National Parks are National Treasures
The mountain stages of each Tour de France route wind near and sometimes through several of France’s national parks. The first of eleven national parks was established only sixty years ago, when the Parc national de la Vanoise was located in the Savoie region between the Tarentaise and Maurienne valleys. Later that year, an entirely different area off the southern coast of France named the Parc national de Port-Cros, and additional locations, have subsequently expanded the national park roster, bringing the current total to eleven. This figure includes three national parks located in the overseas French territories/departments of Guadeloupe in the Caribbean, French Guiana in South America, and Réunion in the Indian Ocean.
National parks of France in red, regional parks in green, marine parks in blue. Image credit: historicair 21:46, 13 December 2006 (UTC)Sémhur, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Conservation efforts that began in the late 19th century in North America, Australia, and New Zealand crossed the oceans to northern Sweden, where Sarek National Park was established in 1909. The concept gradually spread throughout Europe, which is now home to some 400 national parks. The French government enacted a national park charter in 1960 aimed at protecting natural environments under the supervision of the state. From the beginning, the charter recognized that local partnerships would be vital to gaining acceptance of and support for protected parklands. The process of creating a national park involves a great deal of collaboration among the national government’s Office of Biodiversity and regional and local authorities who consider environmental, economic, cultural, and ecological factors in defining the national park boundaries along with the core zone that surrounds each park. As such, national parks often include villages and recreational areas rather than displacing them, since residents and local authorities partner with the national park administration to take stock of existing ways of life and environmental factors.
Alpine ibex. Photo credit: Felix Mittermeier on Pixabay
The Vanoise National Park abuts the French border with Italy and segues into the Gran Paradiso National Park of Italy. Both parks are home to the Alpine ibex, a species endemic to the region that was first endangered in the mid-19th century as a result of unchecked hunting. The establishment of a nature reserve helped rebuild the Alpine ibex population and set the stage for Gran Paradiso to be created in 1922. Chamois, another type of goat, also roam the Vanoise along with other mammals such as Alpine marmots, wolves, ermine, and weasels, as well as over 100 species of birds. Vanoise is a hiker’s paradise with several hundred kilometers of trails, over one hundred peaks that exceed 3,000 meters, and the Neolithic-era Pierre aux Pieds, an ancient monument of indeterminate origin bearing 82 small pairs of footprints.
The national parks of Port-Cros near Toulon and Calanques near Marseille on the Mediterranean coast include land and marine environments and much more. The island of Port-Cros is nearly uninhabited, leaving its territory to shelter reptiles like the Tyrrhenian Painted Frog and provide rest to migrating birds among its Aleppo pines. The park was expanded about a decade ago to include the smaller islands of Porquerolles, Bagaud, Gabinière, and Rascas. Marine areas surrounding these islands also fall within the national park designation, conserving seagrass meadows and marine life including whales, dolphins, numerous species of fish, coral, and sea fans. In addition to the park’s natural features, Port-Cros is also home to shipwrecks, ruins, and artifacts that testify to the presence of settlements and military operations from Greek, Roman, medieval, royal, and world war periods. A limited number of areas permit beachgoing, snorkeling, diving, and hiking that reward visitors with a varied experience of what Port-Cros national park has to offer.
Calanques de Sugiton, Parc national des Calanques, France. Photo credit: Lionel Aristote, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Further west of Port-Cros and closer to the mainland, the Parc national de Calanques is one of the newest French national parks. Its proximity to Marseille, one of France’s largest cities and a major Mediterranean port, prompted a movement to recognize and preserve the natural environment of the area. The French word ‘calanque’ refers to inlets formed by the collapse of cave roofs that leave walls of limestone cliffs rising on either side of the valley. As within Port-Cros, the land of Calanques is home to numerous birds including endangered species such as Bonelli’s eagles, Peregrine’s falcons, and shearwaters whereas its underwater ecosystem includes the Cassidaigne canyon and more than 60 marine species ranging from spiky urchins to bottlenose dolphins to Loggerhead sea turtles coexisting with a wide variety of fish among coral, calcified algae, rocks, and underwater cliffs. Calanques also has sunken ships and aircraft as well as the Château d’If, a fortress built in the 16th century that served as a prison in real life as well as in the novel The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas (père). Within the park, a cave in the Calanque de Morgiou contains paintings and engravings of wildlife that date back approximately 20,000 years.
There is no entrance fee to any of the national parks in France, making them popular vacation destinations. While the Pyrénées National Park in southwestern France near the Spanish border receives the most visitors per year, each of the others - Cévennes in the south, Écrins not far from the Vanoise, Mercantour in the southeast, and Forêts in northeastern France, the most recent addition in 2019 - exhibits natural beauty, flora, and fauna. Yet they differ with their own particular features, such as towns and villages with a revolutionary past in Cévennes, ski resorts in Écrins, petroglyphs in Mercantour, and forest microhabitats where the elusive Venus slipper grows in Forêts, making each worth a visit.
Jeu de français
How well do you know the varied regions of France? Click below to test your geographic knowledge by matching place names that are provided with the regions and territories on the map.
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