Reading the Loire landscape
180928 Rcp Chateaux Benjaminbrolet 0066180928 Rcp Chateaux Benjaminbrolet 0066
©180928 Rcp Chateaux Benjaminbrolet 0066|Benjamin Brolet

Reading the Loire landscape

To decipher the Loire landscape, look for the three reading scales.

1 The river, its islands and shores

The first scale of perception of the Loire Valley’s landscape identity is the intimacy of the river in its light, its movement, its material. The Loire was built for navigation and flood prevention. The 600 km of levees and the slipways and quays of the ports bear witness to an economic activity on the river that has now disappeared.

The river owes its present-day appearance to the numerous islands, most of them uninhabited and refuges for the wild flora and fauna that make the Val de Loire an essential European area in terms of biodiversity.

Beyond the river, on either side of the levees, the valley is made up of wide expanses of floodplain meadows and richly farmed fields.

The word of a connoisseur

From time to time, however, the reappearance of certain shapes leads us to recognize, in this apparent disorder, the outline of a system. The forces at work within the alluvial bed during periods of high water obey certain laws, which also govern the decreasing phase of floods, the mechanism of alluvial accumulation and, last but by no means least, the development of the alluvial bed.

Roger Dion, Histoire des levées de la Loire, 1961

…. a river that wanders at will, widening its valley, shaping it, changing the nature of the soil, the transparency of the air, the refraction of light, the color of trees and sunsets.

Maurice Genevoix 1890 - 1980 Images of the Loire Valley

The light

The river mirrors the sky. Its light is unique in that the composition of the atmosphere, where oceanic and continental air meet, produces frequent mists with surprising effects at dawn and dusk, and changing colors over the course of the day and the seasons.

Movement

The river is indolent, violent and unpredictable, its floods powerful and threatening. Its long low-water periods uncover its bed, multiplying its arms, drawing furrows on the shores, the traces of secondary currents. Vegetation colonizes the banks. The river is a veritable “skin of sand and water” in perpetual motion.

Matter

The Loire transports, deposits and moves mountains of material. It sculpts its own image, reflecting itself from one bank to the other, scouring, scavenging or depositing alluvial matter. The river’s presence can be seen in the accumulations of gravel, branches, wood carved by the currents, eroded banks, …..

Current developments to make the landscape more pleasant and coherent

Maintaining natural areas along the Loire

Open up views of the Loire by limiting poplar plantations

Restore flood-prone meadows to agricultural use

Restore old ports and adapt them for leisure boating

Enhance access to the river for pedestrians and cyclists

2 The built-up fronts of the Loire

The second scale of perception of the Val de Loire’s landscape identity is the built heritage fronts that punctuate the river’s length. The Val de Loire has been inhabited since prehistoric times. Towns and villages are the places where the river is crossed (fords that have become bridges) and the high points where floods can be observed.

They all feature a “built front” open onto the river and marked by a bridge, levees used as towpaths, quays and housing grouped around the church and harbor.

The presence of the hillside reinforces this composition. The buildings at the foot of the slope give way to older, sometimes troglodyte, dwellings dug into the tufa rock. This “built front” is dominated by a fortified castle that became a prestigious residence during the Renaissance.

The word of a connoisseur

The Château d’Amboise dominates the whole town, which seems to lie at its feet like a pile of pebbles at the bottom of a rock, and has the noble, imposing look of a fortified castle, with its tall, thick towers pierced by long, narrow, round-headed windows. (…) A gentle slope leads up to the castle, into a terraced garden with a view of the surrounding countryside.

Gustave Flaubert 1821 - 1880 Par les champs et par les grèves

Setting the scene

Along the river, from ford to ford, from bridge to bridge, “built fronts” have developed, showcasing the political, religious and economic power of towns and villages born of river trading activity. From the built-up front of Amboise to that of Tours, rebuilt after the Second World War, this staging is repeated over time, along the river.

Linear composition

Their composition is stratified and horizontal: the line of the river, the line of the quays and the levee, the line of the merchant town at the foot of the hillside, the line of the hillside overlooked by the noble edifice – civil and/or religious. Sometimes, the built front is also troglodyte: the castle and the seaside village take root in the limestone cliff, creating mineral fronts that “inhabit” the landscape.

A multiplicity of planes

This built-up front opens onto a town and marks its entrance from the river. Its importance depends on the quality of the Loire crossing (ford transformed into a bridge) and the presence or absence of the hillside (overhang or belvedere), but everywhere, this built front has expanded, widened and thickened to form our towns and villages that dot the length of the Loire.

Current developments to make the landscape more pleasant and coherent

Rehabilitate old buildings while respecting their heritage quality.

Adopt local colors and materials in new construction.

Develop housing estates in continuity with existing buildings.

Develop tourist residences while preserving the quality of the sites.

Bury overhead electricity and telephone cables.

Limit the presence of cars in old town centers.

Control advertising on main roads and near monuments.

Design public spaces that take into account the heritage qualities of the area.

3 The great landscape

The third scale of perception of the Loire Valley’s landscape identity is the monumentality of these views and perspectives, from one bank to the other, from hillside to hillside. Horizontality, openness and depth of field structure this perception. The landscape can also be appreciated from one side of the valley to the other, over distances often exceeding 10 km. The panoramic views are grandiose, whether from the hillside or from the levee.

This effect can be explained by the width of the valley, the importance of horizontal planes and the dominance of undeveloped, agricultural and natural spaces.

These features open up the vistas and give them a depth of field, with the forest on the horizon often forming the visual boundary.

The word of a connoisseur

Along the curving hillside and noble valleys, Castles are sown like resting-places, and in the majesty of mornings and evenings, The Loire and its vassals go by these alleys. A hundred and twenty châteaux make a courtly retinue, More numerous, more nervous, finer than palaces.

Charles Péguy 1873 - 1914 The tapestries

Horizontality

The landscape is organized into vast transverse and longitudinal perspectives. The horizontal line dominates, underlined by the continuous line of the levee. The châteaux, noble silhouettes of belvederes, line the horizon and lead naturally to the grand scale of the landscape.

Openness

This feeling of monumentality is reinforced by the possibility of reading the relief, thanks to the wide open agricultural spaces (vineyards, market gardening, arboriculture) with, on the distant horizon, the dark silhouette of the forest to arrest the gaze.

The depth of fields

Extent can be measured, evaluated and appreciated. Landscapes are made up of a succession of horizontal strata that create depth of field, highlighting punctual elements and verticals, however small.

Multiplicity

The perception of the Val differs depending on whether you are on the river or its bank, on its flat bottom or its levee, on its bridge or on the crest of the hillside. This variety is accentuated by the layout of the woodlands, which, in a play of opening and closing, mask or frame scenes ranging from grandiose panoramas to the intimacy of the river.

Current developments to make the landscape more pleasant and coherent

Design bridges in harmony with the Loire River and its valley.

Design business parks as gateways to the Loire Valley.

Locate tall masts at a safe distance from heritage sites.

Support agricultural production by strengthening the link between town and country.

Curb the conversion of farmland into building land.

Integrate farm buildings.

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