L'Isle-Marie lies within the Cotentin and Bessin Marshland Regional Nature Park - an area of great beauty, protected by the French government.

In prehistoric and medieval times Isle-Marie was a natural island, flanked by rivers that flooded the surrounding fields at every high tide, forming the Cotentin Marchlands.

In the 16th century engineers, inspired by the Dutch Polder Projects (gaining land from the sea by drainage systems), built flood doors in the river Douve at Carentan, regulating the daily water flow from the sea. Since these days the fields bordering the rivers only flood in wintertime.

The German occupation forces however kept the locks at Carentan open during the war, thereby permanantly flooding large areas and disturbing the 300 year delicate natural balance. Around Sainte Mère Eglise and Chef-du-Pont many unfortunate paratroopers drowned in the marshes during D-Day. A monument in the memory of these brave men stands at Chef-du-Pont.

Nowadays, every winter the fields around the castle flood, creating the illusion of a lake, a magical landscape of sky and water.

In spring the water recedes and the meadows and woodlands of the estate burst into blossom. In summertime the fields offer the lushest grass for grazing and cows and horses grace our pastures. And in autumn the countryside is ablaze with colour.

These changing landscapes are wonderfully captured in the book “Les Marais” by Domeco, Girard and Mauger, published by Isoète.