Pays de Bray

The Pays de Bray is a small (about 750 km²) natural region of France situated to the north-east of Rouen, straddling the French départements of the Seine-Maritime, Somme and Oise (hence divided among the official regions of Haute-Normandie and Picardie). It is also known as the petite Suisse normande ("Little Normand Switzerland"). The landscape is of bocage, a land use which arises from its clay soil; suited to the development of pasture for the raising of dairy cattle. It produces famous butters and cheeses among which the Neuchâtel. [http://www.leclosduquesnay.fr/villes.htm info site on the Pays de Bray.] ]

Etymology

Etymologically, the name of "Bray" comes from a Gaulish word "braco" > old French "Bray" marsh, swamp. It appears to be so named as the soil distinguishes it from the neighbouring Pays de Caux; the one of sticky clay, the other on dry, firm chalk.

Geology

Viewed geologically, the Pays de Bray is a relatively small eroded anticline along the Bray fault, breaking through rocks on the fringe of the Parisian Basin. The latter forming the chalk plateaus around it. It is a small version of the Weald of Kent and Sussex but reveals the beds more deeply; down to the Upper Jurassic clay.

To the north is the Upper Cretaceous plateau of Picardy with the Pays de Caux to the west and the Vexin to the south-east. The erosion has exposed clay beds in an elliptically-shaped region which is called the "buttonhole" of the Pays de Bray. A "boutonnière" (buttonhole), in French geological language, is an eroded anticline. This is why the Pays de Bray's outline is shaped as a buttonhole, marked as it is with surrounding escarpments of 60 to 100 metres in height, making it a distinct physical and cultural entity. [http://www.leclosduquesnay.fr/villes.htm info site on the Pays de Bray.] ]

The pays de Bray is rich in springs and several watercourses rise there; notably the Epte and the Andelle, tributaries of the Seine. The Béthune and the Eauline flow into the Arques which enters the English Channel at Dieppe. Among the most notable springs are those of Forges-les-Eaux ("Forges-The-Waters") which gave it and its surroundings the reknown of a spa. As a result of its clay-rich soil, the traditional building style of the Pays de Bray is of brick and tile, although places such as Lyons-la-Forêt having maintained its early 17th architecture throughout, show wattle and daub structures. [http://lyonslaforet.free.fr/ Pictures – Some of the town's cultural traits] .]

The cross-Channel geological structure

The Bray Fault is part of the Lizard front which is represented also in The Lizard and Start Point, Devon. It is also part of the anticline which lies to the south of the Isle of Wight. The chalk of that island's central ridge is cognate with that of the Pays de Bray's northern escarpment. The syncline to the north of the Isle of Wight underlies the Hampshire Basin and rises in the next anticline to form Salisbury Plain and the Wealden ridge of which the territory of Boulogne-sur-Mer, the Boulonnais is the equivalent feature in France. The syncline of south Hampshire is represented by the bay and département of Somme.

Fundamentally, the Bray fault dates from the late Carboniferous and early Permian but the effect in France and England, of its associated earth movements, has quietly continued so as to gently fold the overlying Jurassic and Cretaceous strata.

Geography

The main towns of the Pays de Bray are Neufchâtel-en-Bray, Forges-les-Eaux and Gournay-en-Bray. It is primarily an agricultural region. Its "brand" products are its three AOC, Neufchâtel cheese, the cider spirit, Calvados and Normandy pommeau. The famous local speciality of fromage frais called petit Suisse was launched from a farm near Gournay-en-Bray; Charles Gervais set up his first factory at Ferrières-en-Bray and his second one at Neufchâtel-en-Bray. [http://www.leclosduquesnay.fr/villes.htm info site on the Pays de Bray.] ]

Communications

Road

The Pays de Bray is served mainly by two axial roads:
* From east to west the "route départmentale" (D road) D915, the Paris-to-Dieppe road which meets the Reims to Rouen road at Gournay-en-Bray.
* North and south, the Autoroute (motorway or turnpike) A28, part of the road called the Estuaries Autoroute, joining Boulogne-sur-Mer to Rouen.

Rail

The rail network is reduced to two lines carrying a light goods traffic only. They run between Paris and Dieppe "via" Pontoise and Reims to Rouen "via" Beauvais. They merge between Gournay-en-Bray and Forges-les-Eaux.

Adjoining natural regions

* Pays de Caux (to the west)
* Vexin normand (to the south)
* Pays de Thelle (to the south-east)
* Beauvaisis (to the east)

References

*fr wikipedia article [http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pays_de_Bray Pays de Bray]
*Anon. "Carte géologique de la France à l'échelle du millionième" 6th edition. (2003) ISBN 2-7159-2158-6

External links

The principal town of the northern Pays de Bray :
* [http://www.neufchatel.fr/ NEUFCHATEL.fr - Neufchâtel en Bray] . The English version is not yet running.
* [http://www.paysdebray.org/ Cultural & tourism association of the Normandy part of the Pays de Bray] . The English version is not yet running.