Cheminas, Ardèche

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Discover the lake of Les Meinettes and its lush green vegetation.

The 80s saw a strong development of arboriculture on many farms, with a diversification of production to include cherries, apricots and peaches. Irrigation had to be developed to keep pace with these developments.
Lac de Meinettes is an artificial hill reservoir. A compacted earth dam crosses the course of the Ozon river, enabling a large volume of water to be stored by holding back runoff from an 11km2 catchment area.
In parallel with the creation of the dam, a huge irrigation network was created, covering 382 hectares of plots. A pumping station extracts the water and sends it into this network. In all, 73 km of pipes supply water to over 250 farms.
The tour is referenced on the Ardèche Hermitage website and app: https://rando-ardeche-hermitage.fr/trek/56800-Le-lac-des-Meinettes

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