Sensitive natural areasThe dunes of Bréville-sur-Mer

The dunes of Bréville-sur-Mer

A protected natural site since 1998, the dunes of Bréville-sur-Mer offer a landscape typical of the Cotentin western coastline.

250 hectares of

Dunes, wet grasslands and meadows

Formed by the beach and dune massif to the west and the hillside to the east, this area is surrounded by meadows and hedged farmland. This diversity of environments is home to numerous amphibians and reptiles (wall lizards, green lizards, asp vipers, etc.). The surrounding wet meadows are home to orchids, rose-pimprenelle and, on the dune cordon, oyats, dune thistle… Please respect this fragile environment and do not climb on the dunes to avoid damaging them.

Moorings on the beach at Bréville-sur-Mer appear at low tide

Flore

The dunes and marshes of Bréville-sur-Mer are home to a variety of plant and flower species, some of which are rare and protected at national or regional level. Rarities include aristé buplèvre, round-headed garlic, dune willow, sand elymium, bitter gentian, rough knapweed, incarnate orchis, nectar orchisorchis, summer spiranthe, sea cabbage, water pess, marsh germander, shiny sedge, pauciflora bulrush, vetch, false gillyflowerlar, ophioglossa vulgaris, small quackgrass, autumn scilla, the hybrid between puff orchis and loose-flowered orchisautumn Siranthus, coneflower, false cogwort, frog orchid, slimy bartsia and prickly bulrush, shiny sedge and wild madder.

Fauna

The dunes and marshes of Bréville-sur-Mer are also remarkable for the fauna they shelter: Insects, including very rare butterflies (hada nana, agrostis graslini, archanara spargani) and the courtillière, the bloody cricket, the mudflat tetrix… Rare gastropods: Mediterranean cornet and cloisonné planorbine. A snake: the asp viper (120 km north of the northern limit of its range). Breeding birds: Shelduck, Red-backed Shrike, Hoopoe, Reed Warbler and Nightingale.

Discover