A rich flora and fauna
The Yvelines region is home to over 6,600 animal species, including almost 5,600 insects and 54 mammals. A direct consequence of the region's topography and climatic variations, this diversity of fauna reveals an underestimated wealth of animal life. It is therefore essential to protect these fragile, rare environments, which are vital to France's biodiversity.
Mammals and birds
The region's many wooded areas are teeming with familiar animal species such as deer, roe deer, wild boar, foxes, weasels and hares. A keen eye can detect the presence of this large fauna by the footprints they leave in their wake. A rich bird population also inhabits the forests and undergrowth. Oak woods, hornbeams, deciduous and coniferous forests are home to woodpeckers, spotted woodpeckers, sparrow hawks, tawny owls and long-eared owls, guaranteeing the department's formidable ecological diversity. Wetlands are home to a number of sedentary nesting and migratory species. These include the Honey Buzzard, the Scarlet Reed Warbler and the Kingfisher. In places, the development of tall-grass vegetation (including young willows) provides nesting sites for spotted locustellas and reed buntings. With its extensive natural areas and numerous wetlands, Yvelines welcomes birdwatchers to parks and waterways that are home to a wide variety of species. The Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines nature reserve, for example, is a wintering and breeding site where almost 230 different bird species have been observed. It is also an important migratory stopover. Île l'Aumône, a bird park in Mantes-la-Jolie, features a 2-hectare lake. Here you can find coots, moorhens, mallards, teal, swans and other water birds. Likewise, the Bonnelles ponds reserve boasts 80 bird species, including the bee-eater, the red warbler and the kingfisher. Finally, the Flicourt ecological estate in Saint-Martin-la-Garenne boasts 190 protected bird species: shoveler ducks, great cormorants, great crested grebes, grey herons... the list goes on!
Fish, amphibians and reptiles
Wetlands and marshes such as the Ru des Vaux valley (still home to a few marshes and small peat bogs) and the Bonnelles ponds voluntary nature reserve are popular spots for a number of amphibian and batrachian species. In addition to the fish population (roach, perch, tench, carp), the banks of the ponds hold the springtime secrets of toads, and at dusk welcome choruses of green tree frogs strewn across the reeds. Bulrushes and ranunculus rub shoulders with a wide variety of dragonflies and newts. Drier, often sloping and sandy areas, such as the Rochefort region, are home to a more specific fauna of reptiles (grey lizards and smooth coronellas), which are particularly fond of these sun-warmed areas of sparse vegetation.
Natural areas
85% of the surface area of Yvelines is covered by unspoilt nature, earning the department the nickname of the "green lung" of the Île-de-France region. Here you'll find a variety of areas perfect for walking and exploring, not far from the hustle and bustle of Paris. The former royal forests, which have always enjoyed the protection and attachment of monarchs, are now state-owned. The largest forest in the département (14,735 ha), once part of the vast Yveline forest, is the forêt de Rambouillet : ceded to the Abbey of Saint-Denis by Pepin the Short in 768, it has been constantly bought out since 1204 by the Counts of Montfort and Angennes, then by the Count of Toulouse (legitimized son of Louis XIV and Madame de Montespan), and finally by the Duke of Penthièvre. It then belonged to Louis XVI (1783), before becoming part of the presidential estate. The Marly forest (2,000 ha), now cut by the Normandy freeway, was occupied in Gallo-Roman times, before becoming the hunting ground of all the kings of France. A little further north, the Saint-Germain forest (3,530 ha, 120 km of footpaths and 50 km of bridle paths) owes its name to a bishop of Paris who lived there as a recluse in the 6th century. Here, Blanche de Castille had the road linking Saint-Germain-en-Laye to Poissy cut, François I built the hunting lodge of La Muette, and Henri IV built the first Château du Val (now a retirement home for members of the Legion of Honor).
Flowers and mushrooms
In the forests, meadows and ponds, there are over 5,800 plant species - including 1,350 varieties of flowering plants, 2,700 mushrooms, 460 mosses, a thousand algae and lichens, and 80 tree species. While the variety of soils is the main source of this diversity, microclimates also favor the existence and growth of certain plants and enable the development of disparate species (continental, oceanic, southern, even mountainous) that are the subject of protection and safeguard measures, given their rarity and vulnerability. As for mushrooms, they play an important ecological role by helping to decompose dead leaves into humus, before ending up on our plates (boletes, chanterelles and other trumpet mushrooms). The more cautious may be content to discover the oyster mushroom, the golden pholiote with its yellow or brown lamellae, or the coralloid hydne (with its coral-like appearance, rare in France but abundant in Fontainebleau), which live in symbiosis on the beech tree, forming fibrous sleeves on its roots that help it to absorb certain mineral salts.
Discovering animals
Created in 1968 by the young Comte de La Panouse to finance the upkeep of the château, this venture was hotly contested by zoologists and by the Comte's father, who was hostile to the opening up of his estate and to distinguishing it by this particularism. Since then, the zoo has proved its worth in the Yvelines region and far beyond, and is admired for the original principle that is its strength: discover the first part of the park by car, with the windows closed, and walk among the animals that roam freely. It's the very principle of the zoo that was reinvented, and which has since spawned a number of smaller ones - including the parks at Sigean (Aude) and Peaugres (Ardèche), created by the Count himself, and the gardens and medieval bestiary of the Château du Colombier in Aveyron, near Rodez. Information and reservations at www.thoiry.net or 01 34 87 53 76.
While Rambouillet is famous for its château, nature lovers will also find a place to observe animals in a 22,000-hectare wooded area: deer, birds of prey, birds of prey, wild boar, roe deer and small game roam here at the whim of the seasons - and man's discretion! You can choose between a self-guided or guided tour to discover the forest's mammals, with experiments to discover as the seasons go by: stag bellowing, falconer for a day... Information and reservations at www.espacerambouillet.fr or 01 34 83 05 00.
