Karstic valleys, Vineyards and Palafittic Settlements of the External Jura

Abstract

The Jura massif, which gave his name to the Jurassic period, comprises a folded mountainous eastern part (internal Jura) and a hilly and tabular western part, which is the focus of this contribution. The external Jura is a part of the charming French countryside displaying both original geomorphological landscapes as well as distinctive local products. It is especially the case of the fold-and-thrust belt overriding the Bresse graben, which bears the Jura vineyards mainly growing on Triassic and Liassic marls and providing the unique Château-Chalon ‘yellow wine’. By contrast, the Jura plateaus include karstic plateaus with picturesque valleys called ‘reculées’ and glacially formed lakes. During the Holocene, these lake shores were inhabited by Neolithic cultural groups representative of the earliest European agrarian societies, who built pile-dwelling settlements inscribed in 2011 by UNESCO as World Heritage Sites.