The Parc naturel régional Périgord Limousin (or Périgord Limousin Regional Natural Park) was created March 9, 1998. It consists of 78 communes situated in the Dordogne and Haute Vienne départements. The park has a surface area of 1,800 square kilometers and is inhabited by 49,661 people.
Geography
The source of the Dronne in the granitic massif of Nexon-Les Cars, eastern highlands
The park administration is housed in an ancient smithy in the hamlet of La Barde (commune of La Coquille), whereas the visitor center is established in Pageas.
Landscapes
Elevations in the park start at 85 meters along the Nizonne river near La Rochebeaucourt-et-Argentine and reach 556 meters near Courbefy southeast of Bussière-Galant. Due to these differences in elevation the park possesses several different natural habitats like moors near Champagnac-la-Rivière, bocage, meadows near water courses and forests consisting of chestnut and oak. South of Mareuil one encounters heathland and dry grassland. There are also many little pools and lakes. Many brooks and smaller rivers like for example the Arthonnet, the Bandiat, the Charente, the Côle, the Dronne, the Gorre, the Grêne, the Nizonne and the Tardoire drain the parkland. Of all these water courses the Isle is the only river that has its source outside the park's perimeter.
The water courses belong to one of the three drainage basins:
The climate in the park is temperate, but can show quite pronounced local variations. In the northeast the climate is generally continental, whereas in the southwest it is maritime. Certain protected south-facing slopes can even possess a submediterranean climate.
The following climatic diagram shows data averaged over the last five years (2004–2008) from a private weather station (354 meters above sea level) near Milhaguet in the Haute Vienne.[1]
Temperature distribution in °C:
The average temperature over the last five years was 11.1 °C, the yearly precipitation was 1053.6 millimeters. The last years have been exceptionally wet.
Geologically the park belongs to two very different terranes: the major part northeast of a line Varaignes - Nontron - Saint-Pardoux-la-Rivière - Thiviers consists of Variscanbasement rocks of the northwestern Massif Central. The much smaller southwestern part is made up of Mesozoic and Cenozoicsedimentary rocks belonging to the Aquitanian Basin. The boundary between the two terrains is outlined by important faults in most places. The downthrown sedimentary block has in general much lower elevations. The basement block has been uplifted fairly recently as shown by the rejuvenation of streams.
The basement rocks are mainly gneisses, mica schists and granitoids with occasional outcrops of amphibolites and serpentinites. The sedimentary succession of the Aquitanian Basin starts with a transgression in the Lower Jurassic (Lias) over the basement rocks (usually a conglomerate at the base, followed by arkoses, dolomites and shales). During the Dogger a calcareous reef built from ooids developed. During the Malm dense, micritic limestones were deposited. Afterwards the sea retreated to come back again at the onset of the Cenomanian (Upper Cretaceous). A very warm epicontinental sea chalky sediments were laid down right up to the Maastrichtian. At the end of the Cretaceous the sea finally retreated and the sediments of the Aquitanian Basin started to become continental within the area of the park.
During the Alpine and the Pyreneanorogeny (Eocene and Oligocene) the basement of the Massif Central was uplifted and rejuvenated. As a consequence massive alluvial deposits (mainly conglomerates and sandstones) were built out as long tongues onto the lowlands, some reaching almost 50 kilometers in length. Due to the various ice ages, erosion has again increased since the Pleistocene − a good example for this being the Dronne. Since the start of the Pleistocene the river has lowered its bed downstream of Brantôme by almost 100 meters.
A geological specialty of the park is the Rochechouart impact structure, the remnants of an asteroid impact at the end of the Upper Triassic (roughly 200 million years ago). The impact created a crater with a diameter of 21 kilometers and destroyed every form of life within a radius of several hundred kilometers. There is no trace of the original crater left, the only indicators for its existence are ejecta blankets (breccias and suevites), shatter cones and thrust faults.
In the Piégut-Pluviers Granodiorite existed a quarry near Lacaujamet (commune of Saint-Estèphe, not far from Piégut-Pluviers) that once extracted granodiorite lintels for doors and windows. The Toarcian clays were exploited by numerous small tile factories. The relatively soft Cretaceous limestones (especially the Turonian) were mined in hundreds of small quarries, because they were a much appreciated building stone. All these activities have now almost come to a halt in the park. There are a few quarries still in operation, but they produce mainly gravel for roadworks or limestone flour for agricultural purposes.
Many small pockets of pegmatites used to be exploited locally as a resource for the porcelain industry.
A curiosity was an ultrapure quartz lens found near Saint-Paul-la-Roche with parallel C-surfaces belonging to a C/S fabric. Originally this fabric was attributed to the Rochechouart impact structure, but later on its purely tectonic character was confirmed. Meanwhile, the outcrop has been completely exploited due to requests by the computer industry and NASA.
In the last two centuries lodes containing lead, zinc and silver were mined near Nontron and Saint-Pardoux-la-Rivière. Iron used to be exploited in the Sidèrolithique - small iron-rich Tertiary deposits. At the base of these iron deposits are manganese-rich layers in karstic depressions and infills. They formed the basis for manganese mining activities that have ceased in the last century.
The following metals are known to exist, but have never been mined:
Rebières near Brantôme - several rock shelters and caves, somewhat outside of the park
Sandougne near La Gonterie-Boulouneix - Mousterian
Villars - 30 engravings and cave paintings (blue horse, capricorns, hunter attacked by a bison) - early Magdalenian (17000 – 15000 years BP)
Teyjat - engravings of bisons, red deer, horses and reindeer - late Magdalenian (~ 10000 years BP)
The neolithic open-air sites Montoume and Nouaillas near Vayres document the gradual changeover from hunter-gatherers to a more agrarian/sessile lifestyle. Finds include stone axes, arrow heads, scrapers and whetstones made from quartz or metamorphic schists.
The dolmen and menhirs were erected about 3500 BC and are attributed to the Artenac culture. Many stone tools, stone knives, arrow heads and whetstones made from flint have been found nearby. Significant is the first occurrence of plain and adorned pottery fragments.
La Motte near Rochechouart - tumulus and necropolis
Iron fibulae and iron knives were discovered in geometrically adorned vases that also kept the ashes of the defunct.
Several Roman sites are also known, such as the villa foundations near Nontronneau not far from Nontron. Outside the park are the thermae near Chassenon (Cassinomagus) in the Charente département. The park is traversed by the ancient Roman road Via Agrippa that connected Limoges with Saintes.
^Chèvremont, P., Floch, J.P., Ménillet, F., Stussi, J.M., Delbos, R., Sauret, B., Blès, J.L., Courbe, C. und Vuaillat, D. (1996). Carte géologique de la France à 1/50000, Feuille Rochechouart. BRGM éditions.
Aubarbier, J.L., Binet, M., Bouchard, J.P. und Guichard, G. (1991). Aimer la Préhistoire en Périgord. Éditions Ouest-France. ISBN2-7373-0786-4
Chèvremont, P., Floch, J.P., Ménillet, F., Stussi, J.M., Delbos, R., Sauret, B., Blès, J.L., Courbe, C. und Vuaillat, D. (1996). Carte géologique de la France à 1/50000, Feuille Rochechouart. BRGM éditions.
Les minéraux de Nontron. Le Règne Minéral, Novembre/Décembre, Munich 2008
,m%C3%A9morial_source_Dronne.JPG)
.JPG)
.JPG)
.JPG)
