Prochain point : lat="49.09597" lon="1.85569"
A village nestling in a valley
Avernes nestles at the bottom of a valley served by several springs; the water runs down into the valley from the slopes of the Buttes d'Arthies. The layout of the village is influenced by the relief and the hydrographic conditions of the terrain. The first human settlement here is thought to have occurred during the Gallo-Roman and Merovingian periods, but the village really began to develop from the thirteenth century onwards. The settlement initially grew up around the church to the south, then began spreading slightly northwards around the farm clusters and in the hamlet of Chantereine. In the nineteenth century, the old railway line encircled the village to the north, causing it to expand from east to west. Over the last quarter of the twentieth century, as new low-rise buildings were built, the various sections of the village merged. These new constructions have replaced the gardens and orchards that once surrounded the village. The older built-up area is very dense, with the buildings standing in a line along the street, whereas the new buildings are set back, often in the middle of their plots.
Avernes' built heritage is fairly diverse, comprising numerous buildings connected to agriculture, but also town houses or mansions with more sought-after architecture. The main building materials used are limestone, with plaster and lime render, giving the village a very mineral ambience.
The Galluis Wood
The village is surrounded by natural features, with the wooded Gadancourt Promontory to the north-west, and the agricultural plateau dotted with copses and the Galluis Wood to the south-west. This last extends as far as the villages of Frémainville, Avernes, Lainville-en-Vexin and Jambville. It is one of the main forested areas on the Vexin Plateau, combining regional forest and several private properties, and covering an area of 650 hectares. The tops of the hillocks are covered with acidophilic plane trees. The other types of trees found in this wood (chestnut, hornbeam, ash and wild cherry) grow on poor, somewhat acidic soil. The species that do not occur naturally in the region, such as the Douglas fir, were planted as part of reforestation projects. A wide variety of other plants can also be found in the Galluis Wood, including bilberries, sweet woodruff and various ferns, such as the royal fern, uncommon in Ile-de-France. This area as a whole is classed as a 'Natural Zone of Ecological, Faunal and Floral Interest' (abbreviated to ZNIEFF in French).
