The Dombes ( French: [dɔ̃b] ; Arpitan : Domba ) is an area in eastern France , once an independent municipality, formerly part of the province of Burgundy , and now a district comprised in the department of Ain , and bounded on the west by the Saône River, on the south by the Rhône , on the east by the Ain and on the north by the district of Bresse .
19-653: The Formans ( French pronunciation: [fɔʁmɑ̃] ) is a small river in eastern France. It rises in the Dombes plateau in the Ain department and the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region. It flows into the Saône between Saint-Bernard and Trévoux . It is 16.9 km (10.5 mi) long. The Formans, like its main tributary, the Morbier is a watercourse which links the ponds of
38-447: Is a commune in the Ain department in eastern France . Its people are known as Villardois . The town is located within Ain, half-way between Lyon (33 km) and Bourg-en-Bresse (29 km), in the heart of the area known as the Dombes , notable for its hundreds of lakes which are waterfowl habitats and are suitable for breeding fish. Its ornithological park, Parc des Oiseaux , is
57-639: The Dombes plateau with the Saône valley. It is fed by many bodies of water situated in Savigneux , Saint-Jean-de-Thurigneux and Ambérieux-en-Dombes at an altitude of 300m, which is the high point of its drainage basin . The Morbier in turn has its origin in ponds situated within the communes of Civieux bordering Saint-André-de-Corcy . The Formans takes several names (ruisseau de la Pierre, ruisseau de l'Orme), collects other tributaries , and passes through Ars-sur-Formans and Misérieux , reaching its confluence with
76-671: The Duke of Maine , as part of the price for the release of her lover Lauzun . The eldest son of the duke of Maine, Louis-Auguste de Bourbon (1700–1755), prince of Dombes, served in the army of Prince Eugene of Savoy against the Turks (1717), took part in the War of the Polish Succession (1733–1734), and in that of the Austrian Succession (1742-1747). He was made colonel-general of
95-509: The Holy Roman Empire . In 1400, Louis II, Duke of Bourbon , acquired the northern part of the Dombes, together with the lordship of Beaujeu, and two years later bought the southern part from the sires de Thoire, forming the whole into a new sovereign principality of the Dombes, with Trévoux as its capital. The principality was confiscated by King Francis I of France in 1523, along with
114-523: The 15th century, some to earlier periods, and were formed by landed proprietors who in those disturbed times saw a surer source of revenue in fish-breeding than in agriculture. Disease and depopulation resulted from this policy and at the end of the 18th century the Legislative Assembly decided to reduce the area of the pools which then covered twice their present extent. Drainage works were continued, roads cut, and other improvements effected during
133-504: The 19th century; partly as a result of Napoleon III 's installation of Trappist monks in the district to set about the task. Large numbers of fish, principally carp , pike , and tench are still reared profitably. The pools are periodically dried up so the ground can be cultivated. The Dombes [1] ( Latin Dumbae ) once formed part of the Kingdom of Burgundy-Arles . In the 11th century, when
152-571: The Morbier at Sainte-Euphémie . The Morbier (Bief Mort / Bief lent) reaches Sainte Euphémie after passing through Rancé and Toussieux , receiving the Vignol and Caillates rivers and crossing the south of Misérieux. The confluence with the Morbier at Sainte Euphémie is the most remarkable point on the Formans. The Morbier is channeled by a dam wall up to a great lock which creates a small forebay recently used in
171-529: The Rhône attaining an average height of about 1,000 ft (300 m). The Dombes is characterized by an impervious surface consisting of boulder clay and other relics of glacial action. Because of this, there are a large number of rain-water pools, varying for the most part from 35 to 250 acres (1.0 km ) in size which cover some 23,000 acres (93 km ) of its total area of 282,000 acres (1,140 km ). These pools, artificially created, date in many cases from
190-481: The Swiss regiment, governor of Languedoc and master of the hounds of France. He was succeeded, as prince of Dombes, by his brother the count of Eu , who in 1762 surrendered the principality to the crown. The little principality of Dombes showed in some respects signs of a vigorous life; the prince's mint and printing works at Trévoux were long famous, and the college at Thoissey was well endowed and influential. Taking
209-581: The above information from 1911 with that from other sources, the district is composed of glacial till , from a period when the Alpine ice sheet extended over the area, probably from the Mindel and Riss glacials. This appears to be mainly clay deposited in situ as the ice melted. There appears to be also, sand and gravel on the clay in places. This may date from the latest glacial, the Würm . The clay till which also goes by
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#1732859074170228-439: The kingdom began to break up, the northern part of the Dombes came under the power of the lords of Bâgé , and in 1218, by the marriage of Marguerite de Baugé with Humbert IV of Beaujeu , passed to the lords of Beaujeu. The southern portion was held in succession by the lords of Villars and of Thoire . Its lords took advantage of the excommunication of Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor to assert their complete independence of
247-451: The largest in France . The Chalaronne river forms part of the commune's south-western border, flows northward through the western part of the commune, crosses the town, then forms part of its northern border. The lordship of Villars (of which archival evidence dates from 940) became, by marriage, the lordship of Thoire-et-Vilars in 1188, and in about 1400 its caput was Trévoux (the estate
266-580: The malaria. Since the mid 20th century, the district has become fairly prosperous and the INSEE statistics now indicate a steady climb in population numbers. The borders of the Dombes are not sharply defined, especially towards the north, where it continues into the Bresse . The Dombes plateau proper does not include the escarpments (e.g. Côtière ) and the plains along the Rivers Saône, Rhône and Ain. The communes in
285-409: The mouturière industry. At this point the Formans receives the Morbier's entier volume. It then passes through Saint-Didier-de-Formans , dividing the south of Saint Bernard from the north of Trévoux, to reach the Saône. Its mouth is situated at an altitude of 170m. Dombes The region forms an undulating plateau with a slight slope towards the north-west, the higher ground bordering the Ain and
304-469: The now rather old-fashioned but still useful name of boulder clay , is usually very sticky when wet and hard when thoroughly dry. This made arable use of the land with medieval implements impossible and it was unsuitable for pasture most of the time. Usually, such land was left as woodland but here, enterprising landowners seem to have taken it on when nobody else wanted it and attempted to make it produce income by excavating lakes for fish farming . This
323-481: The other possessions of the Constable de Bourbon, was granted in 1527 to the queen-mother, Louise of Savoy , and after her death was held successively by kings Francis I, Henry II and Francis II , and by Catherine de' Medici . In 1561 it was granted to Louis, duc de Montpensier , by whose descendants it was held till, in 1682, Anne Marie Louise of Orléans , the duchess of Montpensier, gave it to Louis XIV 's bastard,
342-768: The wider Dombes region co-operate in several intercommunalities : Communauté de communes de la Dombes (36 communes, seat in Châtillon-sur-Chalaronne ), Communauté de communes Dombes Saône Vallée (19 communes, seat in Trévoux ), and part of the Communauté d'agglomération du Bassin de Bourg-en-Bresse (indicated "CAB" in the table below). 45°58′N 05°00′E / 45.967°N 5.000°E / 45.967; 5.000 Villars-les-Dombes Villars-les-Dombes ( French pronunciation: [vilaʁ le dɔ̃b] , literally Villars near Dombes )
361-415: Was a sensible, commercial idea except in that the open, still and shallow water will have harboured the vectors of malaria . The population therefore remained small and probably sickly, until more effective, 19th century drainage permitted use of some of the land for pasture and modern agricultural methods permitted the heavier land to be used for ploughing. In parallel with these, medical advances overcame
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