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Wild France: A Traveller's Guide
The romance of France lies deep in the hearts of travellers from Britain. Normandy, Provence, the Loire and the Camargue - such names have an instant magic, and all are represented, along with over 50 other exploration zones, in Wild France, a comprehensive guide to the country's most out-of-the-way places. 'Friends smiled knowingly when I told them I was off to explore the wild side of North-East France,' recalls one contributor; 'they had visions of me whiling away the small hours in the night-spots of deepest Pigalle. When I explained that my task was to explore other forms of wildness, they looked blank. They doubted whether the area had anything in the way of natural wonders to discover.' But discover some he did. If it's wilderness you're after, this book will winkle it out. It covers every region of France, from the Alps to the Atlantic coast and from the Vosges to the Pyrenees, taking in the spectacular gorges of the Massif Central and the leafy forests of Burgundy, the Mediterranean coast and the island of Corsica. In the narrative text the contributors share their personal knowledge of each region, its topography, wildlife and scenic character. In the accompanying fact-packs they suggest walks, rides and drives, activities and places to stay. Every exploration zone is graded for its remoteness and wilderness value. In this edition the entire text has been reset to include new hotels and itineraries, new train and bus information. Fax numbers, e-mail addresses and web-site details have also been included to bring this established guide-book fully up to date.
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First published January 1, 1994
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December 28, 2023
A photographic guidebook to the wild regions of France, the original edition copyright 1992, mine published in 1994, so as far as a guide to things like ferry, train, and bus schedules for the various locations detailed in the text, decades out of date and thus I highly recommend you just skip those sections, not that they were riveting to start with.
So what’s left? A nice tour of the natural beauty of France, its geological, botanical, zoological, and ecological treasures, detailed in readable accounts using the author’s personal experiences and with numerous color photos and not a few black and white illustrations. The black and white illustrations are decent, but the color photos are very nice. Author Douglas Botting, who I read has also written extensively about ecotourism in such varied places as the Amazon, the Sahara, and Arctic Siberia, has divided all of France into nine sections (and nine chapters) and talks about in the guide his experiences say in boats in marshes looking for birds or hiking high in the Alps or the Pyrenees.
After a section where he introduces the reader to such terms as maquis and garrigue, Botting begins with Brittany and Normandy on the northwestern corner of the country, talking about the bocage (or copse) countryside reminiscent of parts of England, the reintroduction of nearly exterminated European beavers, the region’s very rich bird life (including cormorants, puffins, razorbills, and the oie reiuse or laughing goose, the French name for the white-fronted goose), the ancient stone megaliths around the Gulf of Morbihan, some of the region’s Arthurian connections, and such features as the Illes d’Ouessant, an island group named the “western isles” by the Phoenician Pytheas in 330 BC and the last stop before the Americas, 3000 miles away.
Chapter 2 is on Northeast France, a land which the author wrote one might not think would have much wild areas to explore as it includes Paris, “the flat industrial northern plain,” areas that include the battlefields of Verdun and the Marne among others, and the vines of Champagne (cultivated since the 12th century), but it is a land of the chaumes (high pastures in the Vosges mountains in Alsace), etangs (shallow lakes that attract many migratory birds, abundant in the region there and elsewhere), a few preserved areas of sand dune and maritime scrub, several species of rare orchids, a surprising amount of life around industrial/mining areas like Plaine de la Scarpe et de l’Escaut, remnants of the beech forest that used to dominate Central Europe (with to my surprise some forests having 500 year old beech trees, in vivid contrast to areas absolutely denuded of trees by the two World Wars), the exotic microhabitats of Parc Naturel Regional de Lorraine (mares salees or salt ponds, which have seashore plants despite between 250 miles from the coast and pelouses calcaires, limestone rich areas home to rare plants), and a little bit on the reintroduction of storks.
Chapter 3, The Alps, is central-eastern and more southern-eastern France, a land of Jurassic period fossils, the rare chamois and rarer still Alpine ibex (the latter leading France to establish its first national park, the Vanoise, in 1963), marmots, golden eagles or aigle royale (all threatened by the growth of downhill skiing), to my surprise many areas of arid soils and succulents, open-air rock carvings from the Bronze Age (1800 to 1500 BC) in Parc National du Mercantour, glaciers, and meadows full of alpine wildflowers like blue thistle (la reine de Alpes – the queen of the Alps).
Chapter 4, Central France contains the Massif Central, “the heart of France,” and is a land of plateaus or causses, gorges, the land of Robert Louis Stevenson’s _Travels with a Donkey_, the source of several rivers, of granite and limestone rocks, scrub, scattered small trees, and stark scenery, though also includes the more pastoral and lush Dordogne and the Armagnac region of Gascony, though much of the region is some of the most desolate and least populated in France. Highlights include the extinct volcanoes and lunar landscape of Parc Naturel Regional des Volcans d’Auvergne, the rare lammergeier or bearded vulture, the region’s many caves (vital in the making of local Roquefort cheese), a number of native reptile species, truffles (from Limousin and Perigord), and the famed Lascaux cave paintings (sadly not pictured and only briefly discussed).
To the north of Central France is The Loire and Burgundy. Home to France’s longest river, the Loire, which at the time of writing was the last truly wild river in Europe and the only river where salmon still bred in France, distinctive white cattle known as Charolais, the European pond terrapin (the only freshwater turtle found in France, dwelling especially in the marshes of the Sologne, land of 2,000 lakes, as well as water lilies and orchids), areas like the Morvan plateau that are geologically linked to the Massif Central and home to rare wildlife like genets and beech martens, land of the famous vineyards of Burgundy, the land of Alain-Fournier’s novel (in Foret de Troncais), the westernmost outposts of the black woodpecker (sadly not pictured), many birds of prey, and the land of Paul Cezanne’s Les Rochers de Fontainebleau or The Rocks at Fontainebleau.
Chapter 6 is the Pyrenees, a region of mountains that runs 250 miles and separates France and Spain, though is also a region of shared identities, with both sides having Basque and Catalan people and sharing control over Andorra. Home of the rare desman (only briefly discussed but it is illustrated; “a kind of aquatic mole similar to the platypus”), pottocks (“small, piebald ponies” used for hilltrekking that I wanted way more information than a single sentence), beech and pine forests, the rare European lynx, the very rare Pyrenean brown bear (“last of the European big game” and according to the author number less than 30), griffon vultures (subject of special conservation measures), lammergeiers, Egyptian vultures, many lakes, waterfalls, an often sparsely populated region, endemic alpine plants, and some details on Andorra (has 1,000 species of flowering plants), but not much.
Chapter 7 is the Atlantic Coast. South of Brittany, where grey slate roofs give way to orange-red pantiles, more vineyards (such as the famed red wines of Bordeaux), home to many French beachgoers, oysters, mussels, Europe’s largest forest (the pine forest of the Medoc areas), the highest dune in Europe (384 feet high Dune du Pilat at the entrance to the Bassin d’Arcachon), the largest heronry in France (1,300 breeding pairs in Lac de Grand-Lieu), otters (the only place at the time of writing where it was still common), genets, honey buzzards, important reserves for migratory birds, many wading birds like avocets, the “Green Venice” of flat-bottomed punts of Parc Naturel Regional du Marais Poitevin (also home to otters and rare orchids) that sounded almost Cajun, an all to brief discussion of the Baudet de Poitou or Poitou donkey, and the Parc Naturel Regional des Landes de Gascogne (formerly a treeless grazing area where shepherds on stilts attended their flocks, in the 19th century became extensively forested for the resin industry, now a nature reserve).
Chapter 8 is the Eastern Mediterranean and Corsica. Highlights includes a brief discussion of the author’s scientific research on the tortoises of Provence (Hermann’s tortoise), as well as mentions of wall lizards, Montpellier snakes, bee-eaters, golden orioles, introducing the reader to a land of thorny maquis and evergreen forests, the sound of the famous cigale or cicada in the summer months, cork oak forests, a land of forest fires, stone pines, Aleppo pines, thirty species of orchids, three species of geckos, the magnificent 2000 feet deep Gorges du Verdon or Verdon Gorge, and a number of plant species endemic to Corsica (but only mentioned in passing) as well the endemic Corsican nuthatch (which the author tried to find).
Chapter 9, the Western Mediterranean, covers the Camargue, Europe’s most famous wetland (a “flat, windy, barely inhabited land of tall, swaying grasses”), home to flamingoes, the famed wild herds of white horses, herds of bouvines or native black bulls (periodically rounded up for French style bull fights by gardians, the Camarguais “cowboys”), numerous wading birds, and thousands of gulls. Also includes mention of the region’s extensive vineyards, swifts, bats, the cigale, land of hot, dry summers and the famous Mistral wind, the flat and waterless La Crau, “an immense sea of stones lying on top of a bone-dry silt,” home to large, wingless crickets, ocellated lizards (Europe’s largest species), a number of rare bird species such as lesser kestrel (at the time of writing the only location for the species in France), and hoopoes. The chapter closes with a discussion of Roussillon in French Catalonia, maquis (also secondary maquis; originally “impenetrably dense, rugged evergreen forest and shrubland” but now is largely “lower-growing heath” and trees that are “generally more scattered and stunted”), garrigue (often found in rockier, more eroded areas, “dominated by tough, tangled, prickly evergreen shrubs”), and the “thick carpet of aromatic wild herbs….these include many varieties of thyme, savory, lavender and mint, together with rosemary, garlic and sage.”
There is an index, a list of useful addresses (from the early 1990s), and a list of books for further reading, several of which are in French. Some of the chapters also list sources for further reading. I think it is a pretty book to look at and it seems a good introduction to the natural history and terrain of France. I would love to see it updated.
So what’s left? A nice tour of the natural beauty of France, its geological, botanical, zoological, and ecological treasures, detailed in readable accounts using the author’s personal experiences and with numerous color photos and not a few black and white illustrations. The black and white illustrations are decent, but the color photos are very nice. Author Douglas Botting, who I read has also written extensively about ecotourism in such varied places as the Amazon, the Sahara, and Arctic Siberia, has divided all of France into nine sections (and nine chapters) and talks about in the guide his experiences say in boats in marshes looking for birds or hiking high in the Alps or the Pyrenees.
After a section where he introduces the reader to such terms as maquis and garrigue, Botting begins with Brittany and Normandy on the northwestern corner of the country, talking about the bocage (or copse) countryside reminiscent of parts of England, the reintroduction of nearly exterminated European beavers, the region’s very rich bird life (including cormorants, puffins, razorbills, and the oie reiuse or laughing goose, the French name for the white-fronted goose), the ancient stone megaliths around the Gulf of Morbihan, some of the region’s Arthurian connections, and such features as the Illes d’Ouessant, an island group named the “western isles” by the Phoenician Pytheas in 330 BC and the last stop before the Americas, 3000 miles away.
Chapter 2 is on Northeast France, a land which the author wrote one might not think would have much wild areas to explore as it includes Paris, “the flat industrial northern plain,” areas that include the battlefields of Verdun and the Marne among others, and the vines of Champagne (cultivated since the 12th century), but it is a land of the chaumes (high pastures in the Vosges mountains in Alsace), etangs (shallow lakes that attract many migratory birds, abundant in the region there and elsewhere), a few preserved areas of sand dune and maritime scrub, several species of rare orchids, a surprising amount of life around industrial/mining areas like Plaine de la Scarpe et de l’Escaut, remnants of the beech forest that used to dominate Central Europe (with to my surprise some forests having 500 year old beech trees, in vivid contrast to areas absolutely denuded of trees by the two World Wars), the exotic microhabitats of Parc Naturel Regional de Lorraine (mares salees or salt ponds, which have seashore plants despite between 250 miles from the coast and pelouses calcaires, limestone rich areas home to rare plants), and a little bit on the reintroduction of storks.
Chapter 3, The Alps, is central-eastern and more southern-eastern France, a land of Jurassic period fossils, the rare chamois and rarer still Alpine ibex (the latter leading France to establish its first national park, the Vanoise, in 1963), marmots, golden eagles or aigle royale (all threatened by the growth of downhill skiing), to my surprise many areas of arid soils and succulents, open-air rock carvings from the Bronze Age (1800 to 1500 BC) in Parc National du Mercantour, glaciers, and meadows full of alpine wildflowers like blue thistle (la reine de Alpes – the queen of the Alps).
Chapter 4, Central France contains the Massif Central, “the heart of France,” and is a land of plateaus or causses, gorges, the land of Robert Louis Stevenson’s _Travels with a Donkey_, the source of several rivers, of granite and limestone rocks, scrub, scattered small trees, and stark scenery, though also includes the more pastoral and lush Dordogne and the Armagnac region of Gascony, though much of the region is some of the most desolate and least populated in France. Highlights include the extinct volcanoes and lunar landscape of Parc Naturel Regional des Volcans d’Auvergne, the rare lammergeier or bearded vulture, the region’s many caves (vital in the making of local Roquefort cheese), a number of native reptile species, truffles (from Limousin and Perigord), and the famed Lascaux cave paintings (sadly not pictured and only briefly discussed).
To the north of Central France is The Loire and Burgundy. Home to France’s longest river, the Loire, which at the time of writing was the last truly wild river in Europe and the only river where salmon still bred in France, distinctive white cattle known as Charolais, the European pond terrapin (the only freshwater turtle found in France, dwelling especially in the marshes of the Sologne, land of 2,000 lakes, as well as water lilies and orchids), areas like the Morvan plateau that are geologically linked to the Massif Central and home to rare wildlife like genets and beech martens, land of the famous vineyards of Burgundy, the land of Alain-Fournier’s novel (in Foret de Troncais), the westernmost outposts of the black woodpecker (sadly not pictured), many birds of prey, and the land of Paul Cezanne’s Les Rochers de Fontainebleau or The Rocks at Fontainebleau.
Chapter 6 is the Pyrenees, a region of mountains that runs 250 miles and separates France and Spain, though is also a region of shared identities, with both sides having Basque and Catalan people and sharing control over Andorra. Home of the rare desman (only briefly discussed but it is illustrated; “a kind of aquatic mole similar to the platypus”), pottocks (“small, piebald ponies” used for hilltrekking that I wanted way more information than a single sentence), beech and pine forests, the rare European lynx, the very rare Pyrenean brown bear (“last of the European big game” and according to the author number less than 30), griffon vultures (subject of special conservation measures), lammergeiers, Egyptian vultures, many lakes, waterfalls, an often sparsely populated region, endemic alpine plants, and some details on Andorra (has 1,000 species of flowering plants), but not much.
Chapter 7 is the Atlantic Coast. South of Brittany, where grey slate roofs give way to orange-red pantiles, more vineyards (such as the famed red wines of Bordeaux), home to many French beachgoers, oysters, mussels, Europe’s largest forest (the pine forest of the Medoc areas), the highest dune in Europe (384 feet high Dune du Pilat at the entrance to the Bassin d’Arcachon), the largest heronry in France (1,300 breeding pairs in Lac de Grand-Lieu), otters (the only place at the time of writing where it was still common), genets, honey buzzards, important reserves for migratory birds, many wading birds like avocets, the “Green Venice” of flat-bottomed punts of Parc Naturel Regional du Marais Poitevin (also home to otters and rare orchids) that sounded almost Cajun, an all to brief discussion of the Baudet de Poitou or Poitou donkey, and the Parc Naturel Regional des Landes de Gascogne (formerly a treeless grazing area where shepherds on stilts attended their flocks, in the 19th century became extensively forested for the resin industry, now a nature reserve).
Chapter 8 is the Eastern Mediterranean and Corsica. Highlights includes a brief discussion of the author’s scientific research on the tortoises of Provence (Hermann’s tortoise), as well as mentions of wall lizards, Montpellier snakes, bee-eaters, golden orioles, introducing the reader to a land of thorny maquis and evergreen forests, the sound of the famous cigale or cicada in the summer months, cork oak forests, a land of forest fires, stone pines, Aleppo pines, thirty species of orchids, three species of geckos, the magnificent 2000 feet deep Gorges du Verdon or Verdon Gorge, and a number of plant species endemic to Corsica (but only mentioned in passing) as well the endemic Corsican nuthatch (which the author tried to find).
Chapter 9, the Western Mediterranean, covers the Camargue, Europe’s most famous wetland (a “flat, windy, barely inhabited land of tall, swaying grasses”), home to flamingoes, the famed wild herds of white horses, herds of bouvines or native black bulls (periodically rounded up for French style bull fights by gardians, the Camarguais “cowboys”), numerous wading birds, and thousands of gulls. Also includes mention of the region’s extensive vineyards, swifts, bats, the cigale, land of hot, dry summers and the famous Mistral wind, the flat and waterless La Crau, “an immense sea of stones lying on top of a bone-dry silt,” home to large, wingless crickets, ocellated lizards (Europe’s largest species), a number of rare bird species such as lesser kestrel (at the time of writing the only location for the species in France), and hoopoes. The chapter closes with a discussion of Roussillon in French Catalonia, maquis (also secondary maquis; originally “impenetrably dense, rugged evergreen forest and shrubland” but now is largely “lower-growing heath” and trees that are “generally more scattered and stunted”), garrigue (often found in rockier, more eroded areas, “dominated by tough, tangled, prickly evergreen shrubs”), and the “thick carpet of aromatic wild herbs….these include many varieties of thyme, savory, lavender and mint, together with rosemary, garlic and sage.”
There is an index, a list of useful addresses (from the early 1990s), and a list of books for further reading, several of which are in French. Some of the chapters also list sources for further reading. I think it is a pretty book to look at and it seems a good introduction to the natural history and terrain of France. I would love to see it updated.
November 2, 2015
For people who want more than just the touristy stuff:
I may have been the first peacetime American to ever be totally unexcited about visiting Europe. I was writing a book that featured adventures on all seven continents, looking for rare and interesting wildlife. Of all the continents, Europe gave me the most trepidation. Where would I go to get away from humans and get closer to animals?
When I read the most popular travel guides, all I could find were tips on touristy locations—the exact opposite of what I wanted. Eventually I discovered the “Wild Guide” series, put out by Interlink Books. Perfect!
By using books in the Wild Guide series, including Wild France, my wife and I were able to explore great out-of-the-way places that featured stunning landscapes and abundant wildlife. The end result was an outstanding adventure that became one of my favorite chapters in my book (which I appropriately titled “Surprisingly Europe”).
Unfortunately the Wild Guide series has not been updated, and such as Wild France are likely in short supply. If you have interest in the natural side of Europe, snap-up these guides as quickly as you can. Fortunately, most of the places featured in these books should be quite similar to how they were when the series was published.
Marty Essen, author of Cool Creatures, Hot Planet: Exploring the Seven Continents
I may have been the first peacetime American to ever be totally unexcited about visiting Europe. I was writing a book that featured adventures on all seven continents, looking for rare and interesting wildlife. Of all the continents, Europe gave me the most trepidation. Where would I go to get away from humans and get closer to animals?
When I read the most popular travel guides, all I could find were tips on touristy locations—the exact opposite of what I wanted. Eventually I discovered the “Wild Guide” series, put out by Interlink Books. Perfect!
By using books in the Wild Guide series, including Wild France, my wife and I were able to explore great out-of-the-way places that featured stunning landscapes and abundant wildlife. The end result was an outstanding adventure that became one of my favorite chapters in my book (which I appropriately titled “Surprisingly Europe”).
Unfortunately the Wild Guide series has not been updated, and such as Wild France are likely in short supply. If you have interest in the natural side of Europe, snap-up these guides as quickly as you can. Fortunately, most of the places featured in these books should be quite similar to how they were when the series was published.
Marty Essen, author of Cool Creatures, Hot Planet: Exploring the Seven Continents
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