10 January 2012

Beavers in France

Can anyone recommend a good site for beaver in France? The plan is to go to the following: the Alps (Ecrins NP and Vercours), Cevennes, the Camargue and La Brenne, so anywhere in these areas would be good.   I know the fish ponds near Vif, in the Vercours is a site, does anyone have any details of where exactly these are and where to watch from?  Any help much appreciated.  Cheers  Steve

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8 Comments

  • 15 January 2012
    Francine

    Hi Steeve,
    this is not exactly on your planned route but the Geneva Lake, south shore, at the mouth of Dranse river (between Thonon and Evian) is a place where I had great views of beavers.
    Enjoy France,

  • 20 January 2012
    Jon Hall

    Hi Steve, I never looked for Beavers in France. But here is a little advice from Jean-Michel Bompar…

    Hi Jon,

    there are not a lot of beavers near Toulon.
    The species is more common in Ardéche, Rhone, a.s.o.

    We recently found signs of beavers in the two places below :

    1-) south side of the Lac de Quinson : N 43° 41′ 40″ – E 06° 02′ 33″
    2-) at Le Puy-Sainte-Réparade (north of Aix-en-Provence)
    http://maps.google.fr/maps?saddr=Chemin+des+Pradas,+84530+Villelaure&daddr=Route+inconnue&hl=fr&sll=43.682305,5.437396&sspn=0.012585,0.027874&geocode=FVmnmgIdlgBTACkD_exo9yDKEjHIFLInlhH9Yg%3BFXqKmgIdy_VSAA&vpsrc=0&mra=mift&mrsp=1&sz=16&t=m&z=16

  • 20 January 2012
    Steve Babbs

    Thanks Jon. From my own research it seems like Cevennes is a very good area. At least one of the campsites at Florac has them apparently.

  • 18 April 2012
    william

    Hi Unexpectedly saw beavers in the nature reserve just north of Carentan in the Cotentin – amazing sight, saw 3 and I thought they must be over fed ( the french, hey) water voles – but when we talked with the locals they said the castors were there. Seems like normal times for beaver watching are best – morning/evening; we were lucky because before easter, and the nature reserve was deserted apart from us.

    Hope you see some!

    • 18 April 2012
      Steve Babbs

      William thanks for your response. I’ve booked into Camping Chantemerl, Bedoues which has beavers in the campsite. They’ve put us in the space nearest them.

  • 17 January 2015
    Gerard Kirkpatrick

    We have beavers visiting our lake regularly as there are 4 trails which have been used from the small Le Pimperade river to our lake just outside of Messac in the Charente Maritime region. Our dog has killed one unfortunately and I have the skull which is very definitive

  • 12 July 2015
    Gary mellor

    Watched wil Beavers today in Normandy on the river at ducey

  • 5 October 2018
    John

    We think we saw a beaver in Lac Leborn near Clairevivre in the Correze. It was motoring along in the water – couldn’t work out what could be doing that kind of speed. Then we noticed the tail. Must be a beaver, tho haven’t seen any official “reintroduction” information. We were having an early October picnic lunch, and drink had been taken.

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