The Regional Nature Park of the Valley of Chevreuse

 

Presentation

Ø The Valley of Chevreuse is located in the Yvelines «département» (county), 20 kms away from Paris.

Ø It has a lot of plateaus and valleys with the rivers Yvette, Rémarde…

Ø This region has an important historic heritage : castles, churches, manors, feudal fortifications…

 

Where is it ?

Some figures

Ø Its area is 240 square kilometres.

Ø There are about 46 000 inhabitants in 21 municipalities :

Auffargis

Bonnelles

Bullion

La Celle-les-Bordes

Cernay-la-Ville

Châteaufort

Chevreuse

Choisel

Clairefontaine-en-Yvelines

Dampierre-en-Yvelines

Lévis-Saint-Nom

Longvilliers

Magny-les-Hameaux

Le Mesnil-Saint-Denis

Milon-la-Chapelle

Rochefort-en-Yvelines

Saint-Forget

Saint-Lambert

Saint-Rémy-lès-Chevreuse

Senlisse

Vieille-Église-en-Yvelines

Ø From 1985 to 1999, the municipality of Sonchamp was in the Park and, from 1995 to 1999, so was Ponthévrard.

Ø In the Park, there is a lot of water : there are 1,6 square kilometres of ponds and pools and 90 kms of rivers.

 

History

Ø In 1967, Philippe Saint-Marc founded the safeguard Comity of the Valley of Chevreuse and the county council bought grounds to prevent building.

 Ø The Park’s Friends Union, founded by the safeguard Comity of the Valley of Chevreuse, organized its first Park festival in 1975. Now, it takes place every year.

 

Ø From 1972, 12 municipalities formed a partnership to create a Regional Nature Park.

 Ø Finally, the Park was created on December 11^th in 1985 thanks to 19 municipalities. It was the 23^rd Regional Nature Park in France.

 

Ø The Park undertook in the conquest of the water quality. It created 250 km of pathway with marks and has regional patrimonies. 

Ø At the moment, the president is Yves Vandewalle, a member of Parliament, the Yvelines general councillor and ex-mayor of Lévis-Saint-Nom.

Some official sites

ü Dampierre castle  (1)

ü The Madeleine castle in Chevreuse  (2)

ü Port-Royal-des-Champs abbey in Magny-les-Hameaux  (4)

 

 ü The Vaux de Cernay abbey  (5)