ReportBetween Loire and Cher, this very secret part of France is dotted with more than 3,000 ponds. Bodies of water shared by professional and amateur fishermen. And who find new outlets in the production of one of the best French caviars.
Experience it on Google Maps. Aim for Orleans, then descend a little south. You will soon see a constellation of small blue dots appear on the map’s green background: ponds. There are said to be more than 3,000 in Sologne, this territory nestled between the Loire and the Cher, a record in France. But, if you try to switch to “Street View” mode, you will find that in most cases manipulation is not possible.
When you hike on the paths lined with oaks and ferns in this very secret part of France, if you try to get closer to the water, it’s the same frustration. Most of the ponds are surrounded by fences (which have a tendency to lengthen lately) punctuated with not very reassuring signs: “private hunting”, “attention, trapped zone” … “Sologne was a vast marshy area before the monks created chains of ponds in the XIe century, to clean it up, explains Isabelle Parot, head of the Loir-et-Cher fishing federation. But most of the water bodies are now on large private property and are used as breeding grounds for hunting. It is complicated for an individual to access a place to fish. “
Complicated, but not impossible. By purchasing a fishing license, the federation offers a small list of spots where to put your saplings to enjoy a unique atmosphere, in a region still very sparsely populated. You have to see the morning rise on a Solognot pond: the mist leaves its milky dress hanging out for a few moments on the reeds, moorhens and mallards wake up the calm water, a clumsy nutria points its muzzle with long white mustaches …
With the development, among new generations, of the practice of “no kill”, which consists of releasing captured fish, fishing is often no more than a pretext for meditating in peace. These moments of serenity in the heart of nature, very far from the hunts with which Sologne is often associated, have also experienced, according to Isabelle Parot, a resurgence of success since the start of the pandemic.
Some private sites also offer to catch big fish. This is the case of the Ciran estate, isolated in the forest between the municipalities of Marcilly-en-Villette and Ménestreau-en-Villette, in Loiret. A bend on the departmental 108, a stretch of path, and we see an old gamekeeper’s house followed by a heavy traditional brick building from Sologne, which looks more like a mansion than a castle , in spite of its small pointed tower which dominates a park of 300 hectares.
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