The River from Ile-de- to : Geomorphological 3 and Cultural Landscapes of a Large Meandering Valley

Jean-Pierre Peulvast , François Bétard , and Christian Giusti

Abstract Rich in historical and cultural heritages, the stretch of the Seine valley that links Île-de- France to Normandy, between Mantes-la-Jolie and the and Andelle confl uence zone, belongs to one of the major sets of entrenched meanders known in the world. The valley presents steep hillsides punctuated by white chalk pinnacles alternating with deep funnels, contributing to the picturesque landscape of the valley segment. The geomorphic history of the Seine valley is inseparable of the Quaternary bioclimatic history, with its alternating glacial-interglacial and stadial-interstadial periods. All along the Pleistocene, periglacial processes interacted with fl uvial erosion, leading to the formation, deepening, enlargement, and migration of the large meanders. The resulting, present-day geomorphological land- scapes are enriched by many cultural treasures. Its emblematic sites are the medieval castles of La Roche-Guyon and Les Andelys (Château-Gaillard) which were built on rocky prom- ontories on the concave sides of two large meanders. The mid-Seine valley is also known as a high place of the impressionism, the founder and master of which, Claude Monet, settled here for the second half of his life and created the wonderful gardens of Giverny on the lower Epte River. He and many other impressionist and postimpressionist painters, sensitive to a certain harmony of the local landforms, magnifi ed and immortalized the surrounding landscapes.

Keywords Meanders • Chalk erosion • Periglacial features • Impressionism • Castles

3.1 Introduction

Among the regions of France where remarkable geomorpho- logical landscapes also represent invaluable historical and cultural heritages, the stretch of the Seine valley that links Île-de-France to Normandy, between Mantes-la-Jolie and the J.-P. Peulvast (*) Eure and Andelle confl uence zone, is one of the most present Geomorphology , University of Paris-Sorbonne , Paris , France in the collective memory. Due to moderate heights, it does e-mail: [email protected] not display the most spectacular landforms in any specifi c F. Bétard geomorphic type, although it belongs to one of the major sets Physical Geography , Paris-Diderot University , Paris , France of entrenched meanders known in the world. It rather owes e-mail: [email protected] its fame to events and constructions linked to its position on C. Giusti the most active way linking Paris to the sea and on the his- Physical Geography and Environmental Sciences , University of Paris-Sorbonne , Paris , France torical border of Normandy, as well as to the numerous liter- e-mail: [email protected] ary and pictorial representations of its landscapes. The valley

M. Fort and M.-F. André (eds.), Landscapes and Landforms of France, World Geomorphological Landscapes, 17 DOI 10.1007/978-94-007-7022-5_3, © Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2014 18 J.-P. Peulvast et al.

Fig. 3.1 Vétheuil (in the background, right side) and the concave side the Campanian chalk (pinnacles), whereas the upper half corresponds of the Moisson meander of the Seine valley, from Haute-Isle (Photo J.P. to Cenozoic layers. A winter fl ood underlines some lateral channels Peulvast, January 1982). Only the lower half of the slope is shaped into outside the main one (island on the right side ) presents steep sides punctuated by white chalk pinnacles and right side, marks the entrance of the valley in Normandy pierced by caves and troglodyte dwellings (Fig. 3.1 ). Its (Fig. 3.2a). Upstream, the Seine River separates the emblematic sites are the castles of La Roche-Guyon and Les Français (north), from the Mantois region (south); both units Andelys (Château-Gaillard), ancient lookouts on the Seine belong to the same plateau area. valley, the latter having been harshly disputed in the thir- Whereas the Seine River fl ows to NW, from 19 to 8 m teenth century between the Duke of Normandy and King of a.s.l. downstream of Les Andelys, this plateau largely dedi- England, Richard the Lionheart, followed by John Lackland, cated to farming gently slopes to southeast, from 150 to and the King of France, Philippe August. But the mid-Seine 160 m in the tabular Vexin Normand to 120–140 m around valley is also known as a high place of the impressionism, Mantes-la-Jolie. Therefore, increasing heights (up to 140 m) the founder and master of which, Claude Monet, settled here characterize the valley sides. More and more spectacular for the second half of his life and created the wonderful downstream, they form outstanding historic and touristic gardens of Giverny on the lower Epte River. He and many sites (Château-Gaillard, Côte-des-Deux-Amants ; Fig. 3.3a, b ). other impressionist and postimpressionist painters magnifi ed In the Vexin Français, north of Mantes-la-Jolie, narrow and immortalized the surrounding landscapes. Beyond the WNW-ESE alignments of wooded buttes overlook the plateau quality of the light, all these artists were sensitive to a certain close to the valley, reaching 206 m a.s.l. near Vétheuil harmony of the local landforms. A more scientifi c approach (Fig. 3.2a ). The valley fl oor is generally wide (1–2 km), helps in understanding the layout of these landforms and although it locally narrows to 600 m, between Giverny and discovering a rich geomorphological heritage which contrib- Vernon. However, the presence of a few confl uence zones uted to justify the preservation of part of them in the “Parc and, above all, the meandering outlines of the main valley naturel régional du Vexin Français.” explain considerable variations in width as well as strong asymmetries in the valley sides. Left-side tributaries remain scarce and short down to the 3.2 Geographical Setting wide confl uence plain of the Eure River (Fig. 3.2a ). Downstream of the narrow Vaucouleurs valley, which cuts Sheltering two important cities, Mantes-la-Jolie and Vernon, through the low fl uvial terrace forming the urban site of the studied segment of the Seine valley crosses the border Mantes-la-Jolie, a few deep and mostly dry valleys only between Île-de-France and Normandy 50–100 km down- incise the rim of the otherwise weakly dissected plateau. On stream from Paris. It includes two sets of large meanders the right side, short tributaries also dissect the rims of the separated by a 20 km long rectilinear segment, from Vernon Vexin Français and Vexin Normand. Only some of them are to Gaillon. The confl uence zone of the Epte River, on the drained by permanent creeks, in their downstream reaches. 3 The Seine River from Ile-de-France to Normandy: Geomorphological and Cultural Landscapes of a Large Meandering Valley 19

Fig. 3.2 The Seine valley and its surroundings between Mantes-la-Jolie and former sand pits. (b ) The Gaillon-Les Andelys meander. Note the and the Eure-Andelle confl uence zone. (a ) 3D representation, from chalk pinnacles around Les Andelys (the small city on the right side), SRTM DEM (F. Bétard). Note the importance of large enclosed depres- the large sand pits in the alluvial plain and the Port-Mort dam and lock. sions on the valley fl oor, mainly downstream of Mantes-la-Jolie: active Red strip: the abandoned meander of Daubeuf (Photo J.P. Peulvast) 20 J.-P. Peulvast et al.

Fig. 3.3 The concave side of the Les Andelys and Poses meanders at les Andelys, from Château-Gaillard ( a ) and at Amfreville-sous-les-Monts, from the Côte-des-Deux-Amants ( b) (Photos J.P. Peulvast). Inherited periglacial landforms (Richter slopes, chalk pinnacles) overlooking a narrow “modern” alluvial plain 3 The Seine River from Ile-de-France to Normandy: Geomorphological and Cultural Landscapes of a Large Meandering Valley 21

However, two bigger rivers coming from the humid Pays de resistance allows the formation and preservation of steep Bray, to the north, form wider confl uence zones. The lower cliffs along rivers and shores. Epte valley, a well-calibrated fl uvial trough, only widens at The Cenozoic sediments that overlay the Late Cretaceous Giverny, separated from the Seine valley on its last 5 km by chalk are only represented to the southeast (Vexin Français) an elongated plateau strip reduced to a low crest near La and to the south, between the Seine and Eure valleys. Roche-Guyon. On the contrary, the lower Andelle valley, Paleocene sediments are absent, except in tiny depressions also turning from SSW to WSW, directly opens on the where reefal and peri-reefal limestones are preserved along 3–4 km wide Seine-Eure confl uence zone at Pîtres, below a paleo-fault scarps (Vigny). In the Eocene and Oligocene, the protruding spur named Côte-des-Deux-Amants. sea invaded periodically the center of the Paris Basin from The sinuous parts of the valley, with wavelengths of the English Channel, along a low Seine corridor limited to 4–5 km, classically display low convex and asymmetric the north by the NW-SE Bray antiform. After a lacustrine lobes gently sloping to the downstream side, opposite to phase in the Ypresian (Sparnacian clays), the last important high, abrupt, and partly rocky slopes sharply cut into the con- layer of Lutetian marine limestone (“calcaire grossier”) was cave sides, either directly into the plateau or into the upstream deposited in a large bay. It presently forms structural sur- side of the inner lobes. The most of these convex lobes are faces in the Vexin Français and south of the Seine River. elongated perpendicularly to the general trend of the valley, Continued by lacustrine and lagoonal sand, marl, and lime- over 6–7 km. With altitude decreasing from 80 to 90 m to the stone locally interbedded with gypsum and silcretes of Late fl oor, they entirely belong to the valley domain, the total Eocene age, this series was fi nally covered by thick littoral width of which is therefore highly variable. Moreover, blunt sand layers deposited in the old marine corridor and in the hillsides with concave outlines, disconnected from the river, Fontainebleau gulf, capped by thin lacustrine silicifi ed draw ancient contours of meanders which later migrated clay (“meulière”) closing the sedimentary cycle in Chattian- downstream, also contributing to increase the total width of Aquitanian times. the valley, up to 2 (Vernon, Port-Mort) to 4 km (Buchelay- The later erosion of this series was induced by shallow Mantes-la-Jolie, Gaillon) or even 6 km (abandoned meander inversion of the basin, accompanied by the progressive for- of Daubeuf, west of Les Andelys) (Fig. 3.2b ). mation and incision of a paleo-Loire-Seine drainage axis oriented to the Channel along NW-SE structures (Seine fault, shallow synforms and antiforms). Leading to the formation 3.3 Geology of the surface that presently forms the main plateau, this phase of denudation resulted in partial erosion of the upper Downstream of Mantes-la-Jolie, picturesque outcrops of layers of the Cenozoic series. It only preserved the narrow Cretaceous chalk form an increasing proportion of the buttes of Oligocene sand capped by hard silcrete (“meulière”), valley- side profi les (Fig. 3.3 ). Unique among landforms usu- which form the remote frame of the valley in the Vexin ally covered by soils and superfi cial deposits, they announce Français and Mantois regions (Fig. 3.4 ). Before the Plio- the white vertical cliffs of the Normandy coast and reinforce Quaternary dissection, these buttes were overlooking a large the scientifi c interest of landscapes which may be considered plain where structural surfaces shaped into the Cenozoic as potential geomorphosites (Reynard et al. 2009 ). They limestone layers merged to the west (Vexin Normand) with refl ect the entrenchment of the Seine valley into the oldest of the exhumed sub-Eocene erosion surface cut into the chalk the layers that form this part of the Paris Basin, to the west layers (Dewolf 1982 ). Reworked until the Pliocene, this and northwest of the Cenozoic plateaus of Île-de-France. surface corresponds to the “fl int clay surface” identifi ed in After a long period of emersion since the end of the Normandy. Pockets of reddish fl int clay are visible under this Jurassic, a marine transgression occurred in the Paris Basin surface, in quarry walls around Vernon (Fig. 3.5a ). They in mid-Cretaceous times (Aptian-Albian). This was the indicate the contribution of subsurface karstic processes to beginning of a long sequence of high sea levels during which its shaping and the preservation of weathering products in carbonate sediments were deposited on vast regions, in warm depressions and pits formed by dissolution. and shallow water. Hundreds of meters of chalk layers were deposited over large parts of northwestern Europe. Here, the last of them were deposited in the Campanian (83–70 mil- 3.4 Landforms and Quaternary Evolution lion years), after which the basin progressively emerged and was submitted to erosion. Older chalk layers (Santonian, The landscapes of the Seine valley were formed during the Coniacian, Turonian) outcrop in the lower parts of the valley incision phase that followed the last planation stages, the age slopes, downstream of Bonnières and mainly on the right of which is given by alluvial deposits of the paleo-Loire- side. All of them generally contain more or less regularly Seine preserved on the plateau and known as “sables de spaced fl int layers and nodules which contribute to increase Lozère” or granitic sands – i.e., produced by weathering of their relative resistance to weathering and slumping. This granitic gravels transported from the Massif Central. The 22 J.-P. Peulvast et al.

Fig. 3.4 Geological profi le of the Seine valley and southern Vexin Français “Sannoisian” (Early Rupelian); e 3 marl, “Ludian” (Priabonian); 1 between Vétheuil and La Roche-Guyon (From Pomerol and Feugueur e Beauchamp sand (Bartonian); e ii − i limestone (“calcaire grossier”), (1974 ), modifi ed). m i silcrete (“meulière de Montmorency”), Chattian; m ii Lutetian; e iii Cuise sand (Ypresian); e iv plastic clay, “Sparnacian” (early Fontainebleau sand, Stampian (Rupelian); m marl and green clay, Ypresian); c 8 white chalk, Campanian; c 7 white chalk, Santonian-Coniacian

Pliocene to Early Pleistocene (Gelasian) age of these sands is layers of sand and gravels. These alluvial deposits often con- established from outcrops in the region of Fécamp, close to tain huge blocks (“blocs démesurés”) of sandstone or lime- the English Channel coast, which also registered a regional stone transported on ice fl oes during powerful fl ows triggered uplift of 60–100 m since that time (Quesnel et al. 2003 ). by seasonal thawing of snow and fl uvial ice. Combined with lowering sea levels and repeated Quaternary Also effi cient in the affl uent valleys, owing to imperme- episodes of emersion of the Channel, this uplift determined ability of the frozen bedrock, these processes interacted with the incision of the lower Seine valley in the former plain. fl uvial erosion all along the Pleistocene, leading to the for- Although deprived of part of its water by the diversion of the mation, deepening, exaggeration, and migration of the large Loire River to the Atlantic in the Early Pleistocene, the Seine meanders. In a magisterial study of the Quaternary geology River maintained its former direction, but its incision in a in the middle course of the Seine valley, F. Lécolle (1986 ) slowly uplifting region was accompanied by the formation of described the alluvial deposits preserved in the form of wide large meanders progressively entrenched into the plateau. glacis on the lower parts of the convex lobes of the meanders This history is inseparable of its bioclimatic context, with and the original type of evolution that characterized this seg- the alternating glacial-interglacial and stadial-interstadial peri- ment deprived of true fl uvial terraces (Fig. 3.6a ). The system ods of the last 2.6 million years, succeeding to warmer of meanders evolved both by continuous deepening and by Pliocene conditions. Like the rest of Western Europe, the progressive lateral migration of the river, leading to the region suffered increasingly severe, long, and frequent periods formation of “conservative meanders.” of periglacial climate during the Pleistocene, especially in the From a detailed study of the large sand pits opened in the last 700,000 years and until the end of the Younger Dryas, alluvial cover of the convex lobes down to the modern allu- 11,500 years ago. In such cold and mostly dry conditions, with vial plain, F. Lécolle evidenced series of 100 m wide stepped continuous permafrost blocking water infi ltration, rock disin- terraces shaped into the bedrock and separated from each tegration was more effi cient than dissolution in carbonate other by scarps of 1–2 m (Fig. 3.6b ). Each step bears oblique rocks, especially in the chalk, which suffered deep frost shat- and partly embedded sets of deposits defi ned as “alluvial tering. Mass wasting was effi cient in steep slopes formed by nappes,” the lower and upper limits of which are those of the fl uvial sapping and submitted to processes such as rock falls, major erosion phases which shaped the bedrock steps or solifl uction, debris fl ows, or superfi cial runoff (Fig. 3.5b ). paleochannels (Fig. 3.6b ). In the meanders of Guernes and Large quantities of waste were provided to the Seine River Moisson, 16 of them were identifi ed, corresponding to which, under periglacial climates, carried and deposited thick Mid- and Late-Pleistocene sequences of Late Elsterian to 3 The Seine River from Ile-de-France to Normandy: Geomorphological and Cultural Landscapes of a Large Meandering Valley 23

Fig. 3.5 Weathering mantle and superfi cial deposits on the Seine chalk and fl ints at the mouth of a short periglacial gully incised in the valley sides (Photos J.P. Peulvast). (a ) Karstic pits and fl int clay at the lower Epte valley side between Sainte-Geneviève-les-Gasny and edge of the Vexin Normand plateau above Sainte-Geneviève-lès-Gasny. Giverny. Legend : 1 Frost-shattered chalk, 2 Longitudinal debris fl ow (b ) Stratifi ed talus over longitudinal debris fl ow deposit and frost-shattered deposit, 3 Lateral colluvial deposit

Fig. 3.6 Meanders and alluvial deposits in the Seine valley between (Elsterian ?), 9 Loess, 10 Pre- Quaternary bedrock. I, II, III, IV: numbers of Mantes-la-Jolie and Freneuse. Slightly modifi ed from F. Lécolle (1986 ). the alluvial “nappes” (see b ). (b ) Profi le of the alluvial nappes and (a ) Map of the alluvial deposits and paleochannels showing the paleochannels in the Guernes meander. Note the oblique pattern downstream migration of the entrenched meanders of Guernes and corresponding to the lateral migration accompanying the progressive Moisson. Legend: 1 Altitude, 2 Limit of the Mantes-la-Jolie agglomeration, incision and the lack of fl uvial terraces. Legend: 1 Chalk; 2 Ice-transported 3 Sand or gravel pit, 4 Holocene deposits, 5 Early and mid-Weichselian block; 3 Pebbles, gravel, sand, 4 Frost-shattered pebbles; 5 Sand; 6 Silt; 7 deposits, 6 Saalian deposits, 7 Elsterian deposits, 8 High level terrace Fluvial clay, 8 Soil, with pedogenetic reddening; 9 Cryoturbation features 3 The Seine River from Ile-de-France to Normandy: Geomorphological and Cultural Landscapes of a Large Meandering Valley 25

Mid- Weichselian ages, as determined from their degree of fi ne-grained material by superfi cial solifl uction. Another weathering and cryoturbation as well as from their fossil type of deposit was observed at the bottom of one of the fauna and their prehistoric industries. A large part of these regularly spaced funnels that separate the pinnacles, east of deposits refl ect catastrophic sedimentation events in cold, Giverny. Here, thick layers of heterometric material refl ect periglacial conditions with strong seasonal contrasts. Erosive transport and accumulation processes involving debris stages might correspond to the beginning of milder periods fl ows along the talweg (Fig. 3.5b ). This might confi rm the with liberation of water giving to the river an increased suggestion of C. Pomerol (Pomerol and Feugueur 1974 ) transport capacity. Their disposition, their superfi cial trunca- that seasonal thawing of snow patches and of the perma- tion by wide glacis, as well as the preservation of stepped frost active layer might have activated combined processes paleochannels on the convex side of the valley fl oor result of gully incision and mass wasting in slopes exposed to from simultaneous lateral migration of the river and vertical SW, S, and SE. erosion in the meandering segments. This migration both refl ects an exaggeration of the sinuosity and a downstream migration of the valley meanders (Fig. 3.6a ). On convex 3.5 Landscapes: Human Impact, Cultural lobes as well as on all concave sides of the meanders, a Perspectives, and Preservation narrow strip of modern alluvial deposits separates the hill slopes from the river. The most famous sites of this region result from historic val- Spectacular chalk pinnacles alternating with steep fun- orization of the steepest hillslopes and pinnacles on the right nels and rectilinear slopes ornate the right side of the valley side of the valley. The medieval castles of La Roche-Guyon in the meanders of Moisson, Les Andelys, and Poses. and Château-Gaillard were built on rocky promontories of Capped in the southeast (Limay, Vétheuil) by a short cor- the concave sides of the Moisson and Les Andelys meanders, nice of Lutetian limestone which slightly receded by slid- opposite to large convex lobes, offering excellent views on ing over the Sparnacian clay (Figs. 3.1 and 3.4 ), these the river and some of the widest panoramas over the valley hillsides bear the marks of periglacial processes. Rectilinear (Fig. 3.7 ). Although largely destroyed after being won by profi les (Richter slopes) are well-developed downstream of Philippe August in 1203, the Château-Gaillard still presents Les Andelys (Côte-des-Deux-Amants; Fig. 3.3b ) and on imposing remains, including an enormous keep, of a fortress concave segments of the left side, face to the north which had been built at the top of a narrow chalk promon- (Bonnières-Port-Villez). Their contact with the alluvial tory, over the confl uence zone of the Cambon and Seine plain is sharp, refl ecting the scarcity of talus deposits. With Rivers. The natural site itself had been modifi ed in order to their alternate layers of fi ne gravel and bigger debris, these make it impregnable (unsuccessfully!), with the excavation “grèzes” refl ect the variable effi ciency of frost shattering in of a deep moat isolating the pinnacle from the plateau. The the Late- Pleistocene cold stages and the redistribution of site of La Roche-Guyon was also fortifi ed at the end of the

Fig. 3.7 Medieval castles in the Seine valley. A. Château Gaillard, Les Andelys (Photo C. Giusti) 26 J.-P. Peulvast et al.

Fig. 3.8 The human impact on the landscapes: Haute-Isle (E of La Roche-Guyon). (a ) The Assumption troglodyte church, seventeenth century (Photo C. Giusti) (b ) Haute-Isle: the chalk pinnacles, toward Vétheuil. Postcard, ca 1900, coll. J.P. Peulvast. Note the importance of the cultivated area, even on steep slopes (orchards); compare with Fig . 3.1. Upslope, the Lutetian limestone cornice is excavated by multiple quarries, now abandoned 3 The Seine River from Ile-de-France to Normandy: Geomorphological and Cultural Landscapes of a Large Meandering Valley 27

Fig. 3.9 The Seine River at Lavacourt, painting by Claude Monet, 1880. Dallas Museum of Art, Munger Fund (Public Domain). Note the partly vegetated sand banks in the middle of the shallow channel twelfth century, in order to watch both the Seine and Epte tree species derive from the fruit trees which formerly valley from the top of a 38 m high keep built on a crest were grown here together with vine. Photos and postcards between two steep funnels. Reinforced by two surrounding dating to the beginning of the twentieth century show an walls in the thirteenth century, it later lost 22 m of its height. entirely cultivated landscape, with narrow plots elongated Subterranean stairs connect it to the modern castle built in in the slopes, even in their steepest parts (Fig. 3.8b ). This the sixteenth to eighteenth centuries in the partly artifi cial may explain the erosion of the already thin soils. Currently, cliff shaped below the old keep. Like the castle, the sur- actions of protection (such as the classifi cation of the rounding village comprises many troglodyte dwellings, “coteaux de La Roche- Guyon” as ZNIEFF or zone of called “boves.” Natural caves are scarce and rather small in faunistic and fl oristic interest) hardly succeed in maintain- the porous chalk (Rodet 1991), but many cavities perforate ing the calcicole grasslands in spite of their botanic value the pinnacles. Most of them were hollowed out as premises (various species of orchids, in particular). However, grass- for breeding pigeons or making wine. They are already men- lands are maintained around Château- Gaillard, owing to tioned in the seventeenth century by the poet Boileau, the the Natura 2000 program which helped restoring sheep nephew of whom ordered the excavation and construction of breeding (Dumont-Fillon 2002 ). a troglodyte church in 1670, at Haute-Isle (Fig. 3.8a ). These spectacular landscapes face convex lobes where The concave sides of the meanders are also known for vast sand pits and other shallow depressions refl ecting their vegetation adapted to the high lime content of their former sand and gravel extraction only leave scattered rural thin rendzina soils. Although rich in protected species of or wooded areas, around isolated villages and farms. Some Mediterranean-alpine affi nities representing heritages of of them were reforested or used as golf links (Moisson), warmer Holocene times, the grass formations typical of whereas others, excavated below the water table, were trans- the steepest slopes exposed to the south between the fun- formed in lakes dedicated to nautical leisure (Sandrancourt, nels tend to recede owing to the abandonment of the for- Lavacourt, Poses) or bird protection and reproduction mer pastoral activity. Among those that are progressively (Guernes, Moisson, Bernières, Poses). The river itself was occupying these slopes and closing the landscapes, many strongly modifi ed: its shallow mobile channels and islands, 28 J.-P. Peulvast et al. still visible on Monet’s paintings (around 1880) (Fig. 3.9 ), combination of natural and cultural heritages, making it a were replaced by a large fl uvial way artifi cially deepened high place of “cultural geomorphology” (Panizza and through dredging and construction of dams and locks Piacente 2003 ) . (Méricourt, Port-Mort, Amfreville; Fig. 3.2b ). Only big winter fl oods resuscitate for a while the former systems of anastomosing channels in the modern alluvial plain References (Fig. 3.1 ). These heavily transformed landscapes are hardly remi- Dewolf Y (1982) Le contact Île de France/Basse Normandie, évolution niscent of those represented by Corot, Maugendre, Monet géodynamique. Thèse, Mémoires et Documents de Géographie, CNRS, Paris (Skeggs 1988 ), and the other artists who had visited the Dumont-Fillon N (2002) Les politiques publiques de paysage et de pat- region or settled there. However, not only the changing rimoine: un outil de gestion des territoires. Le cas du Marais Vernier parts of the landscapes were painted but also the fi elds, (Eure) et des coteaux de La Roche-Guyon (Val-d’Oise). Thèse de crops, curtains of willows, alders and poplars along the Doctorat, ENGREF, Paris Jacobs EP (2007) Le piège diabolique. Editions Blake et Mortimer, Seine River, and natural or artifi cial water stretches refl ect- Bruxelles ing variable skies. Permanent elements were also immortal- Lécolle F (1986) Le cours moyen de la Seine au Pléistocène moyen et ized such as Château-Gaillard and the chalk pinnacles at supérieur. Géologie et préhistoire. Thèse de Doctorat d’Etat, Les Andelys, by Joseph M. W. Turner, Paul Signac, or Université Pierre et Marie Curie, Paris VI Panizza M, Piacente S (2003) Geomorfologia Culturale. Pitagora Félix Vallotton, and the hillsides of Vétheuil, Rolleboise, Editrice, Bologna and Giverny by Claude Monet, Theodore Robinson, or Pomerol C, Feugueur LL (1974) Bassin de Paris. Ile-de-France. Pays de Maximilien Luce. Even the twentieth century comics art Bray. Guides géologiques régionaux. Masson, Paris valorized some of them, since the site and castle of La Quesnel F, Catt JA, Laignel B, Bourdillon C, Meyer R (2003) The Neogene and Quaternary Clay-with-fl int north and south of the Roche-Guyon were used by Edgar P. Jacobs (2007 ) as the Channel: comparisons of distribution, age, genetic processes and scenery (between the Cretaceous and an apocalyptic geodynamics. J Quat Sci 18(3–4):283–294 future!) of “Le Piège diabolique,” one of the adventures of Reynard E, Coratza P, Regolini-Bissig G (2009) Geomorphosites. Pfeil, Blake and Mortimer. Thus, in spite of the extractive activ- München Rodet J (1991) Les karsts de la craie. Etude comparative. Thèse de ity, still ongoing in parts of the valley fl oor, the harmony of Doctorat d’Etat, Université Paris-Sorbonne, Paris IV the landscapes is preserved forever through these Skeggs D (1988) Monet et la Seine. Impressions d’un fl euve. Albin famous works which contribute to give this region its unique Michel, Paris