Like the neighboring Lac d'Orient, they are part of the Orient Forest Regional Natural Park, created in 1970, twenty years before the project was completed.

The two lakes, linked by a channel, were designed to protect Paris and its conurbation from the devastating floods of the Seine, into which the Aube flows.

They were also given secondary functions: while Lake Amance, to the east, was dedicated to motorboating,[5] Lac du Temple, to the west, was given over to nature discovery.

It was built on the Champagne humide plain, whose subsoil makes the lake watertight,[7] between the towns of Troyes, Bar-sur-Aube, and Brienne-le-Château.

In addition, there are eight picnic areas, two stadiums for personal watercraft and water skiing, and other sports facilities (soccer pitch, table tennis, etc.).

What's more, the Valois, Grand Orient, Fontaine aux Oiseaux, and Frouasse dikes were built "on the lake", creating new ponds on its shores.

Work began in 1983, and over 3,000 hectares of land, shared between nine communes, were required to build the reservoir lake, most of it forest and pond.

Shared with Lake Orient, this nature reserve is home to 531 species of fungi, 400 plants, 907 insects, 52 bryophytes, 17 fish, 11 amphibians, 5 reptiles, and 212 birds.

What's more, the lake's low water volume makes fish an easily accessible prey for large birds, notably herons.

The main species inhabiting the lake and surrounding area are the great egret (Egretta alba), bar-tailed godwit (Limosa lapponica) and black-tailed godwits (Limosa limosa), osprey (Pandion halietus) and common snipe (Gallinago gallinago), sandpipers (Calidris alpina), little stint (Calidris minuta), Temminck's stint (Calidris temminckii), sanderling (Calidris alba) and curlew sandpiper (Calidris ferruginea), mallard (Anas platyrhynchos) and northern shoveler (Anas clypeata), common greenshank (Tringa nebularia), spotted redshank (Tringa erythropus) and common redshank (Tringa totanus), curlew (Numenius arquata), warbler (Phylomachus pugnax), coot (Fulica atra), creat crested grebe (Podiceps cristatus) and little grebe (Tachybaptus ruficollis), grey (Ardea cinerea) and purple (Ardea purpurea) herons, greylag (Anser anser) and greater white-fronted (Anser albifrons) geese, golden (Pluvialis apricaria) and grey (Pluvialis squatarola) plovers, Eurasian teal (Anas crecca) and northern lapwing (Vanellus vanellus).

The lakes of the Aube region are best known for the thousands of sandhill cranes that stop here in November (over 20,000) and for being France's main site for the post-mating stopover of the black stork (Ciconia nigra).

[24] The lakes are also home to a wide variety of fish, mainly: pike, carp, roach, perch, pike-perch, tench, and trout.

However, the reservoir is also well equipped in terms of bicycle paths: a green bike lane links Port-Dienville to Saint-Julien-les-Villas and Troyes, 42 and 47 km away respectively; this cycle route runs along the north side of the two basins, and there are plans to extend it to the south of Lake Amance.

[30] For accommodation, there are eleven gîtes, two guest chambers, two campsites, and one hotel in the direct vicinity of the two lakes (in the communes of Amance, Brévonnes, Dienville, Mathaux, and Radonvilliers).

[13] The Grands Lacs de Champagne Tourist Office in Brienne-le-Château and Soulaines-Dhuys, and in Dienville in summer, welcomes and informs visitors, and offers temporary exhibitions and a wide range of local products.

However, the lakes of the Orient Forest are less well known in this respect than Lac du Der-Chantecoq,[24] which attracts over a million tourists a year.

It, too, is located in the Champagne region, less than forty kilometers away,[nb 2] and is renowned for the tens of thousands of sandhill cranes that stop off here.

The two lakes are also a crossing point on the Route Nationale 19, between the department's prefecture, Troyes, renowned for its medieval city center and factory outlets,[32] and the Nigloland amusement park in Dolancourt, France's third-busiest, with around 500,000 visitors a year.

[33] To the northeast of the lakes, a route of timber-framed churches stretches from Mathaux, just north of the Lac-Reservoir, to Arrigny, near Lac du Der, linking a group of religious buildings unique to France.