The underwater Roussillon

 The underwater Roussillon by François Brun

Summary:

The Roussillon, well known for its Canigou and Pyrenean mountains, offers a varied coastline with a sandy part and a rocky coastline very cut. The famous slogan "Mar i Munt" of the Catalan country corresponds well to a reality and this book is an invitation to discover the continuity between the terrestrial landscapes and the splendid underwater funds which are the prolongation of it. With more than 700 photos and documents, this book reveals the natural wealth of Catalan waters but also their history.
The underwater fauna and flora of this still preserved coastline attracted great scientists in the 19th century, who created one of the first oceanographic stations in the Mediterranean, the Arago Laboratory in Banyuls-sur-Mer. This coast also saw the birth of the first lighthouses in France thanks to François Arago, the most famous Catalan scientist. This continued with the creation in 1974, of the first marine reserve in France and more recently the Gulf of Lion Natural Marine Park.
The great geographical variety of this territory also allows the discovery of natural sites as different as the ponds of the coast, a flooded terrestrial cave, a river with a strange landscape or even the icy universe of mountain lakes. Beyond the exploration of wrecks full of mystery and their singular history, this book plunges into the heart of historical personalities, true actors of this mysterious underwater world.
It invites you to penetrate the Catalan waters and to go from site to site to observe the present treasures and their past life. An original journey between nature and heritage in which the reader walks along the pages as if by water, his eyes moistened by the beauty of this living world as well as by the emotion aroused by the history of the men of the sea... From the "blood and gold" corals to the pearly underwater meadows, through old naturalist illustrations and the memory of the Catalan marine world, this book invites you to a true discovery of the Roussillon coastline