Les Etangs du Grand-Brun
The Grand-Brun ponds are part of the Brenne, a natural region of southern Berry, in the Indre, nicknamed the land of a thousand ponds. The Brenne Regional Nature Park, created in 1989, covers more than 166,000 hectares and has nearly 3,300 ponds, originally made for fish farming. The area has been recognised as a wetland of international importance since 8 April 1991.
The landscape is divided on either side of the Creuse: in the north, the Brenne of the ponds brings together ponds, meadows, heaths and woods on a plain of about 30 kilometres by 15; in the south and west, a rolling bocage of woods, forests and sunken lanes, where the Creuse and the Anglin have carved their valleys, bordered here and there by cliffs. The Mer Rouge pond, near Mézières-en-Brenne, covers 160 hectares, surrounded by meadows and woods.
