Parc naturel régional Périgord Limousin

Many brooks and smaller rivers like for example the Arthonnet, the Bandiat, the Charente, the Côle, the Dronne, the Gorre, the Grêne, the Nizonne and the Tardoire drain the parkland.

The water courses belong to one of the three drainage basins: The climate in the park is temperate, but can show quite pronounced local variations.

The following climatic diagram shows data averaged over the last five years (2004–2008) from a private weather station (354 meters above sea level) near Milhaguet in the Haute Vienne.

Geologically the park belongs to two very different terranes: the major part northeast of a line Varaignes - Nontron - Saint-Pardoux-la-Rivière - Thiviers consists of Variscan basement rocks of the northwestern Massif Central.

The sedimentary succession of the Aquitanian Basin starts with a transgression in the Lower Jurassic (Lias) over the basement rocks (usually a conglomerate at the base, followed by arkoses, dolomites and shales).

At the end of the Cretaceous the sea finally retreated and the sediments of the Aquitanian Basin started to become continental within the area of the park.

As a consequence massive alluvial deposits (mainly conglomerates and sandstones) were built out as long tongues onto the lowlands, some reaching almost 50 kilometers in length.

There is no trace of the original crater left, the only indicators for its existence are ejecta blankets (breccias and suevites), shatter cones and thrust faults.

Besides the common minerals quartz, alkali feldspar, plagioclase, biotite, muscovite as well as calcite, dolomite and gypsum rarer minerals occur, for example actinolite, allanite, andalusite, antigorite, apatite, arsenopyrite, baryte, cassiterite, chalcedony, chalcopyrite, chlorite, chromite, clinopyroxene, chrysotile, cordierite, cyanite, epidote, galena, garnet, goethite, graphite, hematite, hornblende, ilmenite, kaolinite, limonite, magnetite, manganite, marcasite, montmorillonite, prehnite, psilomelane, pyrite, pyrolusite, pyrrhotite, rutile, sillimanite, sphalerite, sphene, staurolite, tourmaline and zircon.

Besides the orchids grow chelidonium, common bluebell, cornflower, the carnivorous Drosera rotundifolia, equisetum, Gentiana pneumonanthe, geum, honeysuckle, mentha, Papaver rhoeas, Polygonatum multiflorum and Verbascum thapsus.

Amongst shrubs and trees thrive Fraxinus excelsior, hazel, malus, Mespilus germanica, oak, Prunus spinosa, Robinia pseudoacacia, sambucus, sweet chestnut and walnut.

Also many different invertebrates are present, amongst them Austropotamobius pallipes, freshwater pearl mussel and insects like Caelifera, crickets, Geotrupidae, Lucanus cervus, Lepidoptera and Odonata.

More than 1200 stone tool remnants found near Vayres document the presence of humans from 300 000 years BP onwards (Acheulean) into the Neolithic.

Rock shelters, grottoes and caves in the valley of the Bandiat, the Dronne, the Nizonne, the Tardoire and the Trincou have been occupied since the Mousterian up into the Magdalenian.

Examples are: The neolithic open-air sites Montoume and Nouaillas near Vayres document the gradual changeover from hunter-gatherers to a more agrarian/sessile lifestyle.

Finds include stone axes, arrow heads, scrapers and whetstones made from quartz or metamorphic schists.