Rare turtles, thousands of birds in breathtaking landscapes, hardly anyone on the roads and paths and, for the touch of mystery, a pylon higher than the Eiffel Tower: could the Brenne lakes be the most underrated destination in France?
This humid paradise occupies the northern part of the regional natural park of Brenne, in Indre, to the south-west of Chateauroux. Created in 1989, it extends, it is true to say, over more than 183,000 hectares. For the poetry and perhaps also because one spends the calmest nights there, it is nicknamed the “land of 1,001 ponds”. What strikes first, when approaching the village of Rosnay by road, is the contrast between the long straight lines drawn with a ruler under the Second Empire and the curves of the stretches of water, here a pond higher up. above the dyke, there another lower, which holds up a mirror without wrinkles to the sky.
Dominated by the Château du Bouchet, the Maison du Parc – tourist office, shop and restaurant – is the gateway to exploring the lakes. You can find all the maps of the itineraries for walks, on foot, by bike or on horseback. A little out of the way, the Château du Bouchet is built on top of a button, a mound of red sandstone, the stone found in the walls of the beautiful houses in the region. A visit to the castle is especially worthwhile for the view offered by its upper terrace, from which you can see the Red Sea pond in the foreground, the largest in Brenne, and in the distance, 60 km as the crow flies bird, the plume of steam from the Civaux nuclear power plant.
umbrella species
Credit where credit is due, it is to the Scheherazade of 1,001 ponds that we reserve our first exploration. The European pond turtle is the only species of French freshwater turtle. To try to see it, head to the Maison de la nature of the Chérine national nature reserve, in Saint-Michel-en-Brenne. We meet there Albert Millot, the director. “When we are on the footbridge that leads to the observatory, he tells us, if we are silent and attentive, we may be lucky enough to see some. » Miracle, two turtles are at the rendezvous, installed as if on parade just above the surface, facing the sun. Probably a male, recognizable by his red eyes and his small size, and a female, on the branches of a fallen tree in the pond.
But the pond turtles are fine. It is an endangered wading bird that has for some time been the subject of all the attention of the reserve: the Eurasian Bittern. “A nature reserve has three vocations, explains Albert Millot. The first: conserving nature; the second: to improve knowledge of the environment that is protected by scientific studies; the third: welcome the public. Hence the presence of these observatories. » To conserve would in this case be to halt the fall in the number of bitterns in Brenne. “The male sings as if blowing into the neck of a glass bottlecontinues the director, by successive, very serious jolts, which earned it its nickname of “swamp ox”. The species is highly threatened in France, due to the drying up of wetlands, but also in Brenne, probably due to the overpopulation of wild boars, which are capable of emptying the nests. Its importance is nevertheless capital, because it is what we call an umbrella species. This bird has such ecological requirements that if we manage to protect it, we protect the entire ecosystem that accompanies it. »
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