Lake of Le Bourget

Larger natural lake of glacial origin of France, located at the north of the department of the Savoy, the lake of Le Bourget belongs to the postglacial lakes of the the Alps. It was formed after the last Glaciation of Würm, there is approximately: 19000 years by the withdrawal of the large glaciers of the quaternary one.

Of a great natural wealth, of a major ecological interest, it is also an important tourist destination since the 19th century.

Statistical data

Of a surface of 44,5 km ² (: 4450 hectares), the Lac stretches all in length in a North-South axis on 18 kilometers, and with a width ranging between 1,6 and 3,5 kilometers. Its average depth is of 85 meters, and its maximum depth of 145 meters.

Of an average altitude of 231,5 meters, it is bordered:

in the west by the last buttresses of the the southernmost Jura, with the Chain of the Spine: 1482 meters and its Tooth of the Cat which culminates with: 1390 meters;
and in the east by the Massive of the Wallows, of which the Mount Revard (: 1538 meters), as well as the mountains of Cessens, of the Chambote, Corsuet and the hill of Tresserve.

Its catchment area of 560 km ² is occupied by the thermal city of Aix-the-Baths, which borders it on its bank is, and more with the south, by the town of Chambéry, capital history of the duchy then kingdom of Savoy, today prefecture of the department of the Savoy, located at about fifteen kilometers. These two cities form two agglomerations adding up: 170000 inhabitants (in 2004).

Average temperature of water: 7°C in January and 23°C in July.

Formation

According to the legend, the lake would have been born, like the Lac Léman and the Lac of Annecy, of the tears of an angel after God asked him, like to its two similar, to leave the Alps of north.

The geologists have another assumption: there are 120 to 140 thousand years, a “big lake” was formed after the third glaciation of the Quaternaire, called Glaciation of Riss. This lake recovered all the alpine furrow between Seyssel in north and Saint-Marcellin in south-west, as well as the Combe of Savoy until Albertville in the east, and the valley of the the Rhone until Yenne, in the west. It recovered a surface of: 1000 km ² (against 44,5 currently), had a 140 kilometers length (18) and a dimension of 360 meters (261,5).

There is: 70000 years, its dimension became close to current dimension, but with a dimension of 270 meters.

At the time of the Glaciation of Würm, the glaciers of the the Rhone and Isere clashed and dug the depression of the Le Bourget, over a 50 kilometers length, between Seyssel, Yenne and Shawl-the-Water. This depression was occupied by a new lake following the cast iron of the glaciers, towards: - 30000 years.

Hydrology

Of a volume of 3,6 billion m ³ of water, that is to say the equivalent of the whole of the yearly consumption domesticates France, the lake was useful, until the construction of a stopping in 1982, of natural outfall for the risings of the the Rhone, which curves across the marshes of Chautagne, located in north. This regulation, from now on voluntary, always exists and the level of the lake varies (of approximately one meter) according to the season.

The lake is mainly fed in the south by water of the Leysse, and, in the east, by those of the Tillet and the Sierroz. Water of Leysse puts from seven to ten years to cross the lake and to arrive until the the Rhone.

; Harmful effects:

: 170000 inhabitants to which tens of thousands of tourists are added had ended in the years 1950 to 1970 to a major phenomenon of Eutrophisation, because the lake at the time was the natural outfall of all the drains of sewers, with in particular, those of Chambéry and Aix-the-Baths. The many engine machines of the time were also very polluting, spit their smoke which dissolved partly in water and slackened oil which was also found in water and on surface. They did much noise and generated a detrimental noise pollution with the birds and the small mammals.

An action of depollution is committed since the medium of the Années 1970, in order to reduce the Eutrophisation lake, the objective being to arrive at the same results as for the Lac of Annecy.

Environment and nature

The lake of Le Bourget east of a major ecological interest and constitutes an important component of the French natural heritage. Between the pre-Alps and High mountain, it shelters a great number of fish species and birds, and for some of them, it is a harbor of major rest in their corridor of migration.

Thanks to its colossal water mass on the one hand, with cliffs and the flagstones limestones of its immediate surroundings on the other hand, the climatic conditions are softened. So there is at certain places a climate almost of Provence, making it possible some plant species and animal Mediterranean to thrive. One can admire thus there the maple of Montpellier, the Figuier, the Buis, the maple with sheets of obier, the pubescent Chêne and the Maidenhair ferns (small ferns).

Still almost in a wild state at certain places, the lake of Le Bourget is an important corridor of migration and a harbor for many birds. One can meet on the lake, in addition to the Canard mallard and the Poule of water, the swan tuber, the Foulque macroule, the Fuligule tufted duck, the dwarf Blongios, the elegant Avocette, the Goosander. But it is also the territory of large raptors the such black Milan, the Peregrine falcon and the Hibou large-duke.

; Roselières of the lake of Le Bourget:

In the south, a vast roselière belonging to the Conservatoire of the littoral was refitted, the zone located at the southern point of the lake (field of Buttet and marsh of the Brushes) being thus preserved of any species of aggression. The tortoise Cistude, before endemic but which had disappeared from banks of the lake, was reintroduced successfully in the year 2000 and there finds a lodging salutary.

Vegetable fascines (faggots of compacted branches being used as barriers anti-swell) were established in order to break the waves and to protect the vegetation. FRAPNA (Rhone-Alps Federation of Protection of nature) there also installed two observatories to scan the marsh. The rock small islands are also protected, and offer a halt for the migratory birds and a privileged place of nesting.

The reeds also offer shelters to the birds such as the Martin-pêcheur of Europe, the crested Grèbe, the ashy Courlis, the duck clear russet-red.

The roselières are also essential for the survival and the reproduction of many fish, like those of hollow such as the Brochet, the gardon, the Poisson-chat, the pole, the carp, the blennie. In the large-bottoms live the Omble knight, the lavaret, the trout of lake, the lote of river and the Silure. These fish can be admired in the aquarium of Aix-the-Baths.

The white willows which border the roselières make the happiness of the beavers. But with the roselières develop also the Herbier of potamot which prolongs the roselières, and the Charas which are rough and antiquated, particularly appreciated algae Brochet S and are the favorite hunting ground of ducks.

Tourism

The lake of Le Bourget is a tourist place very snuffed the summer, thanks to the beaches (some are paying in July - August) and other nautical activities (sailing, water skiing, diving). The temperature of water is regularly measured between 20 and 25°C the summer. The principal beaches are with Châtillon, Aix-the-Baths, with the Fish pond-of-Lake (site of Mottets) and with the Le Bourget-of-Lake.

The Western bank, of share the stiffness of the slopes, remained wild between the royal abbey of Hautecombe in north and Bourdeau and the Le Bourget-of-Lake in the south. No road differently joined these two places than by the peak.

The bank East contrary is urbanized (Aix-the-Baths) and it is arranged throughout the Route and of the way of Railroad (left north-eastern) and of many restaurants and nightclubs are established there (especially south-eastern part). On the other hand there is very little private appropriation of the banks contrary to the other alpine big lakes.

The royal abbey of Hautecombe, “Saint-Denis” Savoyard, day before on the tombs of the sovereigns of the House of Savoy. Restored at the 19th century, she visits the summer, excluded the zone still lodging some monks. One finds there in particular more than 300 statues out of marble of Carrare or soft stone of Seyssel.

The castle of Thomas II, built at the 13th century but currently in ruin, is located at the mouth of Leysse. It had its hours of glory between the XIIIe and the 15th century, when the Maison of Savoy made its main home of it.

Near, the priory of the Le Bourget-of-Lake, his garden - whose yews are cut to form the parts of a giant chess-board - and the church the St. Lawrence, deserve to stop there.

The lake can be also admired top, that is to say view-point of the mountain of Chambotte, or the points of view of the Revard and relay of the Mount of the Cat (or better, to a few hundred meters to foot, from the point of view with 360° of black Mollard).

; Navigation: Cruisings at the beginning of the Le Bourget-of-Lake or Aix-the-Baths are organized for the summer period by private companies of navigation. The pleasure sailing or sporting is also strong appraisal, starting from the many ports established along the lake.

With Aix-the-Baths: the Large Port, the Small Port. In Bourdeau: the port of Bourdeau. With the Le Bourget-of-Lake: the port of Charpignat, the port of Grèbes, the port of Mirandelles, the port of the Gulls, the port of Leysse. With Brison-Saint-Innocent: the port of Brison. In Châtillon: the port of Châtillon. In Conjux: the port of the Ventilation hole. With Tresserve: the Good port. With the Fish pond-of-Lake: the port of the Four Ways.

It is advisable to be wary of the Cross-piece , blowing thermal wind in an unforeseeable way and sometimes with violence on southern banks of the lake. This wind of west passes to the top of the mountain of the Cat in end of the afternoon and crosses the lake - from where its name - by surprising navigators and veliplanchists.

The championship of the world of the 49er was organized on the lake, at the beginning of Aix-the-Baths, from June 4th to 11th 2006.

Literature

Alphonse of Lamartine left an indelible trace of its stay at the edge of the Lake of Le Bourget. It is then 26 years old and comes to Savoy to look after hoop nets hepathic.

It spends October 1816 to Aix-the-Baths, where it meets Julie Charles, in convalescence for tuberculosis. Two young people enjoy to stroll together at the edge of the lake of Le Bourget. The next summer, Julie, too suffering, cannot join the poet, who, despaired, wrote several poems, of which the Lake , one of his more big bosses of work.

“Ö time! suspend your flight, and you, favourable hours!
Suspend your course:
Let enjoy the rapids delights
to us More beautiful nowadays! ”

In 1826, a long time after the death of its great love, Julie, it evokes in " Retour" , an epistle in worms with the glory of Xavier de Maistre, this ground of Savoy which it carries from now on in its heart and where the memory of that which it liked so much returns bursting the landscape:

“Where love disappeared in the shade from the demise
Leave everywhere for me the print of its steps
And colors in my eyes your floods and your hills
Or of a secret mourning, or divine splendors.
(Alphonse of Lamartine, " Retour".) ”

Addressing itself to Xavier de Maistre he still says:

“I lived more than you these fortunate shores,
I adored, I still like these capped mounts of storms,
Where the simplicity of the hearts and manners
Keep with the old virtues the asylum of your hearts.
(Alphonse of Lamartine, " Retour".) ”

Honore de Balzac gave a romantic and precise description lake of Le Bourget in its novel the shagreen in 1831.

The lake of Le Bourget is a vast cut of mountains very notched where shines, to seven or eight hundred feet au−dessus of the Mediterranean, a drop of blue water as is not to it any water in the world. Seen top of Dent−du−Chat, this lake is there like a stray turquoise. This pretty water drop has nine miles of contour, and in certain places nearly five hundred feet of depth. To be there in a boat in the middle of this tablecloth by a beautiful sky, to hear only the noise of the oars, to see at the horizon only cloudy mountains, to admire snows étincelantes of Maurienne Frenchwoman, to pass in turn from the blocks of granite vêtus of velvet by ferns or dwarf shrubs, to laughing hills; on a side the desert of the other a natural rich person; a poor assistant with the dinner of a rich person; these harmonies and these discordances compose a spectacle where all is large, where all is small. The aspect of the mountains changes the conditions of optics and the prospect: a fir tree of one hundred feet seems to you a reed, broad valleys appear narrow to you as much as paths. This lake is the only one where one can make a confidence of heart in heart. One thinks of it and one likes there. In any place you would not meet a beautiful any more agreement between water, the sky, the mountains and the ground. It is there balsams for all the crises of the life. This place maintains the secrecy of the pains, it comforts them reduces them, and throws in the love I do not know what of low register, of collected, which makes passion deeper, purer. A kiss increases there. But it is especially the lake of the memories; it supports them in their giving the color of his waves, mirror where all comes to be reflected. Raphaël supported its burden only in the middle of this beautiful landscape, it could there remain indolent, thoughtful, and without desires. After the visit of the doctor, it went to walk and was made unload with the deserted point of a pretty hill on which the village of Saint−Innocent is located. Of this species of headland, the sight embraces the mounts of Bugey, with the foot of which the Rhone runs, and bottom of the lake; but from there Raphaël liked to contemplate, on bank opposed, the melancholic person abbey of Haute−Combe, burial of prostrate kings de Sardaigne in front of the mountains like pilgrims made at the end of their voyage.

History

The lake of Le Bourget has several examples of " lake City " , prehistoric villages of the Neolithic and the final Bronze Age. Some are known since 1856 and others were revealed by recent research of the Department of subaqueous and underwater archaeological research (Ministry for the Culture). A whole room of the Savoyard Museum with Chambéry is devoted to the craftsmen of the lake of Le Bourget to the Bronze Age.

to see: the lake of Le Bourget, 50 years of archaeological research, 5.000 years of history . Published in 2004 by the Fountain of SILOE under the direction of Raymond Manor house and with the assistance of Elisabeth Andre.

Internal bonds

List of the more big lakes and ponds of France
Geography of Savoy
Painters of the lake of Le Bourget

External bonds

Protected areas by the Academy of the littoral
the project Big lake
Aquarium of the lake of Le Bourget
Lake of Le Bourget on Wikitravel
Discovered lake of Le Bourget
Fishing on the lake of Le Bourget - Grelomania

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