Asnières-sur-Blour (French: [ɑnjɛʁ syʁ bluʁ]; Occitan: Asnieras) is a commune in the Vienne department in the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region in western France. The commune has 180 inhabitants (2019).[3]

Asnières-sur-Blour
Asnieras (Occitan)
Location of Asnières-sur-Blour
Map
Asnières-sur-Blour is located in France
Asnières-sur-Blour
Asnières-sur-Blour
Asnières-sur-Blour is located in Nouvelle-Aquitaine
Asnières-sur-Blour
Asnières-sur-Blour
Coordinates: 46°09′54″N 0°48′04″E / 46.165°N 0.8011°E / 46.165; 0.8011
CountryFrance
RegionNouvelle-Aquitaine
DepartmentVienne
ArrondissementMontmorillon
CantonLussac-les-Châteaux
IntercommunalityCC Vienne Gartempe
Government
 • Mayor (2020–2026) Maryse Legrand[1]
Area
1
32.49 km2 (12.54 sq mi)
Population
 (2021)[2]
184
 • Density5.7/km2 (15/sq mi)
Time zoneUTC+01:00 (CET)
 • Summer (DST)UTC+02:00 (CEST)
INSEE/Postal code
86011 /86430
Elevation163–232 m (535–761 ft)
(avg. 210 m or 690 ft)
1 French Land Register data, which excludes lakes, ponds, glaciers > 1 km2 (0.386 sq mi or 247 acres) and river estuaries.

Asnières-sur-Blour is located roughly halfway between the cities of Limoges and Poitiers. Its land is formed by a 3 percent of steep and grisp[check spelling] valleys, 38% of clay soils in the Seuil du Poitou upland, pink granite soils (21%), diorite soils (22%) and leucogranite soils (22%) in the surrounding "hillock arch".[4] The land is skimed[check spelling] by a 15 chilometers fluviale creek of which 5 km belongs to the French river Blourde. The climate is oceanic with moderate hot and dry summers, slowly raining in the fall and with no excessively cold winters.

Toponymy

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The toponym derives from the Latin word asinus and the suffix -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

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The main source of employment is agriculture, mainly sheep farming.[5] Of a complex farming surface which as of 2010 amounted to 2,590 hectares, 20% was used for the cultivation of common wheat and hordeum, 50% to forage and 23% for grass. From 2000 to 2010 the number of farm animals 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.[6] 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.[5]

Landscape

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In 1965 a French Revolution wood of freedom was hammered at the border with the departments of Charente and Haute-Vienne.[7] According to the local inventory of the remarkable trees updated by the Poitou-Charentes administration,[8] the town hosts a pedunculate oak.

The Asnières basins are protected under the EU Habitats Directive[9] 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).[10]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ "Répertoire national des élus: les maires". data.gouv.fr, Plateforme ouverte des données publiques françaises (in French). 2 December 2020.
  2. ^ "Populations légales 2021" (in French). The National Institute of Statistics and Economic Studies. 28 December 2023.
  3. ^ Populations légales 2019: 86 Vienne, INSEE
  4. ^ Regional Chamber of Agricolture, Poitou-Charentes, 2007
  5. ^ a b "Statistics of the Vienne Department - 2000/2010". Archived from the original on 3 March 2016. Retrieved 8 October 2020.
  6. ^ Agreste – Bulletin, no 12, May 2013
  7. ^ Robert Petit, 'Les Arbres de la liberté à Poitiers et dans la Vienne, Poitiers: Éditions CLEF 89 / Fédération des travaux laïques, 1989, p. 219
  8. ^ Poitou-Charentes Nature, 2000
  9. ^ DREAL Poitou-Charentes / MNHN, 2013
  10. ^ Secrétariat scientifique de l'inventaire des ZNIEFF, DREAL Poitou-Charentes , 2011
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