There is an area of freshwater marsh, offering a landscape of stubble, creeks and islands, which can be explored on foot, by carriage or barges (punting).
Over three hundred million years ago, the Hercynian folding transformed this region into a mountainous area. Large cracks gave the peninsula a look like a staircase plunging into the sea.
Five thousand years ago, the ocean invaded the region again, condemning the oak forests which covered it. A bowl is clogged gradually and peat surface is formed from debris of aquatic plants and reeds.
It coats the trees, witnesses of ancient forests, perfectly preserved and known as the "mortas". Then man moved to the area taking advantage of any plot of land and making the most of the riches of the marshes, fishing, hunting, peat, reed cutting.
Today, the peat blocks are used only to grill "pimpeneaux", delicious golden-bellied eel. The Briere reed, which is of excellent quality, is rivaled by Holland thatch, mediocre, but cheap. The cutters are less numerous and reedbeds, poorly maintained, invade the marsh.
