PIERRES AIGÜES

Surrounded by woodland and vineyards, Saint-Aignan-de-Grand-Lieu has grown up on the edge of an exceptional wetland: Lake Grand-Lieu. Saint-Aignan-de-Grand-Lieu is one of the city's few windows onto this nature reserve.

We know it's there. It's the largest lowland lake in France in winter and bathes nine riverside communes, but you can walk right past it without even noticing. This is because Grand-Lieu Lake is a discreet lake, incognito behind the curtains of the reed beds that surround it. The Pierres aiguës site, just a few minutes from the village, is a good place to flush out the lake: on either side of the path leading down to the lake, oak trees spread their branches; they meet and intertwine, and the path becomes a vestibule. At the very end, it's big, it's still, it's silent. A great egret pierces the surface of the water with the tip of its beak. A white spoonbill takes to the air - the site is home to the largest colony of this species. On their roots as if on stilts, trees play mangrove, and floating sea grass drifts in the rising wind.