commune
A commune is an alternative term for an intentional community. Commune or comună or comune or other derivations may also refer to:
Administrative-territorial entities
* Commune (administrative division), a municipality or township
** Communes of ...
in the
Vienne
Vienne (; Poitevin-Saintongeais: ''Viéne'') is a landlocked department in the French region of Nouvelle-Aquitaine. It takes its name from the river Vienne. It had a population of 438,435 in 2019.department in the
Nouvelle-Aquitaine
Nouvelle-Aquitaine (; oc, Nòva Aquitània or ; eu, Akitania Berria; Poitevin-Saintongeais: ''Novéle-Aguiéne'') is the largest administrative region in France, spanning the west and southwest of the mainland. The region was created by t ...
region
In geography, regions, otherwise referred to as zones, lands or territories, are areas that are broadly divided by physical characteristics (physical geography), human impact characteristics (human geography), and the interaction of humanity and t ...
in western
France
France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...
. The commune has 180 inhabitants (2019).
Asnières-sur-Blour is located roughly halfway between the cities of
Limoges
Limoges (, , ; oc, Lemòtges, locally ) is a city and Communes of France, commune, and the prefecture of the Haute-Vienne Departments of France, department in west-central France. It was the administrative capital of the former Limousin region ...
and
Poitiers
Poitiers (, , , ; Poitevin: ''Poetàe'') is a city on the River Clain in west-central France. It is a commune and the capital of the Vienne department and the historical centre of Poitou. In 2017 it had a population of 88,291. Its agglomerat ...
. Its land is formed by a 3 percent of steep and grisp valleys, 38% of clay soils in the
Seuil du Poitou
The Seuil du Poitou is a geological denomination for an area in western central France where the Paris (Northeast) and Aquitaine (Southwest) sedimentary basins meet, and which also is a gap between the ancient mountain ranges Massif Armoricain (Nor ...
upland, pink
granite
Granite () is a coarse-grained (phaneritic) intrusive igneous rock composed mostly of quartz, alkali feldspar, and plagioclase. It forms from magma with a high content of silica and alkali metal oxides that slowly cools and solidifies undergro ...
soils (21%),
diorite
Diorite ( ) is an intrusive igneous rock formed by the slow cooling underground of magma (molten rock) that has a moderate content of silica and a relatively low content of alkali metals. It is intermediate in composition between low-silic ...
soils (22%) and
leucogranite
Leucogranite is a light-colored, granitic, igneous rock containing almost no dark minerals. Alaskite is a synonym.oceanic
Oceanic may refer to:
*Of or relating to the ocean
*Of or relating to Oceania
**Oceanic climate
**Oceanic languages
**Oceanic person or people, also called "Pacific Islander(s)"
Places
* Oceanic, British Columbia, a settlement on Smith Island, ...
with moderate hot and dry summers, slowly raining in the fall and with no excessively cold winters.
Toponymy
The toponym derives from the
Latin
Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...
word ''asinus'' and the
suffix
In linguistics, a suffix is an affix which is placed after the stem of a word. Common examples are case endings, which indicate the grammatical case of nouns, adjectives, and verb endings, which form the conjugation of verbs. Suffixes can carry ...
''-aria'' to mean what has a concern or is a place of donkeys. Probably, the name is due to the presence of various mills which were steered by a high number of mules.
Economy
The main source of employment is agriculture, mainly sheep farming. Of a complexive farming surface which as of 2010 amounted to 2,590 hectares, 20% was used for the cultivation of
common wheat
Common wheat (''Triticum aestivum''), also known as bread wheat, is a cultivated wheat species. About 95% of wheat produced worldwide is common wheat; it is the most widely grown of all crops and the cereal with the highest monetary yield.
T ...
and ''
hordeum
''Hordeum'' is a genus of annual and perennial plants in the grass family. They are native throughout the temperate regions of Africa, Eurasia, and the Americas.
One species, ''Hordeum vulgare'' (barley), has become of major commercial importan ...
'', 50% to forage and 23% for grass. From 2000 to 2010 the number of farm naimals more than doubled increasing from 942 to 1,732 units, so as to become the main economic activity of the area and to constitute one of the most important herd of the Vienne Department which in 2011 counted 48,000 registered farm animals. As a part of a more general trend diffused in the whole region which in the 1990-2007 had lost the 43& of the numerosity of its sheep solely destined to the production of meat for human consumption, the number of ovine resources fell from 9,128 to 7,614 units between 2000 and 2010. Poultry farming ended in 2010.
Landscape
In 1965 a
French Revolution
The French Revolution ( ) was a period of radical political and societal change in France that began with the Estates General of 1789 and ended with the formation of the French Consulate in November 1799. Many of its ideas are considere ...
wood of freedom was hammered at the border with the departments of
Charente
Charente (; Saintongese: ''Chérente''; oc, Charanta ) is a department in the administrative region of Nouvelle-Aquitaine, south western France. It is named after the river Charente, the most important and longest river in the department, an ...
and
Haute-Vienne
Haute-Vienne (; oc, Nauta Vinhana, ; English: Upper Vienne) is a department in the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region in southwest-central France. Named after the Vienne River, it is one of the twelve departments that together constitute Nouvelle-Aquitai ...
. According to the local inventory of the remarkable trees updated by the Poitou-Charentes administration, the town hosts a
pedunculate oak
''Quercus robur'', commonly known as common oak, pedunculate oak, European oak or English oak, is a species of flowering plant in the beech and oak family, Fagaceae. It is a large tree, native to most of Europe west of the Caucasus. It is widel ...
.
The Asnières basins are protected under the EU
Habitats Directive
The Habitats Directive (more formally known as Council Directive 92/43/EEC on the Conservation of natural habitats and of wild fauna and flora) is a directive adopted by the European Community in 1992 as a response to the Berne Convention. The E ...
and the land delimited by Villedon, Ecluseaux and the mills of Asnières belongs to a natural area of ecological, faunal and floristic interest (in French: ''
Zone naturelle d'intérêt écologique, faunistique et floristique
A Zone naturelle d'intérêt écologique, faunistique et floristique (Natural zone of ecological interest, fauna and flora), abbreviated as ZNIEFF, is a type of natural environment recognized by France.
The inventory of a ZNIEFF area is an invent ...
'').Secrétariat scientifique de l'inventaire des ZNIEFF, DREAL Poitou-Charentes , 2011
See also
*
Communes of the Vienne department
The following is a list of the 266 communes of the Vienne department of France
France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions ...