Forest and woodland are important and widespread habitat in the area. The forests are dominated by oak species, usually Sessile Oak Quercu...

Throughout the Touraine there are worked out underground limestone quarries, many abandoned, but many repurposed as cellars, mushroom growin...

The Touraine and Berry has been occupied by man for tens of thousands of years. The ice didn't reach here and the climate was temperate....

The Touraine Loire Valley is a landscape dominated by rivers. The largest, and the only one to reach the sea, is the Loire itself, which flo...

The Touraine Loire Valley is extremely rural, dominated by a mixture of agricultural, forestry and pastoral land usage. Crops such as wheat,...

Throughout France there is a network of variously named public rights of way. One of the most frequently encountered by walkers is the chemi...

There are two distinct types of heathland in the area covered by this website. The first are the open hot dry sandy heaths known as landes...

As agriculture intensifies, rural roadsides are becoming more and more important for grassland flora. Many of the roads in the area are narr...

Gardens are increasingly important as habitat, particularly when a string of gardens join together, effectively becoming a single site. With...

Dry limestone ridges known as éperons provide a habitat that is now of great interest to botanists because of their very particular assembl...

One of the richest and most important habitat types here is calcareous grassland, particularly the sort known in French as pelouse (the equi...

The Loire valley is in fact a river system, and includes many rivers which flow into the Loire. Feeding these tributaries in turn is a netwo...

Looking up the valley of the Claise River at La Forge, between Chaumussay and Preuilly-sur-Claise. The habitat is a mosaic of long establi...

It snows in the winter here (the winter of 2013-14 was the first winter in 30 years that was snow free). Often it's just a dusting which...

There are significant deposits of sandstone, sand and gravel throughout the Touraine Loire Valley and adjoining areas. Some are clearly asso...