Plateau des Milles Etangs in Haute-Saône

In a wild landscape at the heart of the Southern Vosges between the Ognon and Breuchin Valleys, lies an incredible area shaped by glaciers which disappeared 12,000 years ago leaving a thousand and one basins which have become ponds and peat bogs.

This patchwork of land and water features oak, beech and pine forests, meadows, bracken, heather and broom, dotted here and there with huge erratic boulders, a heritage of the Ice Age. It covers an area of 220km² from Lure to Faucogney and includes Melisey, Servance, Col des Croix (which marks the border with the Vosges département), the Plateau des Grilloux and its footpaths, the Cascade du Saut de l’Ognon and the Ballon de Servance. This extraordinary scenery led the region to be nicknamed «Petite Finlande » for its similarity with the landscape of the Scandinavian country.

Plateau des Milles Etangs – a fish farming area since the Middle Ages

Man and nature have worked together to shape this wild countryside. As is often the case, tradition and history show that the layout of this ‘land of a thousand ponds’ is very old. Scholars and historians agree that fish-farming began in the 11th century coinciding with the foundation of the Abbeys at Lure and Luxeuil-les-Bains and the patronage of the Seigneurs de Faucogney. Medieval monks took advantage of the topography of the land and created the ponds by extracting peat and managing the water.

Fish farming flourished on the plateau and is presented as the main driving force in the creation of the ponds. In fact, on a timeline starting from the 11th century fish farming developed as a consequence of agricultural mastery of the plateau. The low productivity of fish farming in mountain areas made it a complementary activity. The boom in fish farming was a consequence of pond development and not the reason for their creation.