Plateau de Millevaches
The Plateau de Millevaches is a landscape area in the French Massif Central . It extends over about 3500 square kilometers and is located in the French departments of Corrèze , Creuse and Haute-Vienne in the Limousin region .
Even if the Plateau de Millevaches is, strictly speaking, not a plateau in the true sense of the word, it makes up an enormous difference in altitude within the Massif Central. Most of the plateau is 700 meters high, the highest point is Mont Bessou , the natural height of which has been increased from 977 to 1001 meters through the construction of a viewing platform.
In addition to its huge coniferous forest, the landscape is characterized by a high moor ( tourbière ) that feeds numerous rivers such as the Vienne and the Vézère . The watercourses are populated by brown trout in many places .
People hardly inhabit the Plateau de Millevaches, the population density is only 13.6 inhabitants / square kilometer. Only on the outskirts are larger settlements with the cities of Meymac , Felletin and Eymoutiers .
The Plateau de Millevaches forms the core of the Millevaches en Limousin Regional Nature Park, founded in 2004 .
etymology
A legend tells of a shepherd who promised his 1000 cows, exhausted by a thunderstorm, to the devil, who in turn turned them one by one into rocks.
The name was recorded as Millevacas (1145–1146), Mille vacce (1315, Latinized form) as early as the 12th century .
According to Albert Dauzat , it is the Celtic melo "height" with the Latin adjective vacua "empty". Ernest Nègre explains it as the Occitan mila "thousand" and vacas (north Occitan [vatʃas]) "cows", therefore the modern form of Miuvachas is a regular development of the word. In French, Millevaches means “a thousand cows” and is the correct translation. The name probably refers to the landscape, where the bare granite stones stand close together like a herd. For example, the French language has borrowed the gas-conical word Mascaret "tidal wave" and it compares the waves with a herd of speckled oxen.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Both are recognized specialists in place names, especially Occitan toponymy.