The environment for students living between the Loir valley and Bercé forest- part 1

"The Loir Valley is situated 50km from the Loire Valley (other one !) and 200km south west of Paris. It's close to four big towns : Le Mans, Tours, Angers and Orléans. It's a rural area sreved by road, motorway and railway networks. Tree cultivation is important with 53000 hectares of apple trees. Wines extend over 16 communes and include 1,600 hectares of AOC Côteaux du Loir and 128 hectares of AOC Jasnières. Jasnières is a fruity white wine, considered one of the best dry whites in France, with a characteristic "flinty" flavour. It's one of the few white wines to taste good after ageing for 10 or 20 years. In some places, troglodytic architecture can be found. Such cave-like dwellings may be lived in, or used as wine cellars or for growing mushrooms.

Bercé forest covers an area of 5,415 hectares and is situated 30km south west of Le Mans on a plateau at an altitude of 150m. It's said to be all that remains of the ancient forest of Carnutes which stretched from Paris to Bordeaux in the Middle Ages. According to legend, in those times a squirrel could travel from one town to the other without touching the ground. It became a royal forest in 1337, under the control of the forest administration responsible for its development. In 1669, Colbert's decree stated the intention of creating a powerful navy. It was therrfore necessary to cultivate oak trees with very long trunks. The trunks were brought to the Loir, 10 km away, then floated to the naval dockyards in Nantes. In 1791 Bercé forest became a national forest..."