The Countryside: Yonne

The pays d'Othe is a "natural area" of wooden hills at the ends of the Aube and Yonne valleys. Its name means "gathering of trees" (from ligure). Straddling the counties of Aube (pays aubois) and Yonne (pays icaunais), administratively stretched between Champagne and Burgundy, it is also called "little Normandy", in reference to its many orchards. This area is also an ornithological reserve (88 single species have been spotted), and the fauna is abundant and diversified.