Forêt de Dirac

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The Forêt de Dirac is an important forest area in the Charente department in the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region . The forest is located about 15 kilometers southeast of the prefectural city of Angoulême .

etymology

The forest, French forêt , was named after the French municipality Dirac , in whose municipality a large part is located.

history

The presence of man in the Forêt de Dirac can be traced back to the Middle Paleolithic (hand axes from the Moustérien ) by means of artifacts found in open air sites. The Roc de Sers site a little further to the east should also be mentioned here . However, numerous finds come mainly from the Neolithic .

The presence of the Romans is evidenced by the Roman road from Angoulême to Périgueux and roof tile finds. Ceramic remains come from the Merovingian period.

Before the 12th century, the Forêt de Dirac was part of the much larger forest area of Gros Bosc , which then disintegrated through clearing into the Forêt de Dirac, the Forêt de la Braconne , the Bois Blanc and the Forêt d'Horte.

The linguistic border between the Saintongeais in the west (municipalities of Dirac, Torsac and Garat) and the Occitan in the east (municipalities of Sers and Dignac) runs through the forest .

The forest is privately owned.

geography

The 300-year-old English oak in the hamlet of Pouyaud near Dirac

In addition to the lion's share of the forest in the municipality of Dirac, smaller shares can be found in the municipalities of Dignac , Garat , Torsac and Sers . The forest occupies a wide plateau area, which is bounded by the valleys of the Anguienne in the north-west, the Eaux Claires in the south-west and the Échelle in the east. It finds its extension in the Forêt d'Horte , which is east of Dignac. The forest area has a length of 6 kilometers in north-south direction and is 3 kilometers wide. It is broken by numerous clearings, including the village of Dirac. The area covers around 1500 hectares or 15 square kilometers.

The plateau area is at an average sea level of 160 meters. The highest point reaches 183 meters and is located in the Bois de la Brande Forte northeast of Dignac. The base of the forest in the valleys extends down to around 100 meters.

The forest is crossed roughly in the middle by the D 939 from Angoulême to Périgueux , other intersecting roads are the D 104 from Sers to Dirac and on to Puymoyen and the D 101 from Torsac to Dirac.

geology

The Chêne du Pendu in the middle of the D 101

The Forêt de Dirac is underlain by flat-lying upper chalk sediments of the northeast Aquitaine Basin . The Upper Cretaceous - here built from layers of the Upper Turonian and Coniacian - is in turn covered by the detritus of the Miocene and Pliocene . The transition from the Upper Cretaceous to the Tertiary occurs at around 150 meters above sea level, whereby the underlying Upper Cretaceous is decalcified and silicified. The continental sediments of the Tertiary are gravelly beds from the Massif Central further east and consist mainly of clayey, gravel sands . Their thickness reaches 20 meters at Dignac and a good 10 meters at Dirac. In general, a decrease in thickness towards the west can be observed.

Along the northern left side of the valley of the Échelle, the upper chalk sequence even extends down to the lower lower cenoman . The 150 to 180-meter-thick sequence of layers underlying the forest is composed as follows (from hanging wall to lying ):

ecology

The forest has expanded particularly on the tertiary embankments. However, heathland landscapes (French: lande or local brande ) with a vegetation typical of silica-rich soils that differs completely from the lower limestone vegetation also assert themselves . You can find coppice and high forest interspersed with bushes, the species composition of which is highly dependent on altitude and reflects the geological conditions. In the lime-poor high altitudes in the southeast, lime-avoiding tree species such as chestnuts (coppice) and maritime pine Pinus pinaster , but on lower limestone locations mainly in the west oaks such as sessile oak Quercus petraea , English oak Quercus robur and holm oak Quercus ilex , hornbeam and Scots pine Pinus sylvestris appear .

Protective measure

The Forêt de Dirac forms an ecological protection zone ( ZNIEFF type 1).

Attractions

Bellevau Hermitage
  • Trou du Loup ("Wolfsloch"), small shaft cave in the south of the municipality of Dirac.
  • Saintes-Périgueux ancient Roman road . Your branch to Angoulême - the so-called Chemin Boisné - leads through Le Pouyaud , Le Perchet and Les Maisons Blanches .
  • Old hamlet of Saint-Jean-de-Grâce on the municipal boundary of Dirac and Dignac.
  • Fontaine miraculeuse ("miraculous spring") near Bellevau (municipality of Sers) with monolithic chapel and hermitage from the 6th century.
  • The 300 year old pedunculate oak near Le Pouyaud (Dirac municipality).
  • The 150 year old English oak Chêne du pendu ("Oak of the Hanged Man"). It stands in the middle of the D 101 from Torsac to Dirac.
  • Washhouses or washbasins (French: lavoir ) and springs in valley headings.
  • Growing mushrooms along the Échelle valley.
  • Military camp along the D 939 (Dirac municipality).

Hiking and long-distance hiking trails

Because of its proximity to the Angoulême catchment area, the forest is criss-crossed by several ten-kilometer hiking trails. On the northern edge of the hamlet of Les Ribondaines, northwest of Dirac, three long-distance hiking trails lead past:

See also

literature

  • B. Bourgueuil, P. Moreau et al .: Angoulême XVII-32 . In: Carte géologique de la France at 1/50 000 . BRGM.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ J. Massaud: Stations de surface des bordures Sud et Sud-Ouest de la "Forêt de Dirac" (Charente) . In: Bulletin de la Société préhistorique française . tape 57-1-2 , 1960, pp. 114-119 .
  2. ↑ LF. Alfred Maury: Les forêts de la Gaule et de l'ancienne France . Ladrange, Paris 1867, p. 501 .

Web links

Commons : Forêt de Dirac  - Collection of images

Coordinates: 45 ° 35 ′ 30 ″  N , 0 ° 16 ′ 0 ″  E