Joyeux () is a commune in the

Ain Ain (, ; ) is a French department in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region, Eastern France. Named after the Ain river, it is bordered by the Saône and Rhône rivers. Ain is located on the country's eastern edge, on the Swiss border, where it ...

department in eastern

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

Geography

Joyeux lies less than from the wildlife park at

Villars-les-Dombes Villars-les-Dombes (, literally ''Villars near Dombes'') is a commune in the Ain department in eastern France. Its people are known as ''Villardois''. Geography The town is located within Ain, half-way between Lyon (33 km) and Bourg- ...

and from

Lyon Lyon (Franco-Provençal: ''Liyon'') is a city in France. It is located at the confluence of the rivers Rhône and Saône, to the northwest of the French Alps, southeast of Paris, north of Marseille, southwest of Geneva, Switzerland, north ...

in the natural region of the

Dombes The Dombes (; ) is an area in eastern France, once an independent municipality, formerly part of the provinces of France, province of Burgundy (region), Burgundy, and now a district comprised in the department of France, department of Ain, and b ...

, a wide extent of middle and upper

Pleistocene The Pleistocene ( ; referred to colloquially as the ''ice age, Ice Age'') is the geological epoch (geology), epoch that lasted from to 11,700 years ago, spanning the Earth's most recent period of repeated glaciations. Before a change was fin ...

moraine A moraine is any accumulation of unconsolidated debris (regolith and Rock (geology), rock), sometimes referred to as glacial till, that occurs in both currently and formerly glaciated regions, and that has been previously carried along by a gla ...

left near the margin of the Alpine ice sheets. The commune includes some thirty lakes which together represent some 4 square kilometres of water. The land between them is of gravel, sand and clay.

History

The fief of Joyeux was mentioned in the twelfth century. In the fifteenth century, it was in the possession of the Villars family. On 13 February 2006, a wild

duck Duck is the common name for numerous species of waterfowl in the family (biology), family Anatidae. Ducks are generally smaller and shorter-necked than swans and goose, geese, which are members of the same family. Divided among several subfam ...

was found dead on the

fen A fen is a type of peat-accumulating wetland fed by mineral-rich ground or surface water. It is one of the main types of wetland along with marshes, swamps, and bogs. Bogs and fens, both peat-forming ecosystems, are also known as mires ...

. It was the first attested case of the presence of the bird flu virus

H5N1 Influenza A virus subtype H5N1 (A/H5N1) is a subtype of the influenza A virus, which causes the disease avian influenza (often referred to as "bird flu"). It is enzootic (maintained in the population) in many bird populations, and also panzoo ...

in France.

Administration

Population

Sights

Old farms typical of the region. The nineteenth century Château de Joyeux.

References

External links

Dombes and the city of Joyeux
Communes of Ain Ain communes articles needing translation from French Wikipedia {{Ain-geo-stub