on the paths of a paradise of biodiversity

The sunken lane, just wide enough for a bicycle, lined with bright yellow St. John’s wort, runs along the rushing river, almost a torrent. In the undergrowth, strawberries, raspberries and wild blackberries flourish, within reach of picking. Pink, yellow, white or brown butterflies flutter in the dry air. On the other bank, a couple has laid out a towel on a patch of grass, for the pleasure of jumping into the water and then drying off in the sun. In the middle of summer, in the Black Forest, a mountain range in southwestern Germany, nature triumphs.

At the edge of the river, a row of trees stands guard. These are alders, which have long fascinated the Germanic peoples. Adapting to humidity, resistant to rot, even under water, this tree has been noted for its mysterious red sap. “On the paintings, we have long represented him in the middle of the swamps, in a misty environment. The alder was a bit of a swamp witch”, says with a smile the Franco-German Anna Deparnay-Grunenberg, ecologist deputy in the European Parliament. But, today, the alder is in danger. The draining of wetlands, for the needs of industry or urbanization, has caused the disappearance of large alder groves.

The Bio.  Bike.  Road.  in the fields, shortly after leaving Stuttgart.

Although the Land of Baden-Württemberg is one of the most industrialized and populated in Germany, it has an abundant biodiversity to which the elected representative in Brussels, a graduate in environmental and forest sciences, is very attentive: the predicted return of the wolf to the peaks, the fate of the plum-stinging beetle, threatened by work on the future Stuttgart station, the habitat of bats in the valleys of Württemberg, or that of beavers in the rivers of Alsace, in neighboring France.

greenery bubble

While Stuttgart and Strasbourg are celebrating sixty years of twinning in 2022, the MEP has designed between the two cities, with her team, a cycle route, called “Bio. Bike. Road. “, which connects the most emblematic places of regional biodiversity. This route, 209 kilometers long and 2,800 meters of elevation gain, drawn using uMap software, alternates between grandiose panoramas and meticulous observations. It can be downloaded for free from the website. Bioveloroute.eu

Leaving the residential areas of the capital of the Land of Baden-Württemberg via a steep forest path, we are happy to have chosen an electrically assisted bicycle. A few vigorous pedal strokes later, you take a path that runs along ponds and you reach an old hunting lodge surrounded by a reserve where a deer, known as “the king of the forest”, is lounging. In all seasons, city dwellers taste, in the beer garden that line the bodies of water, grilled sausages and pretzels washed down with beer. In order not to weigh down the bike, we cautiously content ourselves with a radlerthis shandy of beer and apple juice acclaimed in Germany.

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