Abstract Most buildings of architectural heritage in Paris and its surroundings are built with Lutetian limestone. Several historic buildings of the ‘Vexin Normand’ region show Lutetian limestone in the upper parts of their walls, while the lower parts are built with a chalk known as ‘Pierre de Vernon’. The ‘Pierre de Vernon’ appears up to the first metre, although in exceptional cases it can reach the middle height of a building. Commonly, chalks exhibit low durability due to their high porosity. However, ‘Pierre de Vernon’ is supposed to have greater durability than other chalks because of its historic use for basement construction. The objective of this research was to understand the use of the ‘Pierre de Vernon’ in the lower part of the constructions. A petrophysical characterization of Vernon chalk and Lutetian limestone was carried out, focusing mainly on the differences in porosity and water uptake. Salt crystallization tests were done to contrast their response to decay. Colour and roughness measurements and scanning electron microscope observations were performed. Results show that the different porous networks of these two limestones lead to a high contrast in their hydric properties and responses to decay, and the use of Vernon chalk in the lower sections of buildings has been found to be appropriate.

Abstract Reservoir appraisal is commonly a difficult task in fold and thrust belts. Thrust-related folding leads to the development of meso- to microscopic brittle structures that can significantly alter the porosity and permeability properties of reservoir rocks, thus influencing fluid migration and accumulation. The aim of this chapter is to describe at different scales the deformation associated to the development of the Chaudrons thrust-related anticline (Corbières, France) and to discuss its influence on reservoir quality. Pervasive solution cleavage sets at high angle to bedding (ATB) were found and measured along the fold. In addition, collected core samples were used to measure the rock physical properties (anisotropy of magnetic susceptibility and anisotropy of the P-wave velocity). The distribution of deformation in the anticline was used to identify three different deformational panels: crest, rounded forelimb, and constantly steeping forelimb. The crest is characterized by the lowest cleavage intensity. Nonpenetrative solution cleavages and the magnetic foliation are orthogonal to bedding. In the rounded forelimb, bedding dip progressively rotates from 0 to 60°. Cleavage intensity progressively increases, and cleavage and magnetic foliation ATBs progressively increase from 80 to 120° and then remain constant in the steep forelimb. The timing of the development of mesoscale structures, as well as changes of physical properties occurring before and during folding, is also discussed.