Loire Sauvage Discovering flora and fauna

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©1i7a4080 1|Léonard de Serres

As well as being dotted with some of France’s finest châteaux, the Loire is also home to some exceptional flora and fauna.

France's longest river

9 regions, 26 départements and 7,300 communes, home to 12 million people

The Loire is the longest river in France. Its watershed, i.e. the Loire, its tributaries and all the rivers that flow into it, covers 40,000 km of waterways. This basin covers one-fifth of France: 9 regions, 26 départements and 7,300 communes, home to 12 million people.

The Loire and its tributaries flow through diverse landscapes. There are 5 main geographical entities:

  • Mountain environments and landscapes of plateaus and wooded gorges linking small sub-basins,
  • The wilder alluvial valleys, where the Loire meanders through bocage countryside,
  • The Loire valley, whose environments and landscapes are built around the levees,
  • The plain valleys, with their more or less intensive farming and livestock breeding,
  • Finally, the 5th geographical entity of the Loire basin is the estuary. Although the Loire is the longest river in France, it is also highly irregular. Its average annual flow is 350 m3 per second at Orléans and 900 m3 per second at its mouth.

In the Lower Loire, however, this flow can be up to 7 times greater during floods.

Three dams partially regulate this flow: the Grangent and Villerest dams on the Loire, and the Naussac dam on the Allier. They hold back water to stem floods, and then release it to maintain a sufficient flow when the river is at low water, i.e. at its lowest level.

This release of water enables us to provide for our modern uses, such as cooling the nuclear power plants located on the river, at Belleville, Dampierre, Saint-Laurent-des-Eaux and Avoine.

The river is listed in its entirety as a Site of Community Importance in the European Natura 2000 network, under two European directives: “Birds” and “Habitats”. This protects the river’s wild flora and fauna, its biodiversity, its ecosystems and the passageways of migratory species.

UNESCO classification
UNESCO classification
Le Val de Loire patrimoine mondial en moins de 2 min.

Discovery tours

An encounter with nature's abundance

Sandbanks, lawns and meadows, thickets, alluvial forests, wetlands… Along the Middle Loire, between Nevers and Angers, one landscape chases another. This mosaic of natural environments is a delight for nature-seeking hikers, who discover a remarkable array of flora and fauna.

To preserve this biodiversity, the public authorities created the Val de Loire Nature Reserve in 1995, covering almost 1,500 hectares in the Cher and Nièvre departments. Thanks to its efforts, the European beaver, which had disappeared from this region, has been reintroduced to its former territories, while numerous animal species – birds, dragonflies, butterflies, fish and amphibians – can now benefit from a rich source of food and suitable breeding grounds, thanks to various redevelopments.

To admire this flora and fauna, the Coeur de Sologne and Sologne côté sud tourist offices offer a multitude of discovery tours. Whether on foot, by bike, canoe or sail, there are over sixty to suit all tastes! The Sologne Nature Environnement association, dedicated to protecting nature and the environment in Sologne, organizes outings in the Cher, Loiret and Loir-et-Cher departments.

In Blois, L’Observatoire Loire invites you to discover the river on daily boat trips, or on hiking tours every Thursday in summer, thanks to its well-equipped visit area. Close to Chambord, the Maison de la Loire in Saint-Dyé-sur-Loire invites you to discover the river with your family: boat trips, scenography and children’s day workshops are all on offer.

Finally, for those with a passion for history and fine books, Editions La Salicaire is reissuing Bateliers sur la Loire, by historian Françoise de Person. With the help of archives, the book brings to life the era when the Loire was the main axis of French trade.

Listening to the birds

The Loir-et-Cher League for the Protection of Birds (LPO41) works on a daily basis to protect species and raise awareness of the environment. It organizes free outings led by ornithologists, during which you can learn how to identify bird songs, approach harriers, nightingales and other warblers, or meet unexpected species such as the tichodrome échelette, which has taken up residence in the region. Also worth discovering are the birdwatching trails “Oiseaux de nos fermes et de nos vignobles” (“Birds of our farms and vineyards”) designed by the LPO41 for some thirty farmers.

A preserved natural heritage

The mission of the Conservatoire d’Espaces Naturels (CEN) Centre-Val de Loire is to safeguard the most remarkable natural environments for their fauna, flora, landscape or geological quality. A large number of sites are under its management, and benefit from restoration and rehabilitation work. These include the Val de Loire National Nature Reserve (co-managed with CEN Bourgogne), and Île de la Folie, at the foot of the Château de Chaumont-sur-Loire. The CEN calls on a team of volunteers and animators to offer a wide range of nature events across all its sites, with the aim of raising public awareness of biodiversity conservation.

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