Chambourg-sur-Indre (, literally Chambourg on Indre) is a commune in the department of Indre-et-Loire in the region of Centre-Val de Loire, France.
Perhaps already occupied in the Neolithic era, the site was colonized at the time of the Roman Empire; witnessed by many traces of an aqueduct, a Roman villa, a Roman road. Hosting a Viguerie (medieval administrative court) and a medieval fief, Chambourg became a commune in 1789, following an exchange of hamlets hitherto undivided with its neighbor Chédigny. Flooding of the Indre, always to be feared in 2014, has not deterred people from settling permanently in Chambourg on the banks of the river.
Formed as Chambourg-sur-Indre in 1920, the town is one of the few rural areas of Lochois that as not experienced population decline in the 20th century. In 2011, its population was 1,317. Over the last 30 years, agriculture in the community has refocused around large farms specializing in the cultivation of cereals, oil seeds and protein crops. In industry, since 1961, Chambourg-sur-Indre has welcomed a major French company in the field of traffic signs.
Between the Gâtine of Loches plateau, the Loches forest and the Indre valley, Chambourg has in its territory varied wildlife worthy of being partially integrated with multiple national conservation efforts including (ZNIEFF) and (Natura 2000) for the assessment and protection of biodiversity.
Geography
Location and surrounding communities
The town of Chambourg-sur-Indre is located in the southeast quadrant of the Indre-et-Loire department, in the historical region of Touraine. Chambourg-sur-Indre is located at southeast of Tours (prefecture of the Indre-et-Loire department), as the crow flies and north of Loches.
Geology and topology
The main geological formation Chambourg-sur-Indre is Cenomanian sandstone, deposited about 95 million years (Ma) ago by a sea that covered Touraine. Deposits laid on top of this are a yellow Turonian limestone (deposited 90 Ma), then a layer of Senonian chalk (between 89 and 65.5 Ma); the sea receded at the end of this period, which corresponds to the end of Mesozoic ear. In the northwest corner of the commune, a different seas deposited the limestone lake in the middle and the end of the Eocene epoch (37 to 34 Ma), characteristic of the small fertile agricultural region of Champeigne tourangelle. The rest of the plateau is irregularly covered with loess (wind blown sediment) from the Quaternary period, forms an infertile soil called "bournais". The valleys of the Indre and its tributaries, which have cut the base of the limestone plateau during alternating glacial and interglacial periods of the Pleistocene, are covered with recent alluvium, giving the soil a hydromorphous tendency, often with a shallow water table. The slopes between the plateau and the valleys are eroded washed silt or gravel deposits and clay from the Turonian and Senonian strata; this type of soil is called "perruche" (parakeet) in the Loire Valley.
The land area of Chambourg-sur-Indre is 28.4 km2 (in 2018), the average area of a French commune being 15.8 km2.
The altitude of this area varies between and . The lowest point is on the edge of Indre within the municipal boundary of Azay-sur-Indre and the highest is on the west plateau, bordering Chanceaux-près-Loches and Dolus-le-Sec.
Natural landscapes
Woods and forests are still present in Chambourg-sur-Indre where they still account for about a fifth of the total area of the municipality. They are found in the east, near Saint-Quentin-sur-Indrois and Ferrière-sur-Beaulieu (limit of Loches National Forest), as in the west, where they form a band from commune headquarters to the municipal boundary with Chanceaux-près-Loches. The broad valley of the Indre offers a landscape of meadows, most of which are flooded during flood periods, bordered by groves of poplars to enhance area once covered in grass. The rest of the municipality, namely non-forested parts of the plateau adjoining the Indre Valley by wooded slopes, dedicated to agriculture, of an average fertility, except for the extreme north-western tip of the town, established in Champeigne "a locality there besides that name", with much more favorable agronomic characteristics.