Lac du Bourget
The Lac du Bourget ( German lake of Le Bourget ) is the largest natural lake that lies entirely within France. It is located in the north of the department of Savoie. He belongs to the post-glacial lakes in the Alps and was created after the last Ice Age, approximately 19,000 years after the retreat of the great glaciers of the Quaternary.
Due to its rich nature of the lake is also a major tourist destination since the 19th century.
The lake has an area of 44.5 km ² and is 18 km long. The lake lies in a north-south direction is more than 3.5 km wide. Since time immemorial, the 145 m deep lake has never been frozen.
The western shore of the lake is formed by the southern foothills of the Jura Mountains. The ridge is called Chaîne de l' Epine and culminates in the Dent du Chat, with its 1390 meters of altitude and falls abruptly from the lake. The Chaîne de l' Epine protects the lake before bad weather influences from the west. This bank is only sparsely populated.
The eastern shore is dominated by the Bauges. This massif culminates in Mont Revard at 1538 m altitude and is home to the Natural Park of the same name.
The lake is located in a 560 -acre level. The largest cities in this level are the lying on the south eastern shore spa town of Aix -les- Bains and the about 10 km south of the lake located Chambery. The Municipality of Le Bourget -du -Lac on the south bank bears the name of the lake.
Formation
Legend has it that the Lac du Bourget were just like the Lac d' Annecy and Lake Geneva filled with tears three angels whom God commanded to leave the territory of the Alps.
Within the present knowledge of the Lac du Bourget, like many other lakes originated in the foothills with the melting of Ice Age glaciers. Years ago, about 130000-140000 a huge lake basin was pushed out as a typical Zungenbeckensee during the Saale / Rißeiszeit.
There was a lake that stretched from the church today Seyssel (Haute- Savoie) in the north to Saint- Marcelin in the southwest. In addition valleys up to the present Albertville as well as parts of the Rhone Valley were covered up by Yenne. This Ursee had an area of approximately 1,000 square kilometers and was 140 km long. The water level was about 360 m above sea level. NN and approximately 120 m above the present level.
During the subsequent Ice Age, the glacial Rhone Glacier and the Isère glacier collided in the area of the lake today and pushed the current lake basin free. We also find the current was about 50 km long valley between Seyssel, Yenne and Challes -les -Eaux.
Hydrology
With a water volume of 3.6 billion cubic meters ( equivalent to the annual water consumption of households in France ), the lake was used before the year 1982 primarily as a flood overflow of the river. Although this possibility is no longer needed due to various barrages of Rhône de facto, allowed the river once occur consciously annually on the shore. The water level of the lake rises briefly at around 1 meter.
Biology and Conservation
Between the 50s and 70s of the 20th century, the unexplained discharge of wastewater of 170,000 residents, including the residents of Chambery and an increasing number of tourists threatened the water quality. The additional nutrient loading resulted in eutrophication of the lake and the increasing ship traffic endangered by oil pollution and noise, the fauna of the lake.
Large parts of the hard to reach Western shores are still in near-natural state. Because of its water mass and the limestone cliffs on the banks of a very temperate microclimate that already carries on very sheltered places a Mediterranean character was formed. One therefore finds the French maple, the fig tree, the common boxwood, the downy oak and Nigella. In addition, the appellation wines Vin de Savoie and roussette de Savoie are grown on its banks, which are both part of the wine region Savoie.
The lake has a nice stock of sea birds and is an important bird migration passage. One can observe, therefore, on the lake, the Mallard, the mute swan, coot, tufted duck, the little bittern, the avocet, the Goosander, the black kite, peregrine falcon and eagle owl.
The reed belt of Lake
The sooner dense reed stocks of the lake have decreased significantly since the 1960s. Wave impact by motorized boat traffic and flotsam are two sources of risk. In the extreme south of the lake, therefore, a protection zone was established, to which, however, a campsite adjacent to beach. To protect against driving logs and similar large flotsam from the conservation organization FRAPNA (Fédération régional des associations de protection de la nature de Rhône- Alpes) were stakes placed in the water in front of the reed strips which stop the flotsam and when stand hunting for example, Cormorants serve. In 2000, the previously completely vanished European pond turtle was again exposed successful.
The reed offers the Kingfisher protection and plays an important role in the conservation of fish stocks. In the depths of the lake, the European pike, roach, the catfish, European perch, carp and comb tooth blennies live. In the shallower parts of the lake we find the char, the whitefish, brown trout, rainbow trout and burbot. An overview of the diversity of fish species provides the aquarium in Aix -les- Bains. Formerly in the lake endemic Bezoule, a fish from the order of salmon -like, was in 2008 declared by the IUCN to be extinct.
Tourism
The lake itself is concerning various water sports such as swimming, water skiing, sailing or rowing are possible except for fishing; in the surrounding area cross country, golf, horse riding, walking, hiking, cycling, sailing and paragliding, to name only the sports where the view of the lake plays a role.
Historical attractions in Le Bourget -du -Lac, the Priory, a monastery dating from the 11th century near the St. Laurent Church, and their gardens and Château Thomas II, a ruined 13th century. Located on the hard to reach West Coast Abbey Hautecombe is best reached by boat from the opposite shore.
Aix -les- Bains has to offer as a renowned baths and spa town is a diversified cultural activities including concerts, operettas and exhibitions. The Musée Faure houses an important collection of French Impressionists. Alphonse de Lamartine, the French poet, Romanticism had dedicated to the sea in the 19th century poem Le Lac.
Shipping
The Lac du Bourget is connected via a navigable channel in the northeast with the Rhône. In Aix -les- Bains, a shipping company is established, covering various tourist programs from the 200 -person party ship to the individual explorers. Line traffic does not matter due to lack of nodes. Performance sports boats and sailing ships found in several ports around the lake anchorage.
Gallery
The lake at Bourget -du -Lac
Aix -les- Bains
Epine mountain range and la Dent du Chat
Lac du Bourget
Lac du Bourget
Lac du Bourget