The constant presence of man in the area owes much to the Creuse Valley. The river maintains the link between the crystalline formations of the Massif Central to the south and the sedimentary plains of the Parisian Basin to the north.

A major north-south axis, the valley skirts around the unforgiving plateaux of the Limousin. More subdued as it reaches Argenton, having left behind its deep gorges, the Creuse spreads out across the clay soils before being squeezed through a tight gully of two limestone cliffs.

Further on downstream, it once again expands, swollen by the waters of the Bouzanne. A main route, linking several naturally complementary regions - the Brenne and the Champagne on the one hand and the Boischaut on the other - the valley offered man a river teeming with fish (salmon proliferated until the dam was built at Eguzon in 1927) and a particularly noticeable microclimate on its sun-drenched midday slopes.