Full-scale
Since 1998, Avesnois has been classified as a “Regional Natural Park”. Because another life is being invented here, residents, farmers, elected officials, teachers in the Park's 142 municipalities are committed daily to bringing actions in favor of sustainable development and economic development of the territory. It is an entire territory which invests in its natural, cultural and human resources to develop.
Bocage meadows, deciduous forests, tall orchards, winding rivers, waterside mills, dancing kiosks in the heart of the villages, blue stone oratories... make the Avesnois Regional Natural Park an exceptional territory . The cows happily liven up this bocage landscape. They are also the source of many dairy products of which Maroilles is the flagship. It is because it has such a remarkable and noted heritage that Avesnois is part of the large family of 58 regional natural parks in France.
Samuel Dhote
Pascal Méresse
The Avesnois bocage
The bocage is the real green gold of the territory: it occupies 40% of its surface!
Made up of a mosaic of meadows combining hedges, pollarded trees, ponds, streams, groves, watercourses, etc., the bocage is essential to regional biodiversity: its hedges slow down soil erosion, promote water supply to groundwater and shelter a diverse fauna and flora.
The Avesnois is also its heritage built in bricks and blue stones, as you stroll along the 1000 km of hiking trails, appreciate the chapels and oratories, the mills and kiosks which make up the identity of the territory.
The Mormal national forest
The tomb of Gargantua...the legend of Ursus and Ursa...the forest of Mormal has inspired many storytellers and historians.
Managed by the National Forestry Office, it extends over more than 9 ha and is made up of majestic oak and beech forests.
Classified as a Natura 2000 site, the Mormal forest is home to varied and preserved flora and fauna.
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Eric Penet
Lucie NicolasA natural site marked by man
Exploited for several centuries, it has enabled the development of numerous wood craft trades such as clog makers, pit sawyers and even carpenters.
During the two world wars, the Mormal forest suffered extensive damage due to combat or intensive exploitation. This explains why we have a forest made up mainly of trees of the same age and why there are numerous ponds.
Mysterious wildlife
The Mormal forest is full of remarkable forest species, for example the red deer, the largest mammal in our region which offers a majestic spectacle each year in September during the bellowing.
Second massif of Avesnois, the Abbé Valjoly national forest extends over 2 ha. There is a great diversity of species: Roe Deer, Wild Boar, Forest Cat, Black Stork, Muscardin to name only the most representative…
In addition, forest and meadow ponds today constitute places popular with amphibians (frog, newt, salamander).
Eric Penet
Eric Penet
Gérald Lebel Photography
Streams
The 2 km of rivers have shaped the landscapes of Avesnois. The water belongs to three distinct watersheds: the Escaut, the Sambre (Meuse district) and the Oise.
The Sambre basin occupies most of the territory of Avesnois. Very contrasting, it is mainly rural at the level of the tributaries, where agricultural activity predominates, while the Val de Sambre is highly urbanized, particularly following its industrialization in the 19th and 20th centuries.
Since 2021, the Sambre canal has been reopened to navigation to the delight of boaters.
Like the writer Robert Louis Stevenson passing through in 1876, discover the landscapes of the banks of the Sambre by taking the towpath by bike or on foot.