The Seine River from Ile-de-France to Normandy

3
The Seine River from Ile-de-France
to Normandy: Geomorphological
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-deFrance to Normandy, between Mantes-la-Jolie and the Eure and Andelle confluence 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 fluvial erosion, leading to the formation, deepening, enlargement,
and migration of the large meanders. The resulting, present-day geomorphological landscapes 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 promontories 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, magnified and immortalized the surrounding
landscapes.
Keywords
Meanders • Chalk erosion • Periglacial features • Impressionism • Castles
3.1
J.-P. Peulvast (*)
Geomorphology, University of Paris-Sorbonne, Paris, France
e-mail: [email protected]
F. Bétard
Physical Geography, Paris-Diderot University, Paris, France
e-mail: [email protected]
C. Giusti
Physical Geography and Environmental Sciences,
University of Paris-Sorbonne, Paris, France
e-mail: [email protected]
Introduction
Among the regions of France where remarkable geomorphological 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
Eure and Andelle confluence zone, is one of the most present
in the collective memory. Due to moderate heights, it does
not display the most spectacular landforms in any specific
geomorphic type, although it belongs to one of the major sets
of entrenched meanders known in the world. It rather owes
its fame to events and constructions linked to its position on
the most active way linking Paris to the sea and on the historical border of Normandy, as well as to the numerous literary and pictorial representations of its landscapes. The valley
M. Fort and M.-F. André (eds.), Landscapes and Landforms of France, World Geomorphological Landscapes,
DOI 10.1007/978-94-007-7022-5_3, © Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2014
17
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J.-P. Peulvast et al.
Fig. 3.1 Vétheuil (in the background, right side) and the concave side
of the Moisson meander of the Seine valley, from Haute-Isle (Photo J.P.
Peulvast, January 1982). Only the lower half of the slope is shaped into
the Campanian chalk (pinnacles), whereas the upper half corresponds
to Cenozoic layers. A winter flood underlines some lateral channels
outside the main one (island on the right side)
presents steep sides punctuated by white chalk pinnacles and
pierced by caves and troglodyte dwellings (Fig. 3.1). Its
emblematic sites are the castles of La Roche-Guyon and Les
Andelys (Château-Gaillard), ancient lookouts on the Seine
valley, the latter having been harshly disputed in the thirteenth century between the Duke of Normandy and King of
England, Richard the Lionheart, followed by John Lackland,
and the King of France, Philippe August. But 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 magnified
and immortalized the surrounding landscapes. Beyond the
quality of the light, all these artists were sensitive to a certain
harmony of the local landforms. A more scientific approach
helps in understanding the layout of these landforms and
discovering a rich geomorphological heritage which contributed to justify the preservation of part of them in the “Parc
naturel régional du Vexin Français.”
right side, marks the entrance of the valley in Normandy
(Fig. 3.2a). Upstream, the Seine River separates the Vexin
Français (north), from the Mantois region (south); both units
belong to the same plateau area.
Whereas the Seine River flows to NW, from 19 to 8 m
a.s.l. downstream of Les Andelys, this plateau largely dedicated to farming gently slopes to southeast, from 150 to
160 m in the tabular Vexin Normand to 120–140 m around
Mantes-la-Jolie. Therefore, increasing heights (up to 140 m)
characterize the valley sides. More and more spectacular
downstream, they form outstanding historic and touristic
sites (Château-Gaillard, Côte-des-Deux-Amants; Fig. 3.3a, b).
In the Vexin Français, north of Mantes-la-Jolie, narrow
WNW-ESE alignments of wooded buttes overlook the plateau
close to the valley, reaching 206 m a.s.l. near Vétheuil
(Fig. 3.2a). The valley floor is generally wide (1–2 km),
although it locally narrows to 600 m, between Giverny and
Vernon. However, the presence of a few confluence zones
and, above all, the meandering outlines of the main valley
explain considerable variations in width as well as strong
asymmetries in the valley sides.
Left-side tributaries remain scarce and short down to the
wide confluence plain of the Eure River (Fig. 3.2a).
Downstream of the narrow Vaucouleurs valley, which cuts
through the low fluvial terrace forming the urban site of
Mantes-la-Jolie, a few deep and mostly dry valleys only
incise the rim of the otherwise weakly dissected plateau. On
the right side, short tributaries also dissect the rims of the
Vexin Français and Vexin Normand. Only some of them are
drained by permanent creeks, in their downstream reaches.
3.2
Geographical Setting
Sheltering two important cities, Mantes-la-Jolie and Vernon,
the studied segment of the Seine valley crosses the border
between Île-de-France and Normandy 50–100 km downstream from Paris. It includes two sets of large meanders
separated by a 20 km long rectilinear segment, from Vernon
to Gaillon. The confluence zone of the Epte River, on the
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The Seine River from Ile-de-France to Normandy: Geomorphological and Cultural Landscapes of a Large Meandering Valley
Fig. 3.2 The Seine valley and its surroundings between Mantes-la-Jolie
and the Eure-Andelle confluence zone. (a) 3D representation, from
SRTM DEM (F. Bétard). Note the importance of large enclosed depressions on the valley floor, mainly downstream of Mantes-la-Jolie: active
19
and former sand pits. (b) The Gaillon-Les Andelys meander. Note the
chalk pinnacles around Les Andelys (the small city on the right side),
the large sand pits in the alluvial plain and the Port-Mort dam and lock.
Red strip: the abandoned meander of Daubeuf (Photo J.P. Peulvast)
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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
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The Seine River from Ile-de-France to Normandy: Geomorphological and Cultural Landscapes of a Large Meandering Valley
However, two bigger rivers coming from the humid Pays de
Bray, to the north, form wider confluence zones. The lower
Epte valley, a well-calibrated fluvial trough, only widens at
Giverny, separated from the Seine valley on its last 5 km by
an elongated plateau strip reduced to a low crest near La
Roche-Guyon. On the contrary, the lower Andelle valley,
also turning from SSW to WSW, directly opens on the
3–4 km wide Seine-Eure confluence zone at Pîtres, below a
protruding spur named Côte-des-Deux-Amants.
The sinuous parts of the valley, with wavelengths of
4–5 km, classically display low convex and asymmetric
lobes gently sloping to the downstream side, opposite to
high, abrupt, and partly rocky slopes sharply cut into the concave sides, either directly into the plateau or into the upstream
side of the inner lobes. The most of these convex lobes are
elongated perpendicularly to the general trend of the valley,
over 6–7 km. With altitude decreasing from 80 to 90 m to the
floor, they entirely belong to the valley domain, the total
width of which is therefore highly variable. Moreover, blunt
hillsides with concave outlines, disconnected from the river,
draw ancient contours of meanders which later migrated
downstream, also contributing to increase the total width of
the valley, up to 2 (Vernon, Port-Mort) to 4 km (BuchelayMantes-la-Jolie, Gaillon) or even 6 km (abandoned meander
of Daubeuf, west of Les Andelys) (Fig. 3.2b).
3.3
Geology
Downstream of Mantes-la-Jolie, picturesque outcrops of
Cretaceous chalk form an increasing proportion of the
valley-side profiles (Fig. 3.3). Unique among landforms usually covered by soils and superficial deposits, they announce
the white vertical cliffs of the Normandy coast and reinforce
the scientific interest of landscapes which may be considered
as potential geomorphosites (Reynard et al. 2009). They
reflect the entrenchment of the Seine valley into the oldest of
the layers that form this part of the Paris Basin, to the west
and northwest of the Cenozoic plateaus of Île-de-France.
After a long period of emersion since the end of the
Jurassic, a marine transgression occurred in the Paris Basin
in mid-Cretaceous times (Aptian-Albian). This was the
beginning of a long sequence of high sea levels during which
carbonate sediments were deposited on vast regions, in warm
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 million years), after which the basin progressively emerged and
was submitted to erosion. Older chalk layers (Santonian,
Coniacian, Turonian) outcrop in the lower parts of the valley
slopes, downstream of Bonnières and mainly on the right
side. All of them generally contain more or less regularly
spaced flint layers and nodules which contribute to increase
their relative resistance to weathering and slumping. This
21
resistance allows the formation and preservation of steep
cliffs along rivers and shores.
The Cenozoic sediments that overlay the Late Cretaceous
chalk are only represented to the southeast (Vexin Français)
and to the south, between the Seine and Eure valleys.
Paleocene sediments are absent, except in tiny depressions
where reefal and peri-reefal limestones are preserved along
paleo-fault scarps (Vigny). In the Eocene and Oligocene, the
sea invaded periodically the center of the Paris Basin from
the English Channel, along a low Seine corridor limited to
the north by the NW-SE Bray antiform. After a lacustrine
phase in the Ypresian (Sparnacian clays), the last important
layer of Lutetian marine limestone (“calcaire grossier”) was
deposited in a large bay. It presently forms structural surfaces in the Vexin Français and south of the Seine River.
Continued by lacustrine and lagoonal sand, marl, and limestone locally interbedded with gypsum and silcretes of Late
Eocene age, this series was finally covered by thick littoral
sand layers deposited in the old marine corridor and in the
Fontainebleau gulf, capped by thin lacustrine silicified
clay (“meulière”) closing the sedimentary cycle in ChattianAquitanian times.
The later erosion of this series was induced by shallow
inversion of the basin, accompanied by the progressive formation 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
of the surface that presently forms the main plateau, this
phase of denudation resulted in partial erosion of the upper
layers of the Cenozoic series. It only preserved the narrow
buttes of Oligocene sand capped by hard silcrete (“meulière”),
which form the remote frame of the valley in the Vexin
Français and Mantois regions (Fig. 3.4). Before the PlioQuaternary dissection, these buttes were overlooking a large
plain where structural surfaces shaped into the Cenozoic
limestone layers merged to the west (Vexin Normand) with
the exhumed sub-Eocene erosion surface cut into the chalk
layers (Dewolf 1982). Reworked until the Pliocene, this
surface corresponds to the “flint clay surface” identified in
Normandy. Pockets of reddish flint clay are visible under this
surface, in quarry walls around Vernon (Fig. 3.5a). They
indicate the contribution of subsurface karstic processes to
its shaping and the preservation of weathering products in
depressions and pits formed by dissolution.
3.4
Landforms and Quaternary Evolution
The landscapes of the Seine valley were formed during the
incision phase that followed the last planation stages, the age
of which is given by alluvial deposits of the paleo-LoireSeine preserved on the plateau and known as “sables de
Lozère” or granitic sands – i.e., produced by weathering of
granitic gravels transported from the Massif Central. The
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J.-P. Peulvast et al.
Fig. 3.4 Geological profile of the Seine valley and southern Vexin Français
between Vétheuil and La Roche-Guyon (From Pomerol and Feugueur
(1974), modified). mi silcrete (“meulière de Montmorency”), Chattian; mii
Fontainebleau sand, Stampian (Rupelian); m marl and green clay,
“Sannoisian” (Early Rupelian); e3 marl, “Ludian” (Priabonian);
e1 Beauchamp sand (Bartonian); eii−i limestone (“calcaire grossier”),
Lutetian; eiii Cuise sand (Ypresian); eiv plastic clay, “Sparnacian” (early
Ypresian); c8 white chalk, Campanian; c7 white chalk, Santonian-Coniacian
Pliocene to Early Pleistocene (Gelasian) age of these sands is
established from outcrops in the region of Fécamp, close to
the English Channel coast, which also registered a regional
uplift of 60–100 m since that time (Quesnel et al. 2003).
Combined with lowering sea levels and repeated Quaternary
episodes of emersion of the Channel, this uplift determined
the incision of the lower Seine valley in the former plain.
Although deprived of part of its water by the diversion of the
Loire River to the Atlantic in the Early Pleistocene, the Seine
River maintained its former direction, but its incision in a
slowly uplifting region was accompanied by the formation of
large meanders progressively entrenched into the plateau.
This history is inseparable of its bioclimatic context, with
the alternating glacial-interglacial and stadial-interstadial periods of the last 2.6 million years, succeeding to warmer
Pliocene conditions. Like the rest of Western Europe, the
region suffered increasingly severe, long, and frequent periods
of periglacial climate during the Pleistocene, especially in the
last 700,000 years and until the end of the Younger Dryas,
11,500 years ago. In such cold and mostly dry conditions, with
continuous permafrost blocking water infiltration, rock disintegration was more efficient than dissolution in carbonate
rocks, especially in the chalk, which suffered deep frost shattering. Mass wasting was efficient in steep slopes formed by
fluvial sapping and submitted to processes such as rock falls,
solifluction, debris flows, or superficial runoff (Fig. 3.5b).
Large quantities of waste were provided to the Seine River
which, under periglacial climates, carried and deposited thick
layers of sand and gravels. These alluvial deposits often contain huge blocks (“blocs démesurés”) of sandstone or limestone transported on ice floes during powerful flows triggered
by seasonal thawing of snow and fluvial ice.
Also efficient in the affluent valleys, owing to impermeability of the frozen bedrock, these processes interacted with
fluvial erosion all along the Pleistocene, leading to the formation, deepening, exaggeration, and migration of the large
meanders. In a magisterial study of the Quaternary geology
in the middle course of the Seine valley, F. Lécolle (1986)
described the alluvial deposits preserved in the form of wide
glacis on the lower parts of the convex lobes of the meanders
and the original type of evolution that characterized this segment deprived of true fluvial terraces (Fig. 3.6a). The system
of meanders evolved both by continuous deepening and by
progressive lateral migration of the river, leading to the
formation of “conservative meanders.”
From a detailed study of the large sand pits opened in the
alluvial cover of the convex lobes down to the modern alluvial plain, F. Lécolle evidenced series of 100 m wide stepped
terraces shaped into the bedrock and separated from each
other by scarps of 1–2 m (Fig. 3.6b). Each step bears oblique
and partly embedded sets of deposits defined as “alluvial
nappes,” the lower and upper limits of which are those of the
major erosion phases which shaped the bedrock steps or
paleochannels (Fig. 3.6b). In the meanders of Guernes and
Moisson, 16 of them were identified, corresponding to
Mid- and Late-Pleistocene sequences of Late Elsterian to
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The Seine River from Ile-de-France to Normandy: Geomorphological and Cultural Landscapes of a Large Meandering Valley
Fig. 3.5 Weathering mantle and superficial deposits on the Seine
valley sides (Photos J.P. Peulvast). (a) Karstic pits and flint clay at the
edge of the Vexin Normand plateau above Sainte-Geneviève-lès-Gasny.
(b) Stratified talus over longitudinal debris flow deposit and frost-shattered
23
chalk and flints at the mouth of a short periglacial gully incised in the
lower Epte valley side between Sainte-Geneviève-les-Gasny and
Giverny. Legend: 1 Frost-shattered chalk, 2 Longitudinal debris flow
deposit, 3 Lateral colluvial deposit
Fig. 3.6 Meanders and alluvial deposits in the Seine valley between
Mantes-la-Jolie and Freneuse. Slightly modified from F. Lécolle (1986).
(a) Map of the alluvial deposits and paleochannels showing the
downstream migration of the entrenched meanders of Guernes and
Moisson. Legend: 1 Altitude, 2 Limit of the Mantes-la-Jolie agglomeration,
3 Sand or gravel pit, 4 Holocene deposits, 5 Early and mid-Weichselian
deposits, 6 Saalian deposits, 7 Elsterian deposits, 8 High level terrace
(Elsterian ?), 9 Loess, 10 Pre-Quaternary bedrock. I, II, III, IV: numbers of
the alluvial “nappes” (see b). (b) Profile of the alluvial nappes and
paleochannels in the Guernes meander. Note the oblique pattern
corresponding to the lateral migration accompanying the progressive
incision and the lack of fluvial terraces. Legend: 1 Chalk; 2 Ice-transported
block; 3 Pebbles, gravel, sand, 4 Frost-shattered pebbles; 5 Sand; 6 Silt; 7
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
Mid-Weichselian ages, as determined from their degree of
weathering and cryoturbation as well as from their fossil
fauna and their prehistoric industries. A large part of these
deposits reflect catastrophic sedimentation events in cold,
periglacial conditions with strong seasonal contrasts. Erosive
stages might correspond to the beginning of milder periods
with liberation of water giving to the river an increased
transport capacity. Their disposition, their superficial truncation by wide glacis, as well as the preservation of stepped
paleochannels on the convex side of the valley floor result
from simultaneous lateral migration of the river and vertical
erosion in the meandering segments. This migration both
reflects an exaggeration of the sinuosity and a downstream
migration of the valley meanders (Fig. 3.6a). On convex
lobes as well as on all concave sides of the meanders, a
narrow strip of modern alluvial deposits separates the hill
slopes from the river.
Spectacular chalk pinnacles alternating with steep funnels and rectilinear slopes ornate the right side of the valley
in the meanders of Moisson, Les Andelys, and Poses.
Capped in the southeast (Limay, Vétheuil) by a short cornice of Lutetian limestone which slightly receded by sliding over the Sparnacian clay (Figs. 3.1 and 3.4), these
hillsides bear the marks of periglacial processes. Rectilinear
profiles (Richter slopes) are well-developed downstream of
Les Andelys (Côte-des-Deux-Amants; Fig. 3.3b) and on
concave segments of the left side, face to the north
(Bonnières-Port-Villez). Their contact with the alluvial
plain is sharp, reflecting the scarcity of talus deposits. With
their alternate layers of fine gravel and bigger debris, these
“grèzes” reflect the variable efficiency of frost shattering in
the Late-Pleistocene cold stages and the redistribution of
25
fine-grained material by superficial solifluction. Another
type of deposit was observed at the bottom of one of the
regularly spaced funnels that separate the pinnacles, east of
Giverny. Here, thick layers of heterometric material reflect
transport and accumulation processes involving debris
flows along the talweg (Fig. 3.5b). This might confirm the
suggestion of C. Pomerol (Pomerol and Feugueur 1974)
that seasonal thawing of snow patches and of the permafrost active layer might have activated combined processes
of gully incision and mass wasting in slopes exposed to
SW, S, and SE.
3.5
Landscapes: Human Impact, Cultural
Perspectives, and Preservation
The most famous sites of this region result from historic valorization of the steepest hillslopes and pinnacles on the right
side of the valley. The medieval castles of La Roche-Guyon
and Château-Gaillard were built on rocky promontories of
the concave sides of the Moisson and Les Andelys meanders,
opposite to large convex lobes, offering excellent views on
the river and some of the widest panoramas over the valley
(Fig. 3.7). Although largely destroyed after being won by
Philippe August in 1203, the Château-Gaillard still presents
imposing remains, including an enormous keep, of a fortress
which had been built at the top of a narrow chalk promontory, over the confluence zone of the Cambon and Seine
Rivers. The natural site itself had been modified in order to
make it impregnable (unsuccessfully!), with the excavation
of a deep moat isolating the pinnacle from the plateau. The
site of La Roche-Guyon was also fortified 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
valley from the top of a 38 m high keep built on a crest
between two steep funnels. Reinforced by two surrounding
walls in the thirteenth century, it later lost 22 m of its height.
Subterranean stairs connect it to the modern castle built in
the sixteenth to eighteenth centuries in the partly artificial
cliff shaped below the old keep. Like the castle, the surrounding village comprises many troglodyte dwellings,
called “boves.” Natural caves are scarce and rather small in
the porous chalk (Rodet 1991), but many cavities perforate
the pinnacles. Most of them were hollowed out as premises
for breeding pigeons or making wine. They are already mentioned in the seventeenth century by the poet Boileau, the
nephew of whom ordered the excavation and construction of
a troglodyte church in 1670, at Haute-Isle (Fig. 3.8a).
The concave sides of the meanders are also known for
their vegetation adapted to the high lime content of their
thin rendzina soils. Although rich in protected species of
Mediterranean-alpine affinities representing heritages of
warmer Holocene times, the grass formations typical of
the steepest slopes exposed to the south between the funnels tend to recede owing to the abandonment of the former pastoral activity. Among those that are progressively
occupying these slopes and closing the landscapes, many
tree species derive from the fruit trees which formerly
were grown here together with vine. Photos and postcards
dating to the beginning of the twentieth century show an
entirely cultivated landscape, with narrow plots elongated
in the slopes, even in their steepest parts (Fig. 3.8b). This
may explain the erosion of the already thin soils. Currently,
actions of protection (such as the classification of the
“coteaux de La Roche-Guyon” as ZNIEFF or zone of
faunistic and floristic interest) hardly succeed in maintaining the calcicole grasslands in spite of their botanic value
(various species of orchids, in particular). However, grasslands are maintained around Château-Gaillard, owing to
the Natura 2000 program which helped restoring sheep
breeding (Dumont-Fillon 2002).
These spectacular landscapes face convex lobes where
vast sand pits and other shallow depressions reflecting
former sand and gravel extraction only leave scattered rural
or wooded areas, around isolated villages and farms. Some
of them were reforested or used as golf links (Moisson),
whereas others, excavated below the water table, were transformed in lakes dedicated to nautical leisure (Sandrancourt,
Lavacourt, Poses) or bird protection and reproduction
(Guernes, Moisson, Bernières, Poses). The river itself was
strongly modified: its shallow mobile channels and islands,
28
still visible on Monet’s paintings (around 1880) (Fig. 3.9),
were replaced by a large fluvial way artificially deepened
through dredging and construction of dams and locks
(Méricourt, Port-Mort, Amfreville; Fig. 3.2b). Only big
winter floods resuscitate for a while the former systems of
anastomosing channels in the modern alluvial plain
(Fig. 3.1).
These heavily transformed landscapes are hardly reminiscent of those represented by Corot, Maugendre, Monet
(Skeggs 1988), and the other artists who had visited the
region or settled there. However, not only the changing
parts of the landscapes were painted but also the fields,
crops, curtains of willows, alders and poplars along the
Seine River, and natural or artificial water stretches reflecting variable skies. Permanent elements were also immortalized such as Château-Gaillard and the chalk pinnacles at
Les Andelys, by Joseph M. W. Turner, Paul Signac, or
Félix Vallotton, and the hillsides of Vétheuil, Rolleboise,
and Giverny by Claude Monet, Theodore Robinson, or
Maximilien Luce. Even the twentieth century comics art
valorized some of them, since the site and castle of La
Roche-Guyon were used by Edgar P. Jacobs (2007) as the
scenery (between the Cretaceous and an apocalyptic
future!) of “Le Piège diabolique,” one of the adventures of
Blake and Mortimer. Thus, in spite of the extractive activity, still ongoing in parts of the valley floor, the harmony of
the landscapes is preserved forever through these
famous works which contribute to give this region its unique
J.-P. Peulvast et al.
combination of natural and cultural heritages, making it a
high place of “cultural geomorphology” (Panizza and
Piacente 2003).
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