Wednesday 23 July 2014

Le Lac de la Dathée

Posted by Rosie



Simon has been away for much of this week, dog sitting at some friends' house which meant when it came to my birthday on Saturday, he wasn't here.  No worries, we simply arranged to meet up at the house from where we could walk around the nearby Lac de la Dathée.  With the 3 terriers Simon was looking after as well as Poppy and Saari we were a bit apprehensive that we might lose some of the dogs but actually, except for our 2 sneaking off at one point to raid a bin and one of the terriers trying to outrun a cyclist, they all behaved really well.

The Lake is a flooded reservoir and the walk around it is just over 6kms long, with strategically placed signs showing how far you are from the barrage at any given point.


Our start point - 6.1kms to go!
Lac de la Dathée
Beautiful views all round the lake
 
Of course it was not all walking - there were trees to be climbed:


How high will they get?

 And water to swim in (if you are a dog):

A very happy Poppy

Our aim, however, was to walk all round the lake so boys were brought down from trees and dogs persuaded out of the water and our journey continued.


On the barrage so 4.2kms to go!


Our canine friends - Saari, Poppy, Gallette, Gimly and Beth

Along the way we saw some interesting and even weird sights:

For example we have absolutely NO IDEA how this fish came to be wedged half way up a tree!  It did however remind me of this Einstein quote:



“Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid.”

Flying Fish?

Sadly, the many alder trees around the lake are under attack by a ferocious non-native pest.  The caterpillars of the alder flea beetle (a relative of the Colorado beetle that can decimate potato crops) are so numerous that many of the leaves have been stripped back to their skeletal veins.  They may look pretty but it must be damaging to the trees.

Alder Flea Beetle larvae

This triffid like plant caught our attention - it is in fact a member of the umbelliferae family, a large group of plants which includes carrot, cow parsley and hogweed amongst many others.  I think this may be angelica but I am not at all sure though so perhaps some-one more knowledgeable can correct me if needs be. 


An emerging umbelliferae


Nearly home!

If walking is not your thing Le Lac de la Dathée is also good for bird watching, fishing (you will need a licence), cycling, sailing and rowing (there is a boating school) or simply enjoying the scenery with a picnic.   It is about 40 minutes from Eco-Gites of Lenault and well worth a visit.

Have you got a favourite lakeside watery walk you like to do?




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17 comments :

  1. Could be a flying fish lol......lovely photos of what looks like a lovely place x

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  2. That looks so beautiful and peaceful, where exactly is it in France?
    My favourite walk is along our river Saar here in Saarbruecken (Sarrebruck en francais).

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    1. It is in the Calvados region of Normandy in northern France and yes, it is both beautiful and peaceful.

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  3. Oh it looks so stunning!
    I am very fond of France, I'd love to go back!

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    1. There is always our gite for you to stay in when you do come back!

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  4. It sounds like a beautiful walk, and the trees do look great for climbing! And the fish, I wonder what his story is!?? #pocolo

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    1. We wonder too - it is not something you see every day and we may never see such a sight again!

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  5. I love walking. But ill be super stressed if I have to take care of lots of dogs while doing it. Hats off. This place is awesome. I have to admit that if I am with you guys
    you will probably be ahead of me as I would want to stop every so often for a photo op =) #pocolo

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    1. Probaly not, we took 2 hours to do this walk but then Simon did it again with just the 3 dogs he was looking after and only took an hour and 10 minutes. So we had about 50 minutes of photo taking and maybe a bit of dragging boys out of trees!

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  6. I can just imagine the person putting that fish in the tree for a joke, laughing at how many people will see it and wonder how it got there! #pocolo

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  7. That looks such a beautiful place for a walk....
    The fish up the tree is so random....lol

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    1. Definitely one of the oddest things I have seen recently!

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  8. That Lake is beautiful - what a lovely place for a walk :) That fish is WEIRD though!!! Thank you for linking to PoCoLo :) x

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    1. Lake, lovely - yes. Fish, weird - yes! We did wonder if we might later appear on French "Candid Camera"!

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  9. A beautiful walk and perfect for exercising the dogs and children!! I hope you had a lovely birthday and thanks for linking up and sharing with Country Kids.

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