FORMATION OF A LAKE

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10 000 years ago, glaciers melted and retreated to the peaks. They have left in the valleys a multitude of small basins where the water has accumulated : 96% of the mountain lakes were thus created.

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LAKE LEMAN

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The name Léman would have originated the terms "lem" which means "big" and "an" which means "water" in Celtic basic language. It is the largest lake in Western Europe. It forms a natural border between France and Switzerland. Lake Geneva is crossed, from east to west, by the Rhone, which plugs its alluvial upstream part where it builds a delta (the Bataillère), the latter is constituted by a central plain of 12 km by 6 km whose maximum depth is 309 m, or only 63 m above sea level. The Rhone comes out in Geneva by a breakthrough of the moraine arc which retains the lake.

A system of locks, established in Geneva, makes it possible to attenuate the variations of the level of the lake due to the irregularities of the regimes of the rivers which feed it (Rhône, Morge, Veveyse, Venoge, Versoix, Dranse).

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Although it forms only one lake from the geographical point of view, we generally distinguish the shallow Petit-Lac (40 m on average) between Geneva and Yvoire du Grand-Lac, from the tip of Yvoire to the Promenthoux, the most developed area (an average depth of 172 m), part of which off Rivaz and Meillerie is still called the Haut-Lac.

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FAUNA

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Lake Léman is home to trout, ombles and feras or lavarets, perch, pike, carp, tench, roach, goujons, ablettes, breams. Trout live in surface waters. The Arctic char is the most sought after, it lives in deep water.

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ACTIVITIES

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Go visit this site : http://www.leman-sans-frontiere.com

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