Around the lake

The Silo of pictures offers a comprehensive understanding of the lake, the Grandvaux plateau and the “Lapiaz des chauvins”. When you leave the silo of pictures, agricultural activities, the lake and the peat bogs will no longer be a mystery to you.

A migratory bird, this passerine spends winters in Africa, south of the equator. It only returns to the Jura mountains between mid-May and the beginning of August. The marsh warbler lives in more or less marshy prairies with high grass and scattered with bushes, where the male perches itself to sing. Their nest is made of dry grass suspended at mid-height from herbaceous stems. This species is exclusively insectivore (feeds on insects). The European champion of imitation, a male marsh warbler can imitate 80 species with its song, with the known record to be 212!

In hamlets, adjoining farms were often lived in by the same family (several brothers for example). However, each family was still independent and provided for its own needs. The sobriety of the home’s architecture should not detract from the quality of these constructions: the use of cut stone to frame windows, the quality of the framework, the cut and aged lintels, etc.

Since the Middle Ages, monks have used the driving force provided by the lake’s waterfall to work the grinding wheels in the Abbaye’s mill, which was once located where the current sawmill now stands. The water wheel was actioned by a vertical 8-meter-high waterfall. No doubt this first set-up lacked power and a 5-meter dyke was likely constructed to increase the height of the drop and the volume of water in the lake. The lake’s current water level bares no resemblance to its water level during the 6th century; this means it is difficult to locate the original priory. When activity at the mill came to an end (due to a lack of grain to grind!), a sawmill was established on the same site, and turbines replaced the pre-existing wheel. The calm waters in the lake turned into a power source and the facilities that are still in place attest to the different activities that have since developed around the lake. 

Easy to recognise, the grey heron can be seen hunting along the edge of lakes and in the marshes in the search for amphibians and fish, or even in the middle of agricultural prairies on the lookout for voles. Like all herons, it flies with its neck bent and its legs outstretched, which sets it apart from storks and cranes. It nests in a small colony, called a heronry.

In the Jura, the montane zone is located at an altitude between 900 and 1700 metres. In this area, forests are mostly comprised of fir trees, spruces and beech trees. Beech, which is still sometimes regionally referred to as “fayard”, is well suited to the mountainous climate. This tree produces beechnuts, which are eaten by game. The hard wood of the beech tree used to be often used by “boisseliers”, wood turners. Today, it is excellent for use as firewood.