged out over millions of year by a river or glacier, the valleys in Ille-et-Vilaine offer a wide range of different scenery e.g. sharp inclines, cliffs, plateaus etc. The Canut Valley includes a number of different natural environments including ponds, woodland, meadows, ancient hedgerows and the River Canut.

Woodlands consist of areas covered with trees. Sessile or Durmast oaks, beeches, chestnuts, hazelnuts, birches, aspen, European mountain ash, pear trees and cherry trees are commonplace in Ille-et-Vilaine.
The undergrowth on the forest floor consists of bracken, honesuckle, holly, wood anemones, wild hyacinths, vinca minor etc.

Parks and arboretums are unusual in that they combine various trees and plants either to please the eye or to provide interesting botanic specimens. La Briantais park belonged to Guy La Chambre (1898-1975), former Mayor of Saint-Malo, the heir of a great family of ship owners of ocean-going vessels.
The nearby cove at Troctin was once used as a major source of timber for shipbuilding. The trunks of oaks, elms and ash trees were submerged in the water there for two years to harden them.

Hedgerows and high-banked lanes are a typical feature of the landscape in Ille-et-Vilaine, an area in which trees form a hyphen between fields and meadows. If the hedgerows are well-balanced (well-tended hedges, unbroken reticulation etc.), this is a very rich natural environment. The high banks are topped with trees, shrubs, grasses, mosses etc.
The wide diversity of plants provides shelter, food and nesting places for many birds. Small mammals and insects seek refuge in the hedges, which are also frequented by fauna from the surrounding meadows.

The low, dense vegetation on moorland is dominated by bog heather, reeds and European gorse. The Jaunouse Moors, which stretch over land lying within the boundaries of four different towns and villages, are a particularly rich example of this type of ecology, consisting of woodland, moors, meadows that are more or less well-drained and convex peat bogs that are home to sphagnum moss, lying on the site of former iron ore quarries worked in the Middle Ages. A discovery trail has been laid out to provide more information for walkers.

Dry moorland grows on shallow soil in temperate regions with an oceanic climate, encouraged either by the climate or by the damage to Atlantic oak forests. On the moors in Cojoux and Tréal, outstanding megalithic monuments give insight into funeral rites, the celebration of the solstices that ruled farming life, and religious ceremonies.
During the summer, the Nature et mégalithes Association offers guided tours that highlight the rich cultural heritage in an area set in a well-preserved ecological environment.
For further information: http://www.landes-de-cojoux.com
Download the programme (in French only).

This type of environment is unusual in Brittany. It dates from the Tertiary Era and has led to the development of calcicole plants that are rare in the uplands of Armorica. It can be seen on an ancient industrial site near Rennes and at Lormandière, with its lime kilns.
Information panels all along the educative trail provide additional details.